The company behind the Electric Picnic music festival last year paid out a dividend of €7m after a record 70,000 music fans attended the 2022 'comeback' event at Stradbally in Co Laois.
That is disclosed in new accounts filed by EP Republic Ltd which show that the firm recorded pre-tax losses of €303,406 in 2021.
The 2021 loss arose from Electric Picnic in 2021 not taking place due to Government Covid-19 restrictions.
After not taking place for two Covid-19 hit years, the festival returned last year and those to perform included Arctic Monkeys, Dermot Kennedy, Picture This and Anne-Marie with the three day music festival selling out within an hour of going on sale.
Tickets for the 2024 event - due to take place next August - are to go on sale at 9am this Friday with the line-up yet to be announced.
In the new accounts, the directors state in a post balance sheet event that the company was able to operate its music festivals in 2022 and following this, on December 6th 2022, a dividend of €7m was paid.
EP Republic is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Dublin based Live Nation Gaiety Ireland Holdings Ltd which is in turn owned by the London registered LN-Gaiety Holdings Ltd.
Promoter, Denis Desmond is a co-owner in the London based joint venture with Live Nation and Mr Desmond's son, Zach Desmond sits on the board of EP Republic Ltd with Melvin Benn.
EP Republic Ltd recorded zero revenues in 2021 due to Electric Picnic taking place that year.
The accounts do disclose that the company received €486,032 in grants in 2021 made up of Covid-19 Wage Subsidy Scheme grants and the Live Performance Support Scheme.
The 2021 pre-tax loss of €303,406 followed the company recording a pre-tax profit of €2.458m in 2020.
The 2020 profit arose from EP Republic Ltd receiving an instance payout of €3.64m in 2020 due to Electric Picnic not proceeding that year. No insurance payout was recorded for 2021.
Last year, EP Republic Ltd incurred cost of sales of €719,217 and administrative expenses of €290,032.
At the end of December 2021, the company had accumulated profits of €7.54m and its cash funds increased marginally from €7.26m to €7.51m.
Staff costs in 2021 declined from €183,343 to €149,587 as the numbers of casual staff that year declined from eight to five.
Previous EP Republic Ltd accounts for 2019 show that the firm recorded pre-Covid 19 revenues of €16.9m and pre-tax profits of €1.78m that year.
Reporting by Gordon Deegan
