A statement has been released advising of the liquidation of Gateways Event Limited, organisers of the recently postponed Gateways Festival and The Great Yorkshire Dales Proms, which was due to take place between 1st- 3rd September 2023.
Kate Ellis, of insolvency practitioners Ellis Breese, has been appointed as Liquidator to administer the liquidation process, with effect from 21 December 2022.
What has happened?
The liquidation of Gateways Event Limited was caused by two factors:
The supplier of the festival staging, StagedUK, experienced financial difficulty and ceased trading in July 2022, despite a deposit being paid in advance. This forced Gateways Event Limited to postpone their 2022 event until September 2023, with customers allowed to transfer their tickets and receive additional free tickets.
Separately, Festicket Ltd, the company’s ticket agent, then financially collapsed and was placed into Administration in September 2022. Festicket Ltd held a proportion of customers’ ticket money at the time of their collapse.
The position to date.
Once the decision to postpone the event was made, Gateways Event Limited refunded a number of event contractors who had made payments direct to Gateways Event Limited. Specifically, these were the contractors for The Kids’ Zone, Food Traders and Non-Food Traders. A refund was also made to Skipton Bid and volunteers’ deposits were returned. Refunds were made to ticket holders who had purchased tickets from local outlets, as well as any customers who purchased direct from Gateways Event Limited. Gateways Event Limited also paid as many people who worked for them as they could.
The outlook.
Due to the company indemnifying Festicket for all costs and losses in relation to event cancellations and customer chargeback charges it is unclear if Gateways Event Limited will be able to prove as a creditor in the Administration.
Considerable sums were paid in advance to artists and contractors. Gateways Event Limited have approached each of them to request refunds, given the collapse of Festicket. This would have enabled Gateways to process refunds to the customers who had requested them. Sadly, only a small amount of money has been refunded, not enough to process the refund amount required.
Gateways Event Limited has approached lenders and private investors but have not been successful in funding the business any further. As Gateways Event Limited does not have the financial capacity to refund Festicket customers or continue trading, they have been left with no choice but to put the company into Liquidation. All creditors that the directors were aware of have received written notice.
Unfortunately, ticket holder details were unable to be obtained from the Administrators of Festicket Ltd prior to the Liquidation of Gateways Event Limited due to GDPR regulations. Steps will now be taken to obtain these details and contact the ticket holders.
Statement:
Licensed insolvency practitioner Kate Ellis has issued a statement regarding the administration.
“It appears that the festival organisers Gateways Event Limited have faced considerable financial challenges and have worked very hard to resolve these. Unfortunately, the financial failure of StagedUK and Festickets has directly damaged the viability of Gateways Event Limited.
“I am currently trying to determine the position between Gateways Event Limited and Festicket Ltd to ascertain where certain creditors sit. I encourage Festicket customers, in the first instance, to contact their credit card providers or payment card provider to determine whether a chargeback can be claimed”.
“There are ticket holders who understandably, remain dissatisfied. Regrettably, some have taken to online abusive behaviour even to the extent of death threats. Any such occurrences will be referred to the police for full investigation.”
Contact details for enquiries:
Email: gatewaysevent@ellisbreese.co.uk
Tel: 07541 55 62 89
