Good vibes at Electric Picnic keep festival profits ‘healthy’

Denis Desmond of MCD said yesterday that this year’s Electric Picnic recorded a "healthy" profit.

This year was the second successive year that the festival recorded a profit and new accounts filed with the Companies Office — by EP Republic Ltd — which operates the event, show that it recorded pre-tax losses of €1.18m in 2012. This followed EP Republic recording combined losses of €2.1m in 2011 and 2010.

Mr Desmond said this year’s festival sold out six weeks in advance and enjoyed excellent feedback from patrons and media. He said that ‘early-bird’ sales for next year’s event were “way up on previous years”.

He attributed the successful festival to a very strong line-up and attractive ticket pricing. The EP Republic accounts show that the firm had total assets, less current liabilities, amounting to €513,755.

The directors’ note section of the accounts states: “Creditors due after more than one year represents a loan of €4.19m due to its parent company, EP Festivals Ltd. The parent company has given assurances it will not seek repayment... until the company is in a position to finance repayments.”

Earlier this year, Festival Republic reached a settlement with music promoter, John Reynolds and his POD Music Organisation concerning Electric Picnic.

Having founded Electric Picnic in 2004, Mr Reynolds sold a 71% stake in the event to Festival Republic in 2009 for €4.2m. As part of the agreement, POD Music has agreed to divest its remaining stake to Festival Republic Dublin.

Mr Desmond said that overall it had been “a good year” for MCD. He said that Marlay Park shows did very well, with the exception of one show, while MCD’s three One Direction shows were sell-outs.