THE company that has run the last seven Cornbury Festivals has gone into liquidation owing creditors ranging from top stars to small local charities almost £1.5m.

Among those named on the list of creditors of Cornbury Music Festival Ltd, now in the hands of administrators Carter Clark and listed as in liquidation at Companies House, are Paul Simon, who is owed £33,000, and Crowded House, who are owed £15,300.

Charities that have been left unpaid include Oxfam (£3,280), St John Ambulance (£3,999), and Friends of the Earth (£470).

But despite the collapse of his company, event organiser Hugh Phillimore vowed to stage the festival again next year from July 1-3, this time at the nearby Great Tew Estate, owned by James Johnston and his son Nicholas.

Following a disagreement with Cornbury Park owner Lord Rotherwick (owed £58,000), Mr Phillimore will not hold the event at Cornbury Park again.

Lord Rotherwick told The Oxford Times: “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 for this year ten days before last year’s festival. I feared for local people who, for instance, had baked hundreds of cakes.”

Lord Rotherwick has since joined forces with event organiser Mama Group, recently bought by HMV for £46m, to stage a rival festival at Cornbury next year. It is provisionally called the Wilderness Festival.

Mr Phillimore, who will move out of the cottage he rents on the Cornbury estate in March, told The Oxford Times: “I have now become an employee of large event organiser 3A Entertainments. We have applied for a licence to stage the Cornbury Festival at Great Tew next year.”

More than half of Mr Phillimore’s own company’s debts — £773,083 out of a total of £1,469,745 — are owed to his other company, Sound Advice, which arranges parties for the rich and famous that have included the Prince of Wales’s 50th birthday party and Prince William’s 21st.

He said: “I’ve never taken a penny out of Cornbury and I’ve 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”

He added: “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. He should have stayed with me.”

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

The Great Tew Estate is owned by James Johnston and his son Nicholas.

It was previously owned by Major Eustace Robb, who left it to James Johnston, his agent, when he died.