John "Scratch" Grey who promoted the Whitsunday Calling festival which was cancelled at the 11th hour, says he’s out of pocket by $72,000.
The problem, he said, was that their original production company couldn’t supply the equipment requested by the acts. A replacement did not confirm by 5.30 pm last Thursday, which forced Grey to pull the plug.
By this stage, some of the 250 ticket holders had already arrived, and vented their anger on the festival’s Facebook page.
The bill included Daryl Braithwaite, Katchafire and Ash Grunwald. Refunds began Wednesday this week.
The statement from Whitsunday Tickets Director Kristen Goldup read:
"Whitsunday Tickets has been advised by the Whitsunday Calling event organisers, that they have regretfully cancelled the music festival, scheduled for 5 & 6 October 2013. Whitsunday Tickets confirms that all ticket purchersers will be refunded. The refunding process will commence from Wednesday 9th October 2013. Due to the high volume of required refunds, the process may take up to 7 working days to complete. All ticket purchasers will be notified when their refund has been completed. Whitsunday Tickets is a subsiduary of Local Tickets Pty Ltd, which is the company name that will appear on ticket purchasers statement.”- Christie Eliezer