The company behind a popular ‘bush doof’ festival which made headlines last year following a mass gastro outbreak has gone bust.
Esothreads, the business that operated the Esoteric Psychedelic Circus Festival, officially filed for insolvency last Wednesday.
The 2025 edition of the festival, scheduled for the Labour Day long weekend in Donald, northwest Victoria, was cancelled at the last minute following a decision by the Municipal Building Surveyor of the Buloke Shire Council.
Buloke Shire Council released a statement explaining it had approved a general permit for the Esoteric Festival at a meeting just days before the event.
However, the required safety permit, known as a Place of Public Entertainment Occupancy Permit (POPE-OP), was denied the following day.
The permit was refused by the council’s municipal building surveyor, who works independently despite being employed by the council.
The surveyor listed 33 reasons for the refusal, and the council clarified that councillors had no power to overturn the decision.
The news of the cancellation broke as over 2,000 attendees began to arrive.
The festival was cancelled just one day before its 2025 event was due to go ahead
Sam Goldsmith, the managing director of the festival, said the cancellation was ‘devastating’, and was ‘bureaucracy and politics gone mad’.
‘Since 2017 this event has been a lifeline for Victoria’s regional tourism and live music scene, injecting more than $15million into the local economy and supporting thousands of jobs in the Wimmera Mallee region,’ he said.
It has been reported that the cancellation resulted in a $2million loss for Esothreads.
Scott Andersen and Nathan Deppeler from Worrells were appointed administrators of the business.
The pair warned in a recent report that the festival’s future was in doubt unless it was able to find a vital lifeline.
‘In the event there is no interest from any party to propose a Deed of Company Arrangement to restructure the company or purchase the business, the company will not be in a position to hold further festivals,’ the report stated.
Some attendees affected by the cancellation are yet to receive refunds, which are now the responsibility of the administrators to process.
And it’s not the first time Esoteric has made headlines in recent years.
The company behind the Esoteric festival has entered insolvency
In 2024, the event was at the centre of a public health scare after hundreds of attendees were struck down with gastroenteritis.
Victoria Health confirmed that at least 260 people reported symptoms of gastro, with some cases linked to the more severe Shigella bacteria.
Shigellosis, the infection caused by Shigella, can trigger a sudden onset of symptoms including severe diarrhoea, fever, nausea, vomiting, and painful abdominal cramps.
Esoteric is just one of many Australian music festivals that have stopped operating.
Dozens of festivals have shut down since 2022, including well-known events like Splendour in the Grass, Groovin the Moo, Good Life, and Souled Out.
Creditors will meet with the Administrators of Esoteric next week.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Buloke Shire Council for comment.
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