Ampar was the shortlived Australian imprint of the American ABC-Paramount group (the music division of Paramount Pictures) who in the late 1950s attempting to expand their busness worldwide. From the mid-1950s until 1960, the label had a licencing deal with the Melbourne-based W&G label, who released ABC-Paramount's US hit records; their roster included 'teenage' performers such as The Royal Teens ("Short Shorts") and Danny & The Juniors ("At the Hop"), and mainstream popular artists such as Lloyd Price ("Stagger Lee", "Personality"), George Hamilton IV and husband-and-wife vocalists Steve Lawrence and Eydie Gorme. One of Ampar's most successful artists was the young Paul Anka, who recorded a string of hits for the label between 1956 and 1962 (when he moved to RCA).

In 1958 Mainguard, the parent company of Festival Records, was sold to property and hotel magnate L.J. Hooker. Hooker took a keen interest in the record company and set up a subsidiary label Rex (named after his hotel chain) and a publishing venture, Crown Music Publishing (named after another hotel) as well as securing licencing right to several other overseas labels. After a loss-making year in 1958-59 Hooker decided to sell Festival to Rupert Murdoch's News Ltd. Murdoch already had business links with ABC-Paramount and knew that the company was hoping to set up a full-scale recording operation in Australia. Murdoch was keenly interested in acquiring Festival himself so he made a private approach to Hooker, who indicated that he was interested in selling, and on 30 September 1960 News purchased all the shares in Festival.

Nevertheless ABC-Paramount was still interested in the company and on 11 October 1960 News Ltd sold 50% of its Festival shares to them. However, the American label's planned global expansion did not eventuate and a year later, in 1961, ABC-Paramount sold their share back to News Ltd. It remained the sole owner until the Festival Mushroom group went out of business in 2005.

Festival maintained its connection with Ampar and released a number of Ampar's American 'rare soul' recordings locally in the Sixties and early Seventies, including Freda Payne's "Slightly Out Of Tune (Desafinado)", "The Sapphires' "Gonna Be A Big Thing" and "Gotta Have Your Love", The Marvelows' "I Do", Troy Keyes' "Love Explosions", The Tams' "Hey, Girl, Don't Bother Me" (a song covered locally by The Delltones) and "Be Young, Be Foolish", Be Happy", Bill & Sherry's "I Believe", Dean Parrish's "Tell Her", Ray Charles' "I Chose To Sing The Blues" and "Don't Need No Doctor" and Tom & Jerrio's "Boomerang".