Legal trouble and fallout is about to hit the cancelled Jabberwocky Festival in London. Yesterday, it was reported that teh festival had been cancelled 72 hours before bands were scheduled to begin taking the stage.
This last-minute cancellation resulted in concertgoers and the bands alike, being stranded in London. Questions began to rise when decision to cancel the festival happen because not even a week before, the festival organizers were boosting about how the concert was close to selling out.
Even though the harsh reality began to sink on for those who traveled to London for the show, a bigger problem soon came after ticket holder were told they would be able to obtain refunds.
Neither the festival organizers nor the ticket retailers seen to know what happened to the money that was made from the customers.
In a statement on Facebook, All Tomorrow’s Parties (the organizers) advised ticket holders they would be able to obtain refunds directly from Dash Tickets. “It is their responsibility to refund the customer, as they were the company that took payments; not ATP,” read the post.
But now, Dash is speaking out, calling out the organizers and accusing them of “deliberately misleading” the customers since the ATP had already received the payments from the ticket sales.
In a press statement given to NME, the ticket company not only said that they are on a mission to find out what happened to the funds, but that they will also be pursuing legal action in order to cover money they spent as part of their relationship with the doomed festival.
“Our trust in ATP seems to have been misplaced, as their emails to fans and customers today concerning refunds have become deliberately misleading. It is for this reason that we feel compelled to make it clear that Dash has given to ATP all funds that Dash received for ticket sales to Jabberwocky. In addition to giving ATP all the ticketing funds, Dash has made substantial advances to ATP which remain unpaid, as do considerable fees for the work we have undertaken on their behalf.”
But the legal issue is not going to just be behind the concert organizers and the ticket company, it seems.ATP’s publicists, The Zeitgeist Agency, are claiming that they are owed money and have not been paid for several months and that the organizers had used the money owed to them to secure artists and the venue which now they do not have.
“Willwal Ltd (aka All Tomorrow’s Parties) have failed to pay us for several months. We have tried hard to overcome this situation and find solutions, but Willwal’s representatives have revealed to us in writing that they used the funds destined for us in order to protect payments for venue and artists, rather than settle essential and agreed amounts to our company. This situation has left our company with no alternative but to pursue Willwal Ltd by instituting legal proceedings on the 20th July to recover the substantial debt, to which Willwal Ltd have not responded. This is a course of action which as you can imagine, we have been very reluctant to take.”
As for the concertgoers, they seem to be taking the cancelled show in stride. A Facebook group called the “Jabberwocky Fallout” has formed which has posted about several replacement shows from bands that were supposed to play the event.
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