Rhythm and Vines: Our Finest Hour. Part 1.

To say it was a tough year for R&V was an understatement. It was probably the toughest, most challenging year in the history of our business. I remember standing on a Wairoa river bed at Easter last year, enjoying a flakey Oslers Pie, enroute to bury my situation in the hills and mist of Lake Waikaremoana. After a scheduled Directors skype call we collectively decided to end the business. The debts were too great and angry creditors were banging the door down. The reputation of the festival offering was tarnished by riots at the related BW Campgrounds that hosted the majority of our punters. The business model was eroding before our eyes as authorities intended to stamp out the binge drink BYO culture.  In serious debt of over a million dollars - from poor ticket sales coupled with vast overheads and a sister festival struggling to find its feet, our quest for investors over the previous months had proved fruitless. From Perth to Auckland, from industry leaders to wealthy friends even crowdfunding options, they all found the current model to risky with an uncertain path.  It was hard to find anyone who believed in a future, let alone my business partners.

Changes Likely at R&V Going Forward

What happened over the next few months was an experience in overcoming adversity, challenges and managing significant risk.  After what would be a snap decision to throw in the towel, my business partners soon rescinded, with terms for backing a future. They agreed to lend the money to keep creditors at pay and live to have another crack at a new festival roll out, while stepping back from the apparent related risks. Of course significant loans into a seemingly bottom hole is still a huge risk.  But it would clear their liability attached to past debts. They still had a loose belief but a fence sitting mentality where they would / could still recover involvement down the track.  If anything they were tired and burnt out as 10 years plus started to take its toll on everyone involved in a product that had failed to innovate.

Rhythm and Vines Calms Creditors Fears

Was got us through was the resilience and perseverance of the small and loyal team.  Our festival director Kieran Spillane had yet to prove himself on the balance sheet after two years in the job and wanted another shot at the title. Like Graham Henry experiencing a bitter loss on a Cardiff pitch in 2007 there was only one way out from the the taste of defeat. His two years at the helm was to become invaluable in the coming months.  From his relationship with creditors, his steel-nosed approach to deals and understanding of the numbers he was key to the rebuild. This coupled with the experience of my old mate Kyle Bell – the kind of roll your sleeves up, see-ya-at-the-bottom type tenacity that I had come to respect over the 15 years of knowing him.  He had a deep love and understanding of the brand, the journey and the vision.  And the youthful exuberance of a young Josh Smith who was hungry to see R&V return to its former glory, with his influence at the forefront.

Along my own ambition for the festival of course. From humble beginnings 13 years ago I had seen two near collapses during my time. Once in the face of the Witters house of cards crumbling, in which a sold-out 10k festival in year three with Fat Freddys Drop was the straw that broke the camels back of a perceived family empire in serious debt.  And then again in 2008 with the extension to a three day model, in which budgets blew out as we felt in the dark towards the world class festival model we dreamed of. 

But it would never be over until it hit the headlines, and even then a brand can not die over night, while dream is forever.  After all one of my initial mantra's was 'if you can picture it, you can achieve it'.  Yes we were down and out but it gave us a great chance to bounce back. Through chasos comes opportunity right? And what else is worth fighting for?  It was fortuitous in some regard I had come back into the business with nearly two years away from the front line. In that time I had been able to freshen up. I had experienced some of the world's leading festivals from Glastonbury to Exit. I had lived in Los Angeles the entertainment mecca of the world. I had been part of delivering a new festival in Wanaka. I was ready to accept and help lead this new challenge of a new chapter for Rhythm and Vines.

But the main motivator was the sustainability of business.  Here we had a number of large creditors baying for blood. We had obligations as Directors and businessmen to meet obligations and act in the best interests of the shareholders. I had a livelihood and future to protect, let alone reputation in the industry and beyond. But we now had an opportunity to move on without the of BW Campgrounds and the intentions of its owners. It was to be a clean slate, a new team and I was excited about that.

We began to look at the model and what we were selling.  It was clear the current model was redundant. We had become a rave for young people, hosting the evening festivities while much of the festival activity took place in town and at BW Campgrounds. The daily spend was less than $20 a day so we weren’t generating catering revenue. The sizeable production was for what had become a rave was just not sustainable. The acts were expensive and off trend. The VIP area was empty as the premium crowd had turned away. 

It was clear things had to change.

What we didn’t want to do was crack a nut with a sledge hammer. We couldn’t pull the rug out of the way of our core market of 18-20 year old summer holiday makers with our talk of non BYO and cheap drinks.  It was just too far away from our current offering and would be so unfamiliar that it would scare them off in droves. But it was paramount things needed to change while keeping the basics on offer. They wanted camping. They wanted drinking. They wanted music. They wanted the R&V experience they had heard about from their sisters and brothers. They would get it – but it would be different.

Rhythm and Vines gets new booze rules

After finding a loan solution to keep the creditors at bay and by some time to restructure and rebrand, we decided to go to market in May with a limited BYO offering which was under the banner of Premium Camping – Bass and Mid Camps. This would give us a head start and we could then tidy up the offering as we went.  After long winded deliberation we settled on our pricing and offerings for Bass and Mid Camp, with the younger ex-BW crowd relegated to Treble which would be the first of our beer garden offering.

It was decided to tackle the restructure head on and we began in our initial release to talk of new additions like the comedy component, the food trucks, the beer gardens along with what we believed would be a cutting edge program.

To be continued.....