Gathering of the Goddesses festival director used company funds to pay her rent, liquidator alleges

Unidentified attendees at a Victorian event during the festival. (Supplied)

A company director who ran “female empowerment” festivals in two states last year is potentially facing criminal charges for running events despite the company becoming insolvent at least a year beforehand.

Liquidators Jirsch Sutherland say the company’s sole director, Emma Hart, owes more than $124,000 to creditors, and she may have used festival funds to pay her rent, amounting to an additional $132,924, which the director currently denies.

The Gathering of the Goddesses festivals, held in March 2023 in Victoria and Tasmania, were advertised as “safe environments” for women and gender-diverse people to “celebrate, grow and create community”.

The festivals attracted overseas and local artists, musicians and contractors — but many were left high and dry when the events were not as advertised, and they say they were not paid for their work.

Tickets to the three-day event ranged from $300 to about $2,500 for a “glamping” package for five people.

Musician, author and witch Fiona Horne flew from the USA to headline at the Victorian festival, presenting two workshops and a musical performance.

Ms Horne said she was promised a glamping tent but on arrival found “there were none”, and she said she was instead offered the first aid room of the Scouts hall.

“I could not stay in the first aid room, so I rented an Airbnb as nearby as I could to the venue, which was expensive and paid out of my own pocket,” Ms Horne said.

She said the festival was “very poorly run and mismanaged”, but said she wanted “to emphasise the efforts of the volunteers and the women and girls who attended”.

‘Vigilante groups’ of ex-directors blamed

A report to creditors from Jirsch Sutherland, obtained from ASIC, outlines that The Gathering of the Goddesses company owes more than $124,000 to creditors, on top of the alleged more than $132,000 owed to the company.

The creditor’s report is restricted by information provided by the company, and to those who come forward to lodge creditor claims.

Ms Hart reported she was owed $37,000 by the company under an “owner’s loan account” — the only claim which is listed as not being “formally proved”.

“We are making enquiries with the company’s accountant in respect of the nature of same,” a spokesperson from Jirsch Sutherland said.

The report to creditors also notes “director’s reasons” given as to why the company failed, which include “not enough ticket sales”, and a “vigilante group started by ex-directors” who “started up another company as a competitor”.

A former director of the company, Julie Taylor, issued a statement which refuted claims by Ms Hart, including that “ex-directors created vigilante groups”.

“This is completely false,” Ms Taylor said.

“We were saddened to hear about the recent liquidation of The Gathering of the Goddesses. There was a time we considered Emma to be one of our dearest friends so it has been incredibly hurtful.

“Putting on a festival is a mammoth task, and that should never be understated. I had reached out periodically after I left to offer support, but she always said things were going well.

“It is a shame that something that was started with the intention to do good has turned into this.”

Staffer ‘couldn’t pay rent’

HK Vermuelen, who was contracted by Ms Hart to run the Tasmanian festival, said it had been a long wait for answers, which they described as both “worrying” and “annoying”.

They said having ASIC and the liquidator investigating The Gathering of the Goddesses company was somewhat reassuring.

“I definitely don’t feel as alone as I felt at the beginning of the process. I feel like we’ve got such a good community of people like the artists and other producers that are all banding together,” they said.

Hearing of the allegations festival funds were used to pay rent, they said it was “pretty devastating to think that someone was using money to do things that they weren’t meant to be doing”.

“Especially because I couldn’t pay my rent. I had to go out and get another job because I wasn’t paid from the event,” they said.

The Jirsch Sutherland spokesperson said Ms Hart was renting “a residential property on a large area of land where she lived with her family”, and that Ms Hart said she was attempting to seek council approval to hold future festivals on the property.

The spokesperson said any payments to creditors were “contingent on the successful recovery of the company’s past rental payments”.

Company sought to run new festival to repay debts

Following months of pursuit from those unpaid, with some enlisting debt collectors, in August 2023 Ms Hart announced in a statement to the ABC that she “had no other choice” but to enter the company into liquidation.

When this did not happen, the Scout Association of Australia’s Victoria Branch, which hosted the Macedon Ranges Gathering of the Goddesses event, at a venue cost of about $9,000, requested in December that ASIC forcibly liquidate the company.

The outcry from unpaid contractors that ensued in the months after the festivals was exacerbated by online advertising for a new event run by The Gathering of the Goddesses company called Kindred Spirits, which was open for ticket sales.

To this, Ms Hart explained in an email that the company was organising a new festival under a “new business model” to repay debts.

When the company did not liquidate as it had announced plans for, the company was eventually forced to by ASIC at the request of the Victorian Scouts Association, which hosted the Macedon Ranges event.

Reflecting on the ordeal, Tasmanian festival organiser HK Vermeulen said the arts community had banded together through the hardship.

“I 100 per cent support all the people that have been affected, and the love and support within lutruwita [Tasmania] in our arts community is strong through things like this.

“It’s not going to ruin us but, yeah, I’d love to see the funds returned and paid to the people that are owed money sooner rather than later.”

In the report to creditors, Jirsch Sutherland states potential offences by Ms Hart of insolvent trading and of not performing director duties to the standard expected of a “reasonable person” in the circumstances of that director, working in that particular corporation.

“I am working with liquidators to rectify discrepancies,” Ms Hart told the ABC in a statement.

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