Ticketholders To See Approximately 11c Per Dollar After Bluesfest Collapse

Bluesfest

In another blow for Bluesfest and its supporters, the festival owes $7.4 million to unsecured creditors – mainly ticket holders and suppliers – who are expected to receive just 11 cents on the dollar.

Back in March, it was announced that this year’s Bluesfest wouldn’t be going ahead just three weeks before its scheduled start date. Along with that news, it was reported that two entities attached to the beloved festival, Bluesfest Byron Bay Pty Ltd and Bluesfest Enterprises Pty Ltd, had entered liquidation.

Worrells’ Jason Bettles was appointed as liquidator to manage all of Bluesfest’s financial matters, including their obligations to vendors and partners.

Now, ABC reports that Bluesfest’s debts exceed $10 million, with $7.4 million owed to unsecured creditors. In a statutory report, Bettles noted that the two entities mentioned above “may have” operated while insolvent.

Bluesfest’s Founder and Director, Peter Noble OAM, is currently being probed for transactions that seemed “out of the ordinary.” However, Bettles said that even with seemingly “out of the ordinary” transactions, “that’s not to say that anything is wrong,” and investigations are ongoing.

Bettles’ report also stated that the festival owes $120,000 to the Australian Taxation Office, while the Australian Financial Review notes that the “largest unsecured creditor” is the NSW Government.

The state’s tourism agency, Destination NSW, is owed $302,500 for a grant that would have supported this year’s festival, and Transport for NSW is owed $222,000.

The publication also reported that the National Australia Bank is the largest “secured” creditor for the festival, having claimed a $3 million loan secured by the festival’s properties and a “general security interest over all company assets,” plus “cross-collateralised arrangements with related entities.”

Earlier this year, the festival team said the cancellation of Bluesfest 2026 arrived after “extensive consideration of the current operating environment for major live music events,” with specific mention of “rising production, logistics, insurance and touring costs, combined with softer ticket demand and international uncertainties” as to why it is “impossible to proceed with the festival in 2026.”

Peter Noble added, “For more than three decades, Bluesfest has brought extraordinary artists and audiences together in Byron Bay while also driving significant tourism and economic activity for the Northern Rivers and New South Wales.

“This makes the decision incredibly difficult. After careful consideration, we concluded we could not proceed in a way that would meet the standard our audiences, artists and partners expect.”