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It was the Princess Royal’s dream project – an equestrian event that drew thousands of fans to the grounds of her Gatcombe Park estate each summer for 40 years.
But now, in a fresh blow to the troubled Royal Family, it seems the Festival Of British Eventing has been permanently consigned to history.
The princess’s son, Peter Phillips, has applied to dissolve the company that organises the event, which has not run since 2023 – when the final day was abandoned because of bad weather.
He cancelled last year’s festival ‘with a heavy heart’, citing high running costs, and no event took place this year.
However, in a twist to the saga, Companies House has blocked him from shutting down the company, which is often a mere formality. Peter, 47, applied to voluntarily dissolve The Festival of British Eventing Ltd in August, just days after its most recent accounts revealed it was £68,073 in debt.
But the application was refused after objections were lodged. Financial experts say this usually happens when unhappy creditors fear that such a closure would make it virtually impossible for them to be paid back, when they might be able to recover some money under a formal insolvency.
The Princess Royal and her first husband, Captain Mark Phillips, set up the Festival Of Eventing as the Gatcombe Horse Trials in 1983 to ‘give something back’ to the sport they loved.
Peter, formerly managing director of a boutique sports management firm, took over as event director in 2017.
When he called off last year’s festival, he said it had been ‘a huge part of my family’s lives for 40 years’ but added they would ‘have to rip the heart out of the event’ to run it on the budget they had.
Cpt Phillips perhaps saw the writing on the wall, as at the time he called it ‘the end of an era’.
It is not the only venture of Peter’s mired in debt. Fish Pond Ring – an alternative energy firm producing hydroelectricity at Gatcombe Park – is £295,000 in the red.
It is better news for the company he still co-owns with ex-wife Autumn Kelly. Pheasant and Partridge Enterprises, which arranges group shoots, is in the black to the tune of £73,397.
Peter Phillips’ spokesman did not respond to a request for comment.
Nobody takes Halloween more seriously than Heidi Klum - and for her 24th annual party in New York the model dressed as a colossal Medusa, complete with scales, a ginormous tail and moving snakes for hair.
She was joined by Elizabeth Hurley's son Damian, who wore a short fluffy mouse costume and furry boots.
Meanwhile, hotel heiress Paris Hilton wore a sexy Tinkerbell outfit at another New York bash, and Celebrity Traitors star Paloma Faith channelled a Viking queen in a gold bodice at Annabel's in London.
He played Prince Philip in The Crown, left, and now Matt Smith could star in a biopic about the late royal. But the actor has stipulations.
‘It has to be the right thing. I understood the energy and essence of him. I loved him.
'His and Elizabeth’s sense of duty was incredible. Some of the royals have lost their sense of duty,’ he said.
Who could he possibly mean?
F1 heartthrob Lando Norris once tried to race his way into the heart of former Made in Chelsea star Melissa Tattam, by sending her direct messages on Instagram.
Speaking on her Wednesdays podcast, Melissa, 28, left, revealed the McLaren driver, 25, right had been an admirer since their days at Somerset boarding school Millfield.
But things didn’t work out. ‘He’s four or five years younger than my brother,’ she sighed, putting the brakes on any romantic hope.
From Little Women... to massive men! I can reveal that former Harry Potter star Emma Watson swapped the halls of Hogwarts for the drama of the dohyo as sumo fever hit London.
The actress, who also starred in 2019’s Little Women, was at the Royal Albert Hall for the final of the Grand Sumo Tournament, which drew an elite crowd willing to pay up to £570 a head.
Undeterred by the price tag – small change when you have a fortune of £60 million – Emma is said to have watched spellbound as the giant scantily clad wrestlers clashed.
