The case for rolling dozens of festivals into one company is that scale makes each of them cheaper to run. Superstruct Entertainment's accounts for 2025, reported by the trade press in the first week of October 2026, are the first full-year test of that case since KKR completed its purchase of the group in October 2024. Revenue went up. Costs went up faster, and so did debt.

What the filing shows

The figures below come from three reports on the same accounts: IQ Magazine, Access All Areas on 6 October and VIP-Booking on 7 October.

  • Revenue: up 4.4% to €825.1 million, from €790 million in 2024 (Access All Areas).
  • Loss after tax: €115.5 million, up from €90.6 million (IQ Magazine).
  • Loss before tax: €111.3 million, up from €77.6 million (VIP-Booking).
  • Cost of sales: up 15% to €619.7 million (IQ Magazine).
  • Administrative costs: up 50% to €269.3 million (Access All Areas).
  • Balance sheet: net liabilities of €153.1 million at the end of 2025, against net assets of €6.7 million a year earlier (Access All Areas).
  • Debt: a further €109 million taken on, bringing total borrowings to €392.5 million (VIP-Booking).
  • Attendance: 6.6 million, which the company described as consistent with the previous year (Access All Areas).

Cost of sales and administrative costs add up to €889.0 million, about €64 million more than the group's revenue, by our arithmetic. Attendance was flat. The extra revenue came from the same number of people, and it was not enough to cover what the group spent to stage and manage its events.

IQ reports that the directors consider the company "well placed" to meet its liquidity requirements. VIP-Booking describes the group as understood to remain within its financial covenants, and says the new financing is intended to support continued investment and acquisitions.

What the accounts do not say

Superstruct's festivals were the target of an artist boycott in 2025 over the investments of KKR, which Music Week says acquired the group for a reported €1.3 billion in 2024. CVC later invested alongside it. It is tempting to read the wider loss as the bill for that campaign. The filing does not support the reading. VIP-Booking notes that Superstruct does not attribute its increased losses to the boycotts or put a number on their effect, and that KKR has said it does not directly invest in Israeli weapons manufacturers or in developments in the occupied Palestinian territories.

What the accounts do contain is a risk statement, quoted by Access All Areas: "Where we see political opinions change as a result of geopolitics, we manage with monitoring and communicating clearly and factually". The measurable change in the year is in costs, particularly the 50% rise in administrative spending, and none of the three reports gives the company's breakdown of it.

A new team and a written code

The company's answer in 2026 has been organisational. Access All Areas lists the senior appointments made since late 2025: Alex Mahon as chief executive, Rebecca Kane Burton (chief operating officer, the title Music Week gives her), Jacqui Harris as managing director and Nick Priday as global group chief financial officer. A spokesperson told the same outlet: "2026 has been a year of growth, transformation and strong performance, with fans across our events enjoying extraordinary live experiences."

On 9 September, Music Week reported the launch of an Artistic Code, first presented at the International Festival Forum in London. According to the company statement quoted there, the code "makes clear that Superstruct does not operate banned lists and that performances should only be interrupted where there is a safety reason to do so". Music Week adds that the group does not prohibit political flags within a performance, except where a flag or symbol is illegal in that market. "Artistic freedom sits at the heart of our festivals," said Kane Burton. The statement also addresses ownership directly: "Superstruct is independently run, making its own decisions based on what is in the best interests of our fans, artists and colleagues."

A code of this kind is a commercial document as much as a statement of values. It is written for agents and managers deciding whether an offer from Field Day, Sónar or Flow carries a reputational cost, and it puts in writing what individual festivals had been saying one by one. Flow Festival's ownership statement, for example, says the change of investors "occurred between different investment companies, and Flow hasn't participated in the negotiations".

The portfolio also shrinks

Consolidation is usually told as a list of acquisitions. The last twelve months include movement the other way. IQ Magazine reported in November 2025 that Sziget had left Superstruct and returned to its founder and management team, eight years after the group bought 70% of the Budapest festival as its first major acquisition. In October 2025, Festival Insights reported that Sónar's three founders, Enric Palau, Ricard Robles and Sergio Caballero, had left after more than 30 years, with Mixmag's source describing a "planned exit".

The most recent purchase named in the coverage of the accounts is Boiler Room, bought from DICE in 2025, according to VIP-Booking. None of the three reports names a festival acquired in 2026. So far this year the visible investment has gone into management.

What to watch

  • Sónar, 17 to 19 June 2027, Barcelona. The dates are on the festival's site. It will be the first Sónar line-up announced since the Artistic Code was published, and the 2025 edition was the one named in reports of artist withdrawals.
  • Wacken Open Air, 28 to 31 July 2027. Louder reported the dates and the first names on 3 August 2026.
  • The 2026 accounts. The 2025 figures reached the trade press in October 2026. The next set will show whether a year of "strong performance" narrows a loss that widened by €24.9 million after tax.

Sources: IQ Magazine on Superstruct's 2025 accounts, October 2026; Access All Areas, 6 October 2026; VIP-Booking, 7 October 2026; Music Week on the Artistic Code, 9 September 2026; Flow Festival's statement on festival ownership; IQ Magazine on Sziget, November 2025; Festival Insights on Sónar's founders, 16 October 2025; Sónar; Louder, 3 August 2026.