Larkin Leaves The Big Chill

Katrina Larkin has quit as creative director of The Big Chill festival, apparently as a result of an agreement she made with Festival Republic chief Melvin Benn when his company bought the cash-strapped event in September 2009.

A couple of months after the festival changed hands, controversy blew up around Larkin when her acceptance of Virtual Festivals’ Lifetime Achievement Award coincided with the news that The Big Chill had tanked with debts of about £1.2 million. Festival Republic bought The Big Chill after part of it had been placed in receivership.

The heat got turned up at the Virtual awards ceremony at London’s O2 Nov. 19, when Larkin allegedly refused to accept the gong if copies of “Festival UK” – a stand-alone supplement that conference co-sponsor Live UK published to mark the event – remained on display at the venue.

The supplements contained financial details of The Big Chill’s collapse, something that had already sparked fury among out-of-pocket creditors who protested Larkin being given a lifetime achievement award. The offending publications were removed from the racks.

Show Event Security, Power Logistics and Eve Trackway were reportedly owed about £50,000 each, while PRS and Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs were in for even more.

When Festival Republic bought the 15-year-old Big Chill, which takes place at Eastnor Castle, Herefordshire, there was no mention of Larkin continuing on a temporary basis until the transition was complete.

“This marks an exciting time for The Big Chill and I am thrilled to welcome Katrina and her team into the Festival Republic family,” Benn said at the time. But it now appears he and Larkin had agreed she would stay only until the festival was bedded down in the Festival Republic fold.

“It’s obviously a very significant step for me to take but it is one that was agreed last year when Festival Republic bought The Big Chill Festival,” Larkin explained in a statement announcing her departure. “Throughout the negotiations, both Melvin and I felt that it would be best if I maintained involvement in the festival on a creative, consultative level to ensure as smooth and successful a transition as possible.

“We intentionally didn’t put a time limit on this process, as it is something that is impossible to predict with any accuracy. Instead, we chose to wait until both of us felt happy that the time was right for the festival.”

Whatever was decided at Festival Republic HQ, it appears there’s no animosity over the split. Larkin and Benn are part of a 13-person team the firm has sent cycling 270 miles across East Africa to raise money for Kenyan orphans.