An event to honour the 50th anniversary of the Isle of Wight’s 1970 music festival at East Afton Farm has been scrapped – and ticket holders won’t be getting a refund.
Organisers of the throwback festival have explained the circumstances behind the decision, with the COVID pandemic partially to blame.
The original plan was for EXPERIENCE 1970 to take place in September 2020. An invoice had been paid to the site owners for the hire of the site in January 2020 – and then plans were almost immediately hit by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The music event was postponed for 12 months and then later pushed back to September 2022.
It’s said that considerable non-refundable deposits had been paid to John Lodge of the Moody Blues and to Ten Years After (both original artists from 1970) as a top-class bill was assembled. A major deposit is also said to have been paid to the staging company as a plan to pay homage to the 1970 stage took place.
Organisers say that they had been in infrequent contact with the site owners and that a deal to use the land in 2022 couldn’t be agreed – despite offering a hire fee of £15,000.
Chirs Hewitt of EXPERIENCE 1970 has said:
“To honour the ‘Last Great Event’ we considered it vital to stage the 50th anniversary event at East Afton. We have considered siting it at other Island locations but, frankly, it simply would not match our ambitions of doing justice to the original event. To limp on, two years beyond the anniversary date and without the original 1970 festival site, would have been hugely damaging.
Article continues below this advertisement “Sadly, EXPERIENCE 1970 will simply have to cease trading and write off massive losses, having spent time and money on advertising, banner sites on the Island plus artwork, flyers, posters, websites, countless trips to the Island and equally countless hours of work. For this reason, there can be no refunds for tickets already sold”.
Surely they’d have had insurance for this. If not, why not?
Event cancellation insurance is not compulsory, sadly.
You are entitled to the face value of the ticket as a refund if the event is cancelled. The terms and conditions they set can not over ride consumer rights.
If you paid by credit card you can reclaim under section 75 of the consumer credit act.
Otherwise you can submit a claim to the administrator dealing with the company’s liquidation, this must be submitted in writing.
A business should not use customers funds as credit for them taking on risk. Shameful.
So, basically, what they are saying is something like… “Thank you very much. We still want paying for our time and effort so you will have to forfeit the ticket price that you worked for.” Sounds unfair and probably illegal too. I don’t know. The ‘big names’ might do the right thing and return the money they’ve been handed for doing nothing. But hopefully not to the organisers who might find themselves a bit more ‘winding down’ work that they’ll want paying for.
Shameless.
So glad I haven’t purchased, best to leave events until the day with current situation as yes Covid is still around.
This was always going to be a non event it just had all the hallmarks of failing. The cost of the tickets alone for a bunch of tibute acts straight off a Telstar LP was a big redflag. At least covid has flushed a lot of these drossey events away
Agree.It would sully the memory of a pivotal cultural event considering what modern ‘pop’ would be fielding.Pension-plan pop with a side order of repulsive rap.Memories of the Woodstock 90’s festival farrago still resonate and the nasty taste it left.