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Y Not independently owned again following Global’s exit from the festival business
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 27 June 2019
Organisers of the Derbyshire music festival Y Not have announced that the event is back under independent ownership after a three year stint as part of Global’s festival business.
Radio firm Global spent several years building a music focused division that at one point included management, publishing, touring and festivals. The latter proved to be the most prolific – and longest lasting – of those ventures, Global ultimately boasting a portfolio of seventeen events, mainly run via its joint venture with Broadwick Live.
But earlier this year Global decided to bail on its festival business too. The ever-acquisitive Superstruct acquired a bunch of the media firm’s events. Meanwhile Broadwick’s management bought its former partner out of the company, keeping most of the remaining festivals and its growing venues business.
However, it’s now been confirmed that Y Not, bought by Global in 2016, was not part of either of those deals. It is now under the ownership of a company called Count Of Ten, led by Jason Oakley, who has worked on the festival since its inception.
A statement of the festival’s website reads: “There’s been a bit of chat lately about the future of Y Not and we wanted to share some exciting news with you. As of last month, Y Not Festival is once again independent and under the ownership of Count Of Ten following a previous purchase by Global Festivals in 2016”.
Confirming that Oakley would head up the team “through this transitional period”, the statement added: “Intrinsic to the grassroots team, Jason helped grow the festival from an over-spilling house party into a nationally acclaimed, award-winning festival with over 25,000 attendees”.
Oakley himself then said: “We are incredibly excited for this new era for Y Not and we’re looking forward to what we believe will be an amazing future, working on the festival that’s meant so much to us all. All our energy and focus is now on giving the Y Notter’s the best possible festivals that we can. We’re already excited to open the gates for 2019, which we are certain will be the best yet”.
Elbow, Two Door Cinema Club and Foals are among the headliners for this year’s Y Not Festival which takes place from 25-28 Jul.
