Forbidden Fruit and All Together Now profit to the tune of €1.5m

Pod Festivals Ltd saw increase in profits for 2022, rising from €273,000 the previous year, accounts show

Concert-goers taking the chair plane during the Forbidden Fruit festival in Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, Dublin. Photograph: Cyril Byrne
Concert-goers taking the chair plane during the Forbidden Fruit festival in Royal Hospital, Kilmainham, Dublin. Photograph: Cyril Byrne

The company behind the Forbidden Fruit and All Together Now music festivals recorded after-tax profits of €1.55 million in 2022.

This follow profits of €272,977 in 2021, according to new accounts filed by Pod Festivals Ltd.

This year, the Dublin-based promoters have signed up acts such as The National, Róisín Murphy and Future Islands for its All Together Now festival at Curraghmore Estate, Co Waterford, on the August bank holiday weekend.

Nelly Furtado and Groove Armada are two of the acts due to perform at Forbidden Fruit in the grounds of the Royal Hospital, Kilmainham in Dublin, on the June bank holiday weekend.

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The new accounts show that profits were boosted in 2022 by the writing off in full of €384,260 owed to founding director John Reynolds, who died in 2018.

The company received €544,292 in Covid-19 related Live Performance Support Grant Scheme payments from the Department of Culture across 2022 and 2021.

A note attached to the accounts states that €100,000 was received in 2022 and the funds were used to cover the expenditure in organising and running the Forbidden Fruit Festival 2022.

The firm received €444,292 under the same Live Performance Support Grant Scheme in 2021 and the funding was spent to cover the expenditure in organising and running the Meadows Festival 2021 in the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Royal Hospital, Kilmainham.

The company received an insurance claim of €348,000 in 2020 that coincided with the firm being forced to cancel any live performances from March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The firm received €18,964 under Covid-19 Wage Subsidy Schemes in 2022 and this followed €77,140 under that heading in 2021.

The post-tax profit of €1.55 million in 2022 reduced accumulated losses from €3.75 million to €2.19 million. The firm’s cash funds declined from €630,313 to €172,755.

A note attached to the accounts signed off by directors James Reynolds and Michael Gallagher on March 15th, 2024, states that the company has a working capital loan of €2.3 million due for repayments “and is currently in negotiations with the lender to extend the repayment date”.

The note states that a letter of support has been received from the lender stating that it is their intention to show forbearance in relation to the funding and, subject to agreement on terms, the lender is amenable to extending the repayment dates applicable to such amounts.