Product Update

Is Beach Break Live Still in Business? (2026 Update)

Is Beach Break Live from Dragons’ Den still around in 2026? The deal it made, the dragons who invested, and where to buy Beach Break Live today.

Dragons' Den IndexUpdated 5 April 20266 min read

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Beach Break Live pitched a student music festival business in series 5 of Dragons' Den, asking for 50,000 pounds for a 25 percent stake. The festival itself went on to become a genuine UK success story for several years, but the evidence points to it no longer running today.

The short answer

No, Beach Break Live does not appear to still be operating. The festival had a real run through the late 2000s and into the early 2010s, with its final confirmed edition in 2013, and there is no evidence of it continuing or returning since.

The pitch

Beach Break Live appeared in series 5, episode 1, in the Business Services category. Founders Celia Norowzian and Ian Forshew pitched a festival built specifically for students, a multi-day event combining music with the kind of end-of-exams blowout appeal that was clearly aimed at the university market. They asked for 50,000 pounds for 25 percent of the business.

Peter Jones offered them the money on air, and the founders initially accepted his offer, giving the pitch one of the more upbeat endings of that series. As a founder of a national mobile phone retailer who understood scaling a consumer-facing brand quickly, Jones was a logical Dragon to back an ambitious events business aimed squarely at the youth market, even though events and festivals sat somewhat outside his usual telecoms and retail wheelhouse.

What actually happened with the deal

The Dragons' Den investment ultimately never came to fruition. Rather than taking Peter Jones's money, Norowzian and Forshew chose to work instead with travel and event industry specialists, a path that arguably suited a festival business better than a general investor relationship would have.

That decision looked like the right one for a while. Beach Break Live grew significantly after the show, reportedly drawing around 20,000 student attendees at its peak, making it one of the UK's largest dedicated student festivals through the following years. That scale of growth from a 50,000 pound funding ask is a genuinely impressive outcome, regardless of whether the Dragons' own money ended up funding any of it.

How the festival ran its course

The event moved locations more than once over its lifespan, starting out in Cornwall, relocating to Pembrey Country Park in Carmarthenshire, South Wales, and then returning to Cornwall, to Newquay specifically, for what became its final confirmed year in 2013. A reunion of past Dragons' Den guests reportedly took place at the festival around 2012, underlining how closely the brand had leaned into its TV origin story.

There is no indication in the current record of Beach Break Live returning after 2013. Searches for a current or upcoming edition come back empty, and Newquay's biggest festival today is a different event entirely, Boardmasters, which has become the area's dominant summer draw in the years since.

What festival businesses are up against

Running a live music festival is one of the highest-risk business models a Dragons' Den founder can pitch, because so much of the cost, artist bookings, site infrastructure, security, insurance, is locked in months ahead of a single weekend where weather, ticket sales, and headline availability can each independently make or break the year's finances. A single bad year can wipe out several good ones, which makes long-term survival in the festival space genuinely harder than in most product categories the show features.

The UK festival calendar has also become considerably more crowded and competitive since Beach Break Live's peak years, with larger, better-capitalised events consolidating audience attention and sponsorship money. A mid-sized, independently run student festival built in the mid-2000s would have faced a much tougher landscape trying to keep growing into the later 2010s than it did when it first launched, competing against bigger-budget events with much deeper pockets for headline bookings.

Our honest verdict

Beach Break Live is a case of real, visible success followed by a quiet ending. The founders turned down their Dragons' Den deal, grew the festival into one of the UK's biggest student events off the back of specialist industry partners instead, and then the event appears to have stopped after 2013. It does not look to be running today, and no current or upcoming edition could be found.

Where to buy Beach Break Live

Still selling as of 5 April 2026. Check today's price and availability.

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See the full Beach Break Live deal breakdown and term sheet →