The founder of Assembly Festival, one of the Edinburgh Fringe’s largest venue operators, has revealed his company is struggling to survive after being left with a £1.5m debt due to the collapse of Coventry City of Culture Trust.
William Burdett-Coutts said his firm had to take out a substantial loan to stay afloat after the trust failed to repay its creditors before its dissolution in early 2023.
The trust, responsible for organizing Coventry’s year-long UK City of Culture celebrations in 2021, collapsed with debts of £4.2m, affecting multiple creditors, including Coventry City Council and West Midlands Police.
Administrators managed to recover just £550,000, and no further legal action will be pursued following an agreement with a creditors’ committee.
Burdett-Coutts expressed his disappointment, saying, “We did the job in good faith and were expecting to get paid. This debt has almost killed my company.”
His firm had hoped that working on the Coventry event would help stabilize its finances after the Covid-19 pandemic but instead found itself in an even worse financial position.
The collapse has also impacted public services, with West Midlands Police left without expected payments for additional policing costs during the City of Culture year.
Director of commercial services Peter Gillet stated, “We expected to be at the top of the repayment list, but that hasn’t happened.”
Despite financial setbacks, he emphasized that the force was proud of its role in using art and culture to engage communities on issues such as homelessness and gender-based violence.
Burdett-Coutts criticized the lack of financial planning behind Coventry’s City of Culture program, arguing that such events should leave a lasting cultural and economic legacy.
“That hasn’t happened in Coventry, and I think that’s a great shame,” he lamented.
With no further payouts expected, creditors, including Assembly Festival, must now navigate the financial fallout, raising concerns about the viability of future City of Culture events.
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