The ongoing saga of Brisbane Baroque has entered a new chapter with the man at the centre of the company speaking for the first time.
Jarrod Carland, the company director of Brisbane Baroque Pty Ltd which owes performers and suppliers up to $500,000, checked himself into hospital and cancelled his sister event Sydney Sings leaving hundreds of creditors out of pocket.
It is understood the cancellation of Sydney Sings cost Destination New South Wales in the region of $1 million.
Mr Carland wouldn't respond to calls from the media or his creditors to explain when they would be paid resulting in Brisbane Baroque's three year contract with Tourism and Events Queensland to be terminated.
At the weekend he spoke to News Corp, his first comments since his companies came into trouble, and said Tourism and Events Queensland had failed to pay the final instalment of their sponsorship, despite meeting tourism targets for the event, because he had failed to pay creditors.
Tourism and Events Queensland's Megan Saunders said Brisbane Baroque Pty Ltd, the company owned by Mr Carland and his partner Shannon Pigram, had failed to meet the requirements of their agreement.
"Brisbane Baroque was unable to pay its debts as they fell due which is the primary reason why TEQ terminated its agreement," she said.
"At the time of termination, Brisbane Baroque had not met the requirements to trigger post event payment relating to the 2016 event, despite numerous requests by TEQ to do so."
Ms Saunders would not be drawn on the final payment, sources have confirmed to Fairfax Media the final payment was in the region of $30,000..
"The post-event payment for Brisbane Baroque in 2016 would not substantially have alleviated the financial situation of Brisbane Baroque," Ms Saunders
The disintegration of the relationship between TEQ and Brisbane Baroque Pty Ltd saw tourism boss Leanne Coddington grilled in estimates earlier this year over how the event, which on the outside appeared so successful, resulted in so many performers being unpaid.
Despite this, Ms Saunders said TEQ was happy to work with Mr Carland for a better outcome for the creditors from this year's event.
"If Brisbane Baroque was able to provide TEQ with sufficient certainty that the post-event payment of TEQ's investment in 2016 will be used to pay Brisbane Baroque's creditors then TEQ is prepared to contribute an amount equal to the post event payment to the pool of funds available for that purpose," she said.
Mr Carland told The Australian Brisbane Baroque 2016 had met its tourism targets required to achieve their funding but fell 50 per cent short of its box office target.
"The box office wasn't close to where it needed to be," he said.
"Even though we reached our tourism target, because we hadn't paid creditors they felt it was putting the event into disrepute."
But Ms Saunders said TEQ has received no evidence to prove this.
"Brisbane Baroque has not provided TEQ with evidence that the visitation targets agreed with TEQ had been met," she said.
Brisbane Baroque Pty Ltd had a three year contract with Tourism and Events Queensland with a third festival to be delivered in 2017 before the contract between the two organisations was terminated.
Mr Carland has now applied for federal government arts funding to deliver the 2017 festival, however he may need to do it without Leo Schofield, who programmed the first two festivals, who has distanced himself from the organisation entirely.