GLOBAL music stars Paul Simon and Crowded House are among acts which could be left out of pocket following the collapse of the company which runs the Cornbury Festival.

It came after the firm which has run Oxfordshire’s biggest music festival for seven years went into liquidation owing almost £1.5m to a string of top stars and charities.

Oxfam (£3,280), St John Ambulance (£3,999), and Friends of the Earth (£470) are among the charities left unpaid.

Event organiser Hugh Phillimore yesterday announced plans to stage the Cornbury Festival at the nearby Great Tew Estate.

And he pledged last night that the event would still go ahead from July 1 to 3.

Cornbury Park owner Lord Rotherwick, who is owed £58,000, has already said the event will not take place at his venue again.

He said: “I simply could not take the responsibility of allowing an event to take place on the estate that I felt could land local charities and businesses in financial difficulty.

“I only learned of Hugh’s difficulties 10 days before last year’s festival. I feared for local people who, for instance, had baked hundreds of cakes.”

Now Lord Rotherwick has joined forces with event organiser Mama Group, recently bought by HMV for £46m, to stage a rival event.

He said: “We shall stage a festival here, provisionally called the Wilderness Festival next year, come what may.

“The festivals have been of huge benefit to the local community.”

Mr Phillimore, who will move out of the cottage he rents on the Cornbury estate in March, said: “I have now become an employee of large event organiser 3A Entertainments, which works with artists including Eric Clapton and Van Morrison.

“We have applied for a licence to stage the Cornbury Festival at Great Tew next year.”

More than half of his troubled company’s debts – £773,083 out of a total of £1,469,745 – are owed to his other company, Sound Advice, which arranges smart parties for the rich and famous, including Prince Charles’s 50th birthday party and Prince William’s 21st.

Mr Phillimore said: “I have never taken a penny out of Cornbury.

“I have put about £1.4m into it and will be in debt for many years to come as a result.

“Many people have long told me to put the company into liquidation, but I wanted to pay back what I owed. I rang them and told them the situation.

“I’ve always tried to be straight with people to whom I owed money.

“I offered to pay Lord Rotherwick if he would give me another few years to let the festival take off financially, but he preferred to join up with another company. ”

Some artists named as creditors were listed alongside the names of booking agents. For example, Paul Simon was listed as Paul Simon ITB (International Talent Booking).

Last night, no-one from ITB was available to comment.

But Don Owen, director of Ascot Structures of Heythrop (owed £18,800), said: “We have an amicable relationship with Hugh and will have no qualms about working with him at Great Tew.”

Mr Phillimore earlier this week outlined his plans for next year’s festival to residents of Great Tew, the village largely built in the 17th century by poet Lucius Cary, Viscount Falkland.

The estate fell into disrepair from 1914 until 1962 when it was inherited by Major Eustace Robb.

When he died it he left it to his agent James Johnston.