Ingenious Live VCTs, which to date have raised over £17 million to invest in the live entertainment market, have today announced an agreement to co-promote the two day 'Underage' and 'Field Day' music festivals taking place at Victoria Park, East London, on Friday 10 and Saturday 11 August. The events will be headlined by the likes of Mercury Nominated Acts The Young Knives and Bat For Lashes, as well as Jack Penate, Battles, Four Tet, Gruff Rhys, Patrick Wolf, Justice, James Yorkston and many more.
The deal will be a joint investment with Waxarch Limited to co-promote the festivals based on the success of the Underage Club which regularly runs sold out events at various London venues. Underage is believed to be the world's first strictly under-18's credible music festival, presenting some of the best indie/rock/lectronic music of the day for young music fans (only those over the age of 14 may attend).
Music is naturally the main driver for Field Day but it will have the charm of a twisted village fête with a host of attractions to make it one of the most memorable events of 2007.
Ingenious Live VCT 1 & 2's first investment was in the Knowsley Hall Music Festival, which took place in Liverpool in June, and was headlined by The Who and Keane. Ingenious Live VCTs will invest in the live events sector targeting concerts, festivals, conferences, trade fairs, exhibitions, sporting events and theatre. The investment comes at a time when there is significant growth in the UK live events market as household spending continues to increase in this sector. The 2004 -2005 annual UK household spending on theatre, concerts and shows increased to an estimated £1.46 billion, up 50 per cent on the previous year¹.
Duncan Reid, Commercial Director of Ingenious, said:
'Underage is a successful club brand providing entertainment to a significant market who are not catered for elsewhere. As such, it has significant commercial potential in the live entertainment market and we are confident that Field Day will have similar appeal as already indicated by very strong early ticket sales. There has already been considerable public demand for this summer's festivals and we anticipate a long term relationship with Waxarch to develop the shows and roll them out to other venues.'
Tom Baker from Waxarch (and Eat Your Own Ears) said:
'We are very excited to be working with Ingenious on these two events; we feel there is a thirst for live music events which don't just follow the usual obvious programming, and that have a twist. We have tried to be open to booking new acts and mix genres and musical styles a bit more than usual.
We feel Ingenious will allow us to grow Underage and Field Day organically by giving us the backing and expertise needed to take this out of London and regionally. This is a great partnership.'
About Ingenious
Ingenious, which was founded in 1998 by Patrick McKenna, former Head of the Media and Entertainment Group at Deloitte and Touche and chairman and CEO of the Really Useful Group, is a specialist media investment and advisory group with five principal operating subsidiaries; Investments, Corporate Finance, Asset Management, Ventures and Consulting. A Securities business will be launched later this year.
As the market leader in media investment and strategy, Ingenious provides the full range of services to companies in the media sector, from strategic and corporate finance advice to private equity funding, as well as providing innovative investment solutions for the private investor.
About Ingenious Ventures
Ingenious Ventures is the private equity arm of Ingenious, which has been involved with the structuring, promotion and management of investments across the entertainment industry since its formation in 2000. Live events based investments include Cream, the award winning team behind dance music festival Creamfields now in its 10th year, and Simon Fuller's 19 Entertainment. 19 Entertainment is a music, TV and live events company responsible for creating the worldwide hit formats Pop Idol and American Idol. Ingenious Ventures is also the manager of Ingenious Media Active Capital (IMAC), a closed-ended, Guernsey-registered, investment company which raised £150 million last year to invest in progressive media companies.
About Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs)
Provided that shares in a VCT are held for at least five years, qualifying investors receive income tax relief at the rate of 30% on the amount subscribed for VCT shares up to a maximum of £200,000 in any one tax year. Dividends and gains on the disposal of Shares are currently exempt from tax in respect of investments not exceeding £200,000 in any one tax year.
Ingenious Media
Duncan Reid
Tel: 020 7319 4000
Fishburn Hedges
Andrew Reid/Paul French
Tel: 0207 839 4321