MAMA Group, the company behind Lovebox, The Great Escape and more, have bought 50% of indie festival All Tomorrow’s Parties. 

Founded in 2002 and now owned by HMV Group Plc, MAMA Group has its fingers in a lot of pies: in terms of live music, it runs festivals like Lovebox, The Great Escape, Global Gathering and Vintage, and London venues like HMV Forum and The Jazz Cafe. It also owns free magazine The Fly, as well as an artist management service.

All Tomorrow’s Parties, or ATP, is one of the music world’s most-loved independent festivals, with regular events in the UK, Japan and America. It has, however, found itself in difficult circumstances of late: in July it filed for administration, and earlier this month announced the cancellation of a Jim O’Rourke helmed event in Japan. Despite this, its flagship events – namely, the banner ATPs in America and the UK – have been going ahead as scheduled.

Speaking about the partnership [via Music Week], Dean James CEO of MAMA Group said: “Barry [Hogan, ATP founder] and Deborah [Kee Higgins, ATP organiser] run a fantastic business and it is a real honor for us to be working with them. ATP’s pioneering attitude and its success in the international market, combined with MAMA’s infrastructure of major festivals and venues is a dangerous combination.”

Hogan added: “We’re thrilled to be joining up with MAMA who have been supportive of us throughout the years. The ATP team is looking forward to working with Dean, Ivor and the rest of the MAMA staff to develop ATP events throughout the world.”

When ATP went into liquidation, Hogan made a statement explaining that it “involved the Voluntary Liquidation of ATP Concerts Limited and transfer of its assets (including the rights to the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival, label, and shows) to a new company called Willwal Limited. We will also be dividing the business into three different companies; ATP Festivals, ATP Recordings and ATP Shows.