Disrupt Festival Tour

Disrupt Festival, Mad Decent Block Party, etc promoter SGE files for bankruptcy

Synergy Global Entertainment, an independent concert promotion company founded by John Reese, has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, Billboard reports. SGE worked with the Rockstar Disrupt Festival Tour (which suffered from slow ticket sales of its 2019 edition), the Mad Decent Block Party Festival (which was cancelled shortly before it was scheduled to happen), On The Water Festival (also cancelled), Ozzfest Meets Knotfest, Surf City Blitz, and Lost Lands, among other events.

In a statement to Billboard, Reese writes:

It is with deep regret and after exhaustive efforts to save the business, SGE is now closed.

After 15 years as a successful festival promoter, SGE was hit by a perfect storm of adverse market conditions and a massive drop in ticket sales and RPT (Revenue Per Ticket) since late April of this year compared to historical ticket sales metrics. As a result of these issues, the negative economic impact for SGE became untenable.

After having creative impact in over 45 Festival Brands and Tours in the company’s history, we most appreciate the years of partnerships with fans, artists, brands and vendors”

According to the bankruptcy filing, SGE has around $1 million in assets and $54k in the bank. The company owes $8.4 million to its creditors, including American Express, Front Gate Tickets, and Groupon. It also owes artist fees to talent agencies Paradigm and WME.