Arvika Officially Bankrupt

Sweden’s Arvika Festival was officially declared bankrupt in Värmland court July 13, but lawyers winding up the company still can’t say what financial mess it left.

Karlstad-based law firm Moreau, Olsson & Högberg KB has only just started to work out how much it owes the bank and other creditors, which includes the 3,000 people who bought tickets for this year’s gathering.

The fest was scheduled July 14-16 with a lineup that included Aphex Twin, Röyksopp, Front 242, The Sounds and Digitalism, but was scrapped a couple of weeks earlier because the money ran out.

Olov Hallberg of Galaxen, the nonprofit organisation that’s run Arvika since it started in 1992, told Pollstar it owes “millions of kronor.”

Last year Arvika went into administration and made a deal to pay its suppliers about 25 percent of what they were owed, but even that has turned out to be impossible.