Shambala has moved into employee ownership, making it the first UK festival to adopt the model, according to the source material. Kambe Events, the company behind the independent festival, announced the transition on 21 April. The move shifts ownership away from the festival’s co-founders and into an employee ownership trust, or EOT, designed to hold the business for the benefit of the team that helped build it.
The change gives Shambala’s staff a formal ownership stake after more than two decades of work on the festival. Co-founder and managing director Chris Johnson said the team had long had an emotional stake in what Shambala had built over 25 years, and that “now everyone has an ownership stake too.” He added that the festival would be “nothing without our people,” saying they deserved to carry on the Shambala legacy as beneficiaries.
The decision arrives as many independent festivals face pressure from larger live entertainment companies and investors. Shambala framed the ownership change as an alternative to selling to venture capitalists or major promotion groups. Johnson said the festival “stands for independence” and that, in an increasingly commercialized festival scene, the founders “simply could not sell” to venture capitalists or large promotion companies. He said the team explored other routes before choosing employee ownership.
The festival has linked the move to its broader identity. In the source material, Shambala said the transition reinforces its commitment to independence, sustainability and ethical stewardship. The organization also described the change as a continuation of its “long-standing tradition of thought-leadership and innovation,” pointing to a 26-year history in which the festival says it has focused on sustainability, ethical operations and challenging standard industry practice.
Dan Raffety, co-founder and head of music at the festival, placed the decision in a wider critique of conventional ownership. He said the current capitalist model was “fundamentally broken” and argued that society should explore alternative ownership structures. In his account, employee ownership is the next step in Kambe’s attempt to align business activity with people and the planet.
The structure also creates a new governance framework. Tom Berry, the incoming EOT chair, said employee ownership was the “very best long-term option” for people-focused businesses that want to protect culture and reward staff. He said Kambe’s founders wanted a lasting legacy, and that employee ownership meant “everyone wins.” His role as the first EOT chair will put him at the center of the trust’s oversight as the company moves into the new arrangement.
Employee representatives also presented the move as a way to protect creative independence. George Devereaux, an EOT representative, said entrusting the company to the people who know it best was a forward-looking move that secures independence and creative freedom. Sarah Mason, another EOT representative, said the structure gives employees oversight of company direction and performance while helping preserve the organization’s values despite changes in governance.
The source material says the move is a first for the UK festival industry, though it also notes wider growth in community ownership of independent venues and employee-owned retailers. That distinction matters because festivals often rely on temporary workforces, complex supplier networks and volatile seasonal finances. Moving a festival company into employee ownership may therefore become a reference point for other independent operators considering how to protect their identity while planning succession.
For Shambala, the practical test will be whether the ownership structure can preserve independence while giving workers meaningful influence over the business. The announcement presents the EOT as a way to protect the festival’s founding ethos of creativity, sustainability, independence and community. The coming years will show how that promise works in the day-to-day realities of running a major independent festival.