Torbay Council pays £20,000 to festival firm with no assets

Then Riviera Food and Music Festival goes bust

Torbay Council is to investigate how it came to pay £20,000 to an event company with no recorded assets that had promised to set up a major food and music festival in Torquay.

Case Live, the business behind the Riviera Food and Music Festival, was only set up eight months ago, and had no formal record of ever having organised events or filed accounts.

Its 26-year old director is behind a number of tiny companies that have been dissolved.

The council announced on Friday at 4.20 p.m, just ahead of the May Day bank holiday, that the company had gone bust, leaving fans and businesses out of pocket. 

Although the council’s statement said it understood a liquidator had been appointed, it did not reveal who the liquidator was to help ticketholders lodge claims for their losses.

But even if the council knew that information and had not decided to share it, it is highly unlikely that anyone who has bought tickets or provided services for the festival will get their money back, unless they paid more than £100 on a credit card and can claim from their card providers.

The council has referred people who bought tickets to a Which magazine article for guidance.

The event was scheduled to take place between 26 to 29 May at council-owned Torre Abbey Meadows. Amongst the impressive list of acts due to appear were UB40, Razorlight, The Feeling, Scouting For Girls, The Vamps and dozens of other bands as well as top chefs Matt Tebbutt, Theo Randall and Paul Rankin.  

It is unclear how a company formed just months ago, with funds of just £100, was able to put together such a package of high-profile talent over a four-day festival, or why the council thought it could do so.

The company, Case Live, based in serviced office space in Mancheter and run by 26-year-old chief executive Toby Darvill, was only formed in August last year.

Eight months later, it is insolvent.

Mr Darvill’s previous business, also called Case Live, but run from a different serviced office in London, was compulsorily struck off the companies register in 2021 without filing accounts. He also has another company called Case Crew, formed on the same day as Case Live, of which he is the sole director. That company has not filed accounts either.

Another of Mr Darvill’s companies, Case Entertainment Group, has. Established in 2018 when we was 21, it has been subject to notices of compulsory striking off in every financial year since, most recently in January 2023.

That company’s last accounts showed assets of £21,596; just £1,596 more than the amount Torbay Council gave Case Live.

And yet another company of which Mr Darvill was a director. Ardent Productions,  based at a private residence in Buckinghamshire, was dissolved in 2021.

Despite this chequered history, Torbay Council wasn’t put off giving £20,000 to a company with no discernable assets. That decision in turn reassured other businesses and big-name acts that the event had credibility.

Managing director of UB40’s music agency Neil O’Brien said the cancellation came as a big surprise and they had no reason to think the festival might not happen. 

“We were told even as late as last Monday (25 April) that everything was proceeding as planned.

“It’s obviously been advertised and marketed and they’ve got many, many more acts booked on that weekend as well, other than just us.  

“I’m not happy with what happened. It’s caused us quite a few problems with UB40 and another of our artists that we had booked for a tour with this company, called Kerry Ellis.”

In a statement to promote the festival last month  ClIr Swithin Long, cabinet member for economic regeneration, housing and tourism, encouraged businesses to get behind the council-backed showpiece. “The first English Riviera Food and Music Festival is shaping up to be an incredible event,” he said.

“In our events strategy, we set out to work with commercial event organisers to bring high-quality events to the area – and this certainly does that.

“What is also fantastic is that many local talented people including chefs, performers and traders  can also get involved to really help showcase the best that we have to offer.”

With that official backing, local businesses invested and have now been stung. One local company owner, who did not want to be named but which had provided services to Case Live for the Riviera Festival, said: “We were reassured that the event was backed by the council with substantial public funding.

“Arguably we should have done more checks ourselves, but when you have a council telling you it’s a high-quality event and that businesses should get involved, you take it at face value.

“We’ve lost £2,000, and Torbay taxpayers have lost £20,000. Serious questions need to be answered about what background checks the council had done into Case Live before giving them council tax money.”

Case Live announced the festival's cancellation on its website

Chief executive of Torbay Council, Anne-Marie Bond said: “We are currently – with assistance from our internal auditors – reviewing the decision-making in relation to the Food and Music Festival and will consider any recommendations for improvement once that review has been completed.”  

The council boasts it is to invest £750,00 over three years in events, but it has not disclosed what services it was expecting to receive in return for its  investment to Case Live for the festival, nor whether provision of Torre Abbey Meadows was to be free to the company.

Explaining its decison to cancel the event on its website, Case Live said: “The rising costs and strain on disposable income have sadly left the event unattainable.

“We know this is incredibly disappointing for all stakeholders, as it is for us as organisers and not a decision, we’ve been able to make easily.

“We apologise for any inconvenience caused, sadly our companies are entering liquidation, and all ticket holders and stakeholders will be contacted in the coming days.”

Company director Toby Darvill has not responded to our requests for comment.