Festival Organizer ID&T Comes into British Hands
Festival organizer ID&T has been sold to British industry peer Superstruct Entertainment. “With this deal, we have piloted the company into a safe haven,” says CEO Ritty van Straalen about the acquisition.
ID&T is known for festivals such as Awakenings, Mysteryland, Thunderdome and Amsterdam Open Air. In addition, Superstruct organizes significant festivals such as the Black Cross and Sziget in the Hungarian capital Budapest.
Due to the corona crisis, the event sector, including festivals, was almost entirely at a standstill last summer. Last September, ID&T announced that it would have to cut about 40 percent of its jobs as a result of the corona crisis. The company received 8 million euros in emergency financing from Rabobank and also 8 million euros from shareholders.
“Even the employees have waived part of their salary and holiday pay and converted that into a loan of more than 3 million euros. All those amounts can now be repaid,” says Van Straalen. In addition, the corona support that ID&T has received from the government this year will also be reimbursed.
According to Van Straalen, the first talks between ID&T and Superstruct already took place in 2019. “Covid delayed the process for a year and a half,” he said in a statement explaining the deal. Founders of various festivals and management members of ID&T become shareholders of Superstruct. Financial details of the transaction are not disclosed.
On Wednesday, it was announced that ID&T, together with the organization Unmute Us, Apenkooi Events and MOJO, are taking the government to court. They disagree with the cabinet’s decision to allow only 75 percent of the visitor capacity at events without fixed seats indoors and keep clubs’ closing time at midnight. Earlier this year, ID&T initiated summary proceedings against the State on behalf of the industry but later withdrew it.
In total, about 130 people work at ID&T. Every year, the company organizes about seventy events with a total of around 1.5 million visitors.
