Christopher BarrettKambe Events, the company behind the 15,000-capacity Shambala festival, has announced that the event’s co-founders are stepping away from ownership and ceding the business to the team members who have helped build it.
The transition will see the independent festival, which celebrated its 25th anniversary last year, owned by an Employee Ownership Trust. At a time when the festival sector is increasingly dominated by major promoters, Shambala’s founders said the move was taken to ensure the festival remains independently run, and that its team will share in future successes.
The winner of Best Independent Festival at the Access All Areas Awards, Shambala was founded 26 years ago by a team including Sidharth Sharma, Chris Johnson and Dan Raffety. The festival has long had the reputation as a pioneer when it comes to sustainability measures.
“All of us at Shambala have an emotional stake in what we have built over 25 years; now everyone has an ownership stake too,” said Shambala MD Chris Johnson. “We would be nothing without our people, and they deserve to carry on the Shambala legacy as beneficiaries.
“Shambala stands for independence and, in an increasingly commercialised festival scene, we simply could not sell to venture capitalists or the big promotion companies. While exploring alternative paths, we fell in love with the Employee Ownership model.”
Shambala head of music, Dan Raffety said, “As a society we must explore alternative models of ownership as a way through which the massive power and potential of capitalism can be focused on serving humanity and the planet at large.”
“Employee Ownership is just the next, natural step in Kambe’s adventures towards a utopia – the next phase in our constant evolution towards justice and a better world.”