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Wychwood Festival allowing fans to buy shares in the event

By | Published on Tuesday 16 October 2012

Wychwood Festival

Promoters of the Wychwood Festival are giving festival-goers the opportunity to buy a stake in the event via crowdsourcing website CrowdCube, in a bid to raise new finance to help stage the annual Cheltenham-based bash.

Anyone who invests a £1000 will get an albeit very small stake in the festival, meaning in the future they could receive dividends based on profit, though in reality it’s the various other shareholder benefits that will be of value.

Those who invest will get a free pair of tickets to the event for life, discounts on tickets for friends, other benefits at the festival itself, and similar discounts to other ventures staged by promoters Tribe Festivals Ltd. And any investors will be able to get tax relief under the Enterprise Investment Scheme on the money they put in.

Organisers reckon that the innovative scheme could be a valuable new approach for smaller independent promoters always faced with cash-flow challenges, especially after a difficult year for the UK festivals market like 2012.

Wychwood Festival co-founder and Festival Director Graeme Merifield told CMU: “Just after the 2011 Wychwood Festival we had a big rethink about where we want to take the festival and our other projects. I’m very pleased to say that we have a new and exciting team on our board and we want to expand our Tribe business into a number of other events, so it seems only fitting that we invite those who have been loyal to our current festival portfolio over the last eight years, to come and join our Tribe”.



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