Shambala is Now the UK’s First Employee-Owned Festival

Kambe Events, the company that runs the UK’s Shambala festival, has handed ownership of the event to its team via an Employee Ownership Trust.

What it means:

• After 26 years, Shambala’s founders Chris Johnson, Sidharth Sharma and Dan Rafferty are handing over the festival to the team that works on the event year-round.

• The move comes as many independent festivals are being acquired by live entertainment conglomerates.

• The company says the initiative “ensures that [Shambala’s] founding ethos – creativity, sustainability, independence and community – remains protected for years to come.”

• The founders will serve as advisors and mentors in the short term.

History:

• Shambala markets itself as “the UK’s fiercely independent, seriously silly, wildly creative and radically sustainable festival.”

• It takes place every August Bank Holiday at the countryside estate of Kelmarsh Hall and Gardens near Market Harborough, Northamptonshire.

• This year’s performers include Bob Vylan, Los Bitchos and BCUC.

What they said:

• Chris Johnson, Co-Founder and MD: “All of us at Shambala have an emotional stake in what we have built over 25 years; now everyone has an ownership stake. We would be nothing without our people, and they deserve to carry on the Shambala legacy as beneficiaries.”