Mountain Sounds festival in liquidation, $1.5 million in debt

Earlier this month, Mountain Sounds festival announced its cancellation just one week out from the event. The festival cited The NSW Government’s and Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s “war on festivals” as the reason for its cancellation. Industry whispers also suggested that the festival suffered poor ticket sales.

Now, Music Feeds has reported that the festival is in liquidation. According to the report published, Mountain Sounds owes hundreds of creditors over $1.5 million. Of that sum, $893,000 is owed to ticketing company Eventbrite, whilst the ATO is owed $89,000. Artists on the bill are also reportedly owed money, with Courtney Barnett owed almost $100,000.

The report notes that the festival has just over $130,000 in assets, and Insolvency firm’s Shaw Gidley has been appointed as liquidator. Eventbrite has also confirmed that full refunds have been issued to everyone that purchased their tickets through the Eventbrite platform.

The cancellation of Mountain Sounds sparked widespread backlash amongst the music community.

EDM duo Peking Duk released a statement addressing the cancellation and vilifying the NSW Government. “By introducing a $200,000 ‘police and safety’ fee, an extortionate 1250% increase in which last year was only $16,000 just ONE WEEK out from the festival doors open, NSW Gov. has decided to kill Mountain Sounds Festival,” they shared in a lengthy post on Facebook.

This article originally appeared on The Industry Observer, which is now part of The Music Network.