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Pemberton Music Festival has been cancelled.
The popular July festival, set to run for its fourth year since a 2014 reboot under Huka Entertainment, has filed for bankruptcy, and ticket holders should not expect an immediate refund.
Documents obtained from Ernst and Young state “the 2017 Pemberton Music Festival is cancelled and will not proceed as scheduled … The festival is now in bankruptcy and has no ability to provide refunds for tickets purchased.”
Some people may be able to get refunds from “third parties” if tickets were purchased with a credit card.
A weakened Canadian dollar and decreased ticket sales were blamed for the cancellation.
Ernst and Young reports the 2017 festival had budgeted expenses of $22 million, while revenue to date was $8.225 million.
Last year, the festival took in just over $15 million in ticket sales revenue, but it still incurred “significant losses” in each of its last three years.
Additionally, the festival “experienced difficulty” in sourcing talent for the 2017 festival “due to a limited number of artists touring in 2017.”
Headliners for the 2017 event included Chance the Rapper, Muse and A Tribe Called Quest.
Following the bankruptcy announcement Thursday afternoon Way Home Festival posted on their website that they would honour all Pemberton tickets at their festival, held just north of Barrie, Ont.
Previously, the festival extended the same offer to those who had attempted to attend Fyre Festival, a high-profile failure that left some people stranded in the Bahamas.
“We would be remiss to provide the option of attending WayHome to Fyre Festival purchasers and not extend that same offer to our WayHomies on the west,” Way Home organizers wrote in a statement Thursday.
It’s unclear if those holding Pemberton tickets will ever be able to get a full refund from Pemberton festival organizers.
“As PMF (Pemberton Music Festival) is now in bankruptcy, it has no ability to provide refunds for tickets purchased,” states a notice on the festival’s website. “A determination of recovery, if any, on the claims of ticket holders from the estate will not be known for several weeks.”
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