Festival of Fakes: Glastonbury Stars Headline Fraudster's Dream

It featured a lineup of groups such as The Killers, Pulp, Def Leppard, Wet Leg, and The Libertines.

A 45,000-person capacity three-day event was scheduled for this August bank holiday and was promoted as the world’s first music festival powered entirely by hydrogen.

But there was an issue: It was built on falsehoods.

A MG NEWS DAYAn investigative report has revealed how “fantasist” and convicted fraudster James Kenny orchestrated a fictional festival from his elderly mother’s kitchen, which managed to attract Glastonbury headliners, Hollywood celebrities, and even a government.

After we located Mr. Kenny, he stated that he had planned for the festival to proceed, and mentioned that he was “genuinely sorry” to those who had suffered financial losses.

Several people we have spoken with claim the festival sector is filled with individuals similar to Mr. Kenny, brimming with ambitious concepts and lofty aspirations.

So when the bar manager, who had experience managing hotels and a nightclub in Liverpool, proposed a multi-million-pound festival that was even bigger than Latitude, and claimed funding from investors like John Vincent, the co-founder of the restaurant chain Leon, industry experts believed he might actually succeed.

However, as time passed, employees and suppliers who had initially been “100% convinced” informed us that they began to doubt whether it was genuine.

“It was a paper-based celebration,” said a former worker.

Everything seemed to fall apart, and I realized it only existed for him.

Some now think Mr Kenny never truly planned for his ambitious festival to take place — payments for performers were not made, license applications were never submitted, and investors he mentioned as being in contact with state they have never heard of him.

How did an event founded on falsehoods reach such a level?

Monmouth Rising was scheduled to take place at a green venue just outside the Welsh town’s border—a location typically more suited for weekend car boot sales than multi-stage music festivals.

Festival literature highlighted budget-friendly tickets, contactless payment options, and a “promise of inclusiveness” without any VIP sections.

During a crowded town hall meeting in February, the 47-year-old presented detailed site blueprints that he asserted were created using the same software utilized for organizing the Paris Olympics.

MG NEWS DAYRadio Wales would air the festival live, with a cannon reportedly firing bacon butties into the campsite each morning, according to him.

He informed potential workers that investors comprised “one of the founders of Creamfields” and mentioned that an economic impact study by the Welsh government indicated the festival would inject £28.9m into the region.

An industry expert remarked: “I’ve been in the field for two decades, and it’s extremely rare to organize such a large-scale festival on one’s first attempt.”

The individual, who provided services for the event and chose not to be identified due to concerns about losing future opportunities, remarked: “It’s humiliating [that I trusted him], but in this field, you want someone to have a little madness.”

Daftar Isi

Idris Elba DJ sets

Employees and vendors mention a confidential culture that Mr. Kenny established: Major performers were not being revealed, and no one was aware of how many tickets had been sold.

Music producer Chris Whitehouse was required to sign a confidentiality agreement prior to composing the soundtrack for the festival’s advertisement, which was to be “voiced” by Idris Elba. He was informed by Mr. Kenny that Elba would also perform as a DJ at the event alongside major dance acts Groove Armada and Whigfield.

However, Chris mentioned that things didn’t make sense.

“These individuals seem to have an £8m budget for this music festival, and he appears to have just exited Wetherspoons,” he remarked.

Chris has not received payment for his work and has taken legal action against Mr. Kenny for violating the contract.

Elba’s representative stated, “there is no evidence that Idris has done anything for this individual,” while Groove Armada and Whigfield mentioned they were never scheduled to perform.

Genevieve Barker is among the select few individuals that Mr. Kenny permitted to join these confidential discussions.

“He’d say, ‘oh my gosh, we’ve got this band, but don’t tell anyone,’ ” she remembered.

After dedicating time to raising her five children, the marketing and events professional from Monmouth felt “lovebombed” into quitting her job to become head of partnerships for the festival.

“I had dedicated nearly 16 years to bringing up my children,” she stated.

If you have consistently worked on a part-time basis or were a full-time caregiver, this represented a major professional advancement.

She mentioned that the “larger than life” entrepreneur provided her with a higher salary than she had ever earned, along with a pension and private dental and health coverage for her family.

But once she began working for the festival, she described it as, “similar to a toxic relationship.”

She said, “He made us feel very unique, offered some incentives, but then kept us apart. He never supported us discussing things as a group unless he was present.”

Another employee of Monmouth Rising is employed at festivals during the summer. As a part-time caregiver, she seized the opportunity for a more permanent position that allows her to work from home.

She is reluctant to be identified due to concerns about not securing employment in a sector that is “already challenging for older women.”

She mentions that a 10-minute job interview involved Mr. Kenny quickly listing “numerous bands he was discussing with, so rapidly that I couldn’t keep up with writing them all down. After that, he agreed to everything I requested.”

Several vendors also mentioned that they supplied work valued at thousands of pounds and were assured of much more in the coming months.

The MG NEWS DAY has featured WhatsApp conversations in which Monmouth Rising’s staff expressed enthusiasm about the plans.

However, out of nowhere in late February, a new message showed up.

“Where is our pay?”

Staff awoke to discover they had not been paid their initial salary.

The festival’s website was unavailable, preventing them from accessing work emails. Adam Purslow, founder of Loyalty Co, mentioned that his company created the website at a discounted rate for his “serial entrepreneur” friend Mr. Kenny.

Following multiple payment requests, Adam took down the website after his team received a “suspicious” document as evidence of incoming funds.

“All the vendors began to doubt the authenticity of the entire situation,” he stated.

Employees such as Genevieve faced the responsibility of paying mortgages, rent, and nursery expenses.

In reply to her urgent pleas, Mr. Kenny sent her videos shot at his mother’s house, where he was staying, stating that he was “truly just waiting” for funds to arrive.

MG NEWS DAYWales has found out that the money Mr Kenny was promising was a £90,000 cash advance, referred to as invoice financing. However, it was rejected because it didn’t pass the necessary due diligence checks.

This occurred because an invoice from the train company GWR, which Mr. Kenny presented as evidence of incoming funds, was marked as a possible fake.

GWR stated it could not reconcile the invoice with its records and “promptly alerted” the British Transport Police to its concerns.

It is not the sole fabricated document that Mr. Kenny seems to have used.

Mr. Kenny had previously attempted and failed to organize a city-wide cocktail festival, and a comparable sequence of pledges and supposed forgeries emerged afterward.

In 2021, he began working for Kate and James, a pair who owned a cocktail bar in Chester and provided backstage catering services for high-profile events like the National Television Awards (NTAs).

The couple, now residing in Morocco, mentioned that Mr. Kenny “always had a fondness for shiny objects” and was enthusiastic when they invited him to join the NTAs, although “the truth is, it’s demanding work and you’re essentially cleaning up after celebrities, not regular people.”

Kate mentioned that Mr. Kenny also informed them that he had dated a well-known actress and TV host after meeting her at a hotel bar he managed in Liverpool, even though there was no indication that this was true.

“Later, we discovered that he had been informing others that he leads the NTA party,” said Kate.

We felt pity for him.

Kate mentioned that Mr Kenny always knew the “right name to mention” and convinced the couple to invest with him in a new Liverpool Cocktail Week.

However, the funds he had pledged did not arrive, and the event was never held, resulting in the couple losing £20,000.

To account for the payment delay, Mr. Kenny provided the couple with a £40,000 loan document from Metro Bank.

A month later, when the funds still hadn’t arrived, he posted a letter from the same bank stating that his account had been mistakenly frozen due to suspected fraudulent activity.

The loan proposal had unexpectedly increased to £75,000 and mentioned an additional £35,000 from an investor based in Malta.

The couple spoke with Mr. Kenny via telephone, but mentioned that he did not compensate them.

It was not the final instance where Mr Kenny stated that money was being sourced from within Malta.

When Mr. Purslow requested payment this year, Mr. Kenny shared a screenshot, viewed by MG NEWS DAY, showing an international money transfer of £200,000 from a Maltese bank, although the name was incorrectly spelled.

When we inquired with the bank regarding the document, it stated that it was “not valid.”

We also reached out to the individuals Mr. Kenny mentioned he had been in conversation with regarding investment in the festival.

Mr. Vincent claimed he had never encountered him, while two of the original Creamfields founders and current proprietors both stated they had never heard of him.

The Welsh administration stated that it had never conducted an economic impact evaluation.

The Killers and Def Leppard mentioned they had not been invited to play. We have not received a response from The Libertines, Wet Leg, and Pulp yet. Some other bands stated they had been contacted, but no deposits were ever made.

Six months before the festival, Monmouth Rising appeared to be in trouble.

Genevieve stated, as traders demanded their money back, she felt “morally bound” to confront Mr. Kenny, but he refused to listen.

Subsequently, on March 6, he shared an open letter via social media announcing the cancellation of the festival, stating that it was “no longer feasible,” although he still expressed hope that it might take place in 2026.

He mentioned that all ticket buyers and vendors would get refunds, but MG NEWS DAYWales was informed that only 24 individuals had purchased tickets, and all of them were refunded since their payments were retained by the ticketing company.

Several traders we contacted mentioned they had not yet received their deposits.

The uprising in Monmouth would have required millions to execute from scratch.

The company, which was supposed to supply the festival with hydrogen energy, stated it had signed a commercial supply agreement, but no actions had been taken. MG NEWS DAYWales mentioned that it had never been contacted to broadcast from the event.

We have also discovered – contrary to being software designed for organizing the Paris Olympics – the site layout was created using an online application that provides free trials.

Suppliers and staff, including Mr Whitehouse, Mr Purslow, and Ms Barker, stated they were out thousands of pounds, and efforts to initiate legal action against Mr Kenny were delayed when he changed his phone number and relocated.

The female individual who participated in the 10-minute interview mentioned that she was left without funds and could not apply for Universal Credit for several months as HMRC believed she had received payment.

We located Mr. Kenny using his new phone number to confront him with these claims.

He claimed the lineup was genuine and spent a year developing Monmouth Rising, stating it was “the sole focus of my efforts.”

He mentioned that he has paid some workers and stated that those who lost funds could reach out to him personally, noting that he has “never avoided anything.”

He refused to inform us where he is currently residing or respond to our inquiries regarding the suspected forgeries, or the investors he asserted he had, and instructed us to send him questions via email instead.

He did not elaborate on those questions, but in a statement he mentioned that his “only goal” was to produce something significant, which had a personal toll on his health and financial situation.

He mentioned it collapsed when he realized he couldn’t obtain approval for an event of that scale at Monmouth Showground.

The Monmouthshire council informed us that during the 12 months he stated he spent organizing the festival, he had only one meeting with them.

He mentioned that he was genuinely remorseful, making a direct promise to those impacted: “I will compensate you.”

Concerns are now being raised about how this was able to reach such an extent.

James Kenny is a registered director of numerous small businesses under various iterations of his name, leaving £27,000 in unpaid debts.County Court Judgements behind him.

In 2008, he was found guilty of two instances of fraud after falsifying his wife’s signature to secure a mortgage payment that settled £15,000 in debts.

Nobody can determine what inspired Mr. Kenny to create a festival built on falsehoods, but only a small number of people we have spoken to think the Monmouth Rising event would have succeeded.

Genevieve, who is still owed £5,000 and has recently started a new job, stated that she believes Mr. Kenny is “a fantasist and a narcissist.”

“I mean, this was supposed to be a multi-million pound event, and he set up his office at his mother’s kitchen table,” she said.

He deceived everyone.

Further contributions from Charlie O’Keeffe

Highlights from Glastonbury: Capaldi’s return, famous appearances, and numerous spoons
Music festivals that are at risk explore a membership-based approach
Coachella compels Welsh festival to alter its name