Published
Tue, Jun 20, 2023, 13:25
- The investigation exposes how the firm put on disappointing events, overcharged customers and accumulated £78 million in debt.
A new BBC Three documentary has exposed the inner workings of disgraced events platform Pollen.
Entitled Crashed: $800m Festival Fail, the 60-minute film charts the rise and catastrophic fall of the internet start-up, launched in 2014 by brothers Callum and Liam Negus-Fancey. After the £630 million company collapsed, many of its staff and customers were left out of pocket.
Despite a strong start, Pollen began to go downhill when the pandemic hit. The brothers decided to start running their own events and selling festival package deals. Around 15,000 people signed up to a monthly payment plan, but in the months leading up to Pollen's collapse in August 2022, many were prematurely charged double and even triple the amount, resulting in £2.5 million of unauthorised payments.
Customers weren't the only ones affected. Pollen also failed to pay countless service providers—one chauffeur business owner in Ibiza told the BBC he's still owed more than €17,000. The company was also renowned for holding lavish retreats and parties to give investors the impression it was doing well.
A wave of event cancellations from 2020 onwards, not helped by the Covid-19 Omicron variant, ultimately led to Pollen's collapse in August 2022. It owes an estimated £78m in debt.
Watch the documentary—which went live yesterday, June 19th—via BBC iPlayer.