I started a thread a couple of weeks back about the fear and loathing I anticipated about heading to a music festival in northern NSW: Going Tripping…
As was mentioned in that thread, my (nearly) worst nightmares came pretty much true, but we arrived home safe and sound and sans pneumonia, so all was OK really.
Because the festival was cancelled, my daughter was hoping for a refund of sorts, even if it was only for the final 36 hours. She’d spent a shitload of dough on the tickets (as had many thousands of others of course), so was anticipating either a credit for perhaps next years concert, or maybe an actual cash refund.
I am speechless…the whole venue was a seething tide of capitalism gone rampant, from overpriced chappatis and chai, to mass-produced scarves and sarongs, with a few plastic whirligigs and torches thrown in for good measure. Sure, the musicians might have been shortchanged somewhat, but seeing as most of them were being billeted by local families in the Bellinger Valley, I doubt they ended up too much out of pocket (many of them had gigs in town later in the week anyway).
I so wish I was a hippie again, y’know, so I can share all that love, and the good times and shit. And those paradigms?? Wow, they’re so heavy man, it’s so cool to cast them off…paradigms can get you down something shocking if you let them.
So, your daughter bought tickets knowing there was a no refund policy, and is now upset that there’s not going to be a refund?
And you’re upset about that too? WTF?
Stop buying tickets to outdoor events if the tix are non-refundable, then. But it seems to me you have [del]very little[/del] nothing to bitch about here, except maybe the weather.
Nah, not really upset Snowboarder, although there have been suggestions that their actions might contravene some busineness-practice ruling.
I’m really more bemused by the weaseling language used on the website…if they’d just come out and said, ‘Fuck off, we’ve got your money now’ I would have laughed and put it down as a well learned lesson.
I was totally amused when they say “we do not operate according to the average ‘dog eat dog’ benchmark of the corporate and commercial world but are attempting to swim against the tide of modern social paradigms” and then they go and practice the ‘dog eat dog’ paradigm. I’ll bet my dog’s collection of cat figurines that they’ll either change their company name for next year’s event or claim that they are under new management.
Yeah, I think when non-hippies rip you off, it’s typically more like "Money? What money? I don’t have your money…oh that money, well we appreciate your business, and our consumer services department will be happy to address your complaints in a timely fashion and that license agreement is completely legitimate and signed for…that warranty is ironclad, we have lawyers…it’s not our fault, the devil made us do it, we have documents…
At least when Weyland-Yutani tries to screw me, they don’t try lay a guilt trip while they’re doing it.
adjusts hippie-speak translator ah, here we go: “We had to pay the bands their guarantees, as we’d like to keep this festival a going concern rather than spend our time getting fucked by lawyers.”
They sound like rookie hippie-festivalists. Ours has had rain most years for some part of the time frame, and the show always goes on. In 2004 we had the tail end of Hurricane Charley blow over. The following year some sets were delayed or interrupted because of concerns of on-stage electrocution. And yet, every major act that was booked still appeared, and good times were had.
Ah, but that’s not “sharing the difficult times,” is it? If the promoters and the bands have been paid, it’s really just the would-be festivalgoers who are bearing the difficulty.
And how many of those people are going to be interested in buying tickets to this event next time around? What will they tell their friends about the event? If keeping the festival as a going concern was really the priority, the promoters might have been better off taking the loss and refunding the money. As it is, I’d say they’re covering their own financial asses, for this year, at the expense of the festival’s future.
I’m going to adjust my earlier statement. (I was going to adjust it last night but got distracted by porn)
Most outdoor entertainment venues have a rain or shine policy. Though in the case that the whole thing was cancelled like the OP, I guess I would expect a refund.
That sounds suspect to me. I thought the whole point of those outdoor festivals was to sit around for hours in the rain, wallowing in the mud listening to jam bands and indie rock.
