Cornwall concert venue near Bude suing Live Nation for more than £1m
The Wyldes owner claims only six concerts were produced in 2024 instead of at least eight
The owner of a Cornwall concert venue near Bude is suing part of Live Nation for more than £1 million, claiming it failed to host enough concerts there.
The Wyldes has hosted gigs by artists including Paul Weller, Fatboy Slim and McFly.
WV Leisure, which owns and runs the venue, claimed in High Court documents that it signed a deal with Live Nation Music UK in 2023.
Live Nation Music UK is part of Live Nation Entertainment.
WV Leisure claims the deal required Live Nation to produce at least eight concerts a year at the site for five years from 2024.
In return, it says Live Nation was to pay a £250,000 fee plus commission on ticket sales.
The firm's lawyers claim Live Nation only produced six concerts in 2024, including those by Simple Minds, Anne-Marie and James Arthur, before ending the deal last year.
WV Leisure is now seeking at least £1,007,789.97 in damages for breach of contract.
Live Nation has not yet filed a defence to the claim and has been approached for comment.
Claims about concert bookings
Oliver Phillips, the barrister representing WV Leisure, said Live Nation failed to produce and promote the concerts with reasonable care and skill, as well as failing to deliver the number required under the deal.
He said this included booking Simple Minds and Anne-Marie on consecutive nights in June 2024.
Mr Phillips said it was necessary to book artists with similar fanbases on sequential nights to attract people who would want to attend both concerts.
He also said Live Nation booked Jess Glynne and James Arthur back to back in the same month, despite there being little or no overlap between the target audiences for the two artists.
Marketing and losses
Mr Phillips said Live Nation did not run any sufficient national marketing campaign for the site alongside the promotion of the individual concerts, and allowed insufficient time to promote them.
He said: "As a result, ticket sales on launch, which is the time of the highest ticket sales, were lower than they would have been if the launch had been handled properly, and it was more difficult thereafter to sell tickets to make up for the slow start."
Mr Phillips said the concerts made a substantial loss of around £850,000, but would have been profitable overall if Live Nation had performed its obligations.
A hearing in the claim has yet to take place.