Christopher BarrettLos Angeles-based, Superstruct Entertainment has reportedly acquired a controlling stake in the Bluedot Festival (cap. 21,000).
Headed by CEO James Barton, the founder of UK club and festival brands Cream and Creamfields (cap. 70,000), Providence Equity-owned Superstruct owns and operates more than 30 large scale festivals and live music events globally. They include the UK’s Victorious Festival (100,000), South West Four (20,000), Kendal Calling (25,000), Truck (10,000), Tramlines (40,000) and Boardmasters (50,000), along with Croatian festival Hideout (15,000), Sziget (95,000) in Hungary, Flow (10,000) in Finland and Oya (15,000) in Norway.
Promoted by From The Fields, with production handled by Engine No 4, Bluedot will take place on 21-24 July at the UNESCO World Heritage site of Jodrell Bank Observatory near Manchester. Headliners include Björk and Mogwai.
Bluedot was founded by From The Fields director Ben Robinson, who co-founded Kendal Calling with fellow From The Fields director Andy Smith. Superstruct owns 60% of Kendall Calling, while the remaining 40% is owned by Smith and Robinson. Both have been contacted for a comment confirming the specifics of the Bluedot/Superstruct deal.
In March, Robinson told Access that Bluedot’s production costs had risen 25% since the last time it was staged, in 2019. With around 45% of the event’s tickets sold at prices fixed in 2020, Robinson said there had been considerable financial considerations: “As with everyone in this industry we have been impacted by increasing costs across the supply chain as a result of Covid, Brexit and inflation, and for Bluedot we’re developing the show so we kept the ticket cost quite low to encourage people to try it out.
“So, it’s problematic and a challenge for ourselves and a lot of other shows. We had to accept that this year it was going to cost around 25% more to produce the same kind of festival as in previous years.”