The two festivals will be the “We the People” music festival in Bristol and the “Shakedown” Festival in Brighton, to be held in June and July this year respectively. The investment is the first from the D-share class of Ingenious Entertainment VCTs 1 and 2. Ingenious recently launched the Entertainment VCTs’ E and F share offers, which seek up to £30 million in fundraising to support similar events.

Ingenious Ventures investment director Paul Bedford comments, ‘At a time when the sales of recorded music have steadily declined, festivals and other live music events have consistently bucked the trend and flourished, making this sector of the entertainment business an excellent investment opportunity.’

Ingenious first backed Creamfields, a dance festival held in Cheshire, in June 2008, injecting more than £1 million from the Ingenious Live VCTs to expand the event from one to two days. In January this year, the firm announced its plan to launch a sister festival to the retro music event, 80s Rewind Festival, in Scotland with backing from Ingenious Entertainment VCTs.