Shambala is set to become the UK’s first employee-owned music festival.
The annual, four-day music festival will be held in Northamptonshire between August 27-30 this year, with Bob Vylan, Goat, Los Bitchos, and more due to perform. You can find any remaining tickets here.
Though it’s always been an independent festival, today (April 21), Kambe Events – the company behind the festival – has announced that they’ll be transitioning to an Employee Ownership Trust – becoming the first festival in the UK to adopt this model.
“All of us at Shambala have an emotional stake in what we have built over 25 years; now everyone has an ownership stake too,” says co-founder and MD, Chris Johnson. “We would be nothing without our people, and they deserve to carry on the Shambala legacy as beneficiaries.
“Shambala stands for independence and, in an increasingly commercialised festival scene, we simply could not sell to venture capitalists or the big promotion companies,” Johnson adds. “While exploring alternative paths, we fell in love with the Employee Ownership model.”
“It is patently clear that the current capitalist model is fundamentally broken,” adds Dan Raffety, Head of Music and one of the festival’s Co-Founders. “As a society, we must explore alternative models of ownership as a way through which the massive power and potential of capitalism can be focused on serving humanity and the planet at large.
“Employee Ownership is just the next, natural step in Kambe’s adventures towards a utopia,” Raffety adds. “The next phase in our constant evolution towards justice and a better world.”
It follows growing interest in community ownership throughout the music industry. Over the last few years, there has been an increased call for music venues to own their own buildings to prevent them from being kicked out by landlords.
As a result, the Music Venue Properties scheme has been buying up buildings for beloved gig spaces and is now stepping up its efforts in what’s been described as a “National Trust for music venues” scheme.
Venues saved by the scheme so far include The Snug in Atherton, The Ferret in Preston, Le Pub in Newport, The Bunkhouse in Swansea and The Booking Hall in Dover.
Last year, Richard Hawley called for the law to be changed on music venue ownership, following the loss of The Leadmill in Sheffield under new landlords who purchased the freehold but vow to keep it running as “a cornerstone of the live music scene in Sheffield, supporting artists, fans, and community projects for the next 100 years”.
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