Some creditors start receiving Insomnia Gaming Festival payments, RuneFest delayed to 2025

Some of those owed for their work with Insomnia Gaming Festival have started to receive payments this week.

Sources told Esports News UK they received an email yesterday from Insomnia parent company Supernova Capital, offering them a Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA). If agreed, they would receive payment.

Several sources who accepted the offer said they were paid earlier today. Esports News UK understands esports talent from the most recent Insomnia event have been paid too.

An email sent to creditors said that Supernova Capital co-founder Paul Wedgwood and several investors had come together to donate further funds to settle outstanding invoices, with small traders and suppliers prioritised for their continual support of Insomnia over the years.

Payments were made by Novacorp Management Limited, a company owned by Paul Wedgwood.

One person in The Gaming Collective Discord, which was set up to keep the Insomnia community together following the LAN event’s closure, said: “Well it looks like Supernova are actually paying people, just had my invoice from the last show paid.”

Content creator RageDarling also tweeted:

The news comes after Supernova Events and Esports Limited, the company trading as Player1 Events (which ran Insomnia Gaming Festival), entered insolvency, with some £8m owed overall. Its Companies House page now lists the company as Player1 Events Limited.

Last month, mass redundancies were made at Player1 Events, and redundancy payments to staff have now been made.

A Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidation (CVL) was previously planned, but this switched to the Company Voluntary Arrangement (CVA), which, in theory, could provide a greater return to creditors.

It’s still unclear how many will receive what they’re owed.

James Williams of High Viz Media commented:

Supernova apologises to Insomnia creditors in email

While Supernova has not commented publicly about the situation, they did address the situation in emails sent to creditors.

They apologised for the length of time creditors have been waiting to hear from them, and for this matter to be resolved.

“We have been working tirelessly to find the best way of ensuring as many suppliers as possible are paid in full, something that has been complicated by the company ceasing business activities, the legal framework that accompanies these processes, and the need to get additional funding in place to settle outstanding invoices,” Supernova said.

“[Supernova] took ownership of [Insomnia] in 2021 because of Paul Wedgwood’s passion for gaming and the special place that Insomnia has played over the years in forging a sense of fellowship and shared adventure in the community.

Supernova said it was ‘very sorry’ to creditors for the impact this has had on them.

In a later email sent after the publication of this article, it stated: “Paul Wedgwood has agreed to inject some personal cash into the business in order to increase the funds available to creditors, and it is only thanks to this generous initiative that we have been able to go down this CVA [Company Voluntary Arrangement] route and avoid putting the company into liquidation.”

Creditors are next expected to receive an update during the week commencing July 29th, which will include the CVA proposal.

RuneFest postponed to 2025, refunds offered

RuneFest 2024, a celebration of all things RuneScape, was due to take place alongside Insomnia Gaming Festival this September.

However, with Insomnia staff now laid off and Player1 insolvent, RuneFest is now being postponed to next year.

Refunds for RuneFest are being made too.

Organisers said: “Our upcoming RuneFest event will unfortunately be postponed due to the collapse of our event partner.

“We are currently exploring options with the Birmingham NEC to reschedule RuneFest to early 2025, and ticket refunds will be made available to those who can no longer attend. Please keep reading for a more detailed update.

“As you may have seen reported in the news, Player1 Events laid off its staff in May.

“We are actively working on a plan to host the event in early 2025. We hope to come back to you soon with confirmation of rescheduled dates. All tickets will transfer automatically to the new dates and anyone who is unable to make it will be able to request a refund. More information about this will be shared as soon as possible.

“We appreciate this impacts travel plans, with so many of you coming from all over the world. We are so sorry for the disruption this will inevitably cause and are doing everything we can to act as swiftly as possible.”

Update (July 3rd 2024): The RuneFest 2025 rearranged dates, venue and ticket info has been confirmed.

Dom Sacco

Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.

As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.