End of the road for Essential Festival

The debt of £450,000 includes refunds to ticket-holders for August 2002's Essential Festival in Hackney, which was cancelled due to "significant financial difficulties", which translates into "lack of sponsors".

As well as a general down-turn in the market, corporate sponsors had been put off by uproar over the Bristol Essential Festival three months earlier, where poor advance ticket sales were a factor in the cancellation of several high profile bands that festival-goers had already paid to see. Claims by the promotors that the weather was to blame were frankly spurious, and triggered a public relations disaster, which saw the company lose much of its public support.

It's a great shame, as the Essential Festival had attracted considerable respect over the years from fans and media alike, for breaking the generic mould employed by the other more formulaic players on the scene. The first ever Essential Festival debuted to a crowd of 2000 people in Brighton's Stanmer Park in 1991. By 1997, attendence had grown to 50,000! However, that year saw the promotors collapse for the first time, as they entered voluntary liquidation, owing debts of £240,000.

The festival then bounced back in 2000 for a two day festival in the same venue, pulling in 17,000 punters with an impressive line-up that  included James Brown and Fatboy Slim. 2001 saw a switch of venue to London's Hackney Marshes, and the event was still well received.

Despite sometimes veering towards the negative side integrity, the Essential Entertainments bunch have consistently displayed an aptitude for resourcefulness in the face of setbacks, and for come backs against the odds. So is this really the end? Only time will tell.

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