Gordon Deegan
Profits at the company behind the annual Electric Picnic music festival fell 9% last year.
Newly-filed accounts show EP Republic Ltd generated a profit of over €1.48m in 2017, compared to a profit of €1.63m in 2016. The company’s cash pile last year fell sharply from €3.93m to €227,374.
Its accumulated profits stood at just under €1.86m as of the end of last December.
The accounts for the company — which is jointly owned by promoter Denis Desmond and live music giant Live Nation — said that it has net assets, and a considerable cash balance which were expected to improve.
Numbers employed by the company last year increased from seven to 10 with staff costs going up from €217,566 to €307,883.
Last year’s festival saw 55,000 people attend the three-day event at Stradbally Hall in Co Laois.
Such is the appeal of the festival that early bird tickets, family camping and camper van tickets for Electric Picnic 2019 sold out within four hours when they want on sale in September.
Next year’s staging of the event will also see an increase in capacity of 2,500 bringing the capacity to 57,500.
Since its inception in 2007, the Electric Picnic has picked up a number of high-profile testimonials; Billboard magazine calling it “a magnificent rock ‘n’ roll circus; a textbook example of everything a festival should be,” and Rolling Stone magazine describing it as “one of the best festivals”.
