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Cancelled Australian festival refuses to pay out refunds

By Andy Malt | Published on Thursday 12 May 2016

Australian festival Maitreya has refused to provide refunds for ticketholders still waiting for one, almost two months after the event was cancelled.

The festival was pulled the day before it was due to go ahead in March, after Buloke Shire Council refused to grant a licence for it to take place, saying that it had not been provided with the correct documentation from the event’s organisers.

Issuing its first update since the cancellation, organisers said via Facebook last week: “Unfortunately we are unable to make any more refunds for tickets purchased for the 2016 event. We plan to hold an event exclusively for ticketholders of Maitreya Festival 2016, on Grand Final Long Weekend, starting 30 Sep 2016 at Lake Wooroonook. Please hold your tickets or proof of purchase and these will gain you access to the event. We hope this event can go to re building trust within the Maitreya community, and assist the community of Wooroonook and Charlton with extra incomes that they so desperately need”.

As you might expect, this did not go down particularly well with many ticketholders, who paid between $150 and $300 to attend the cancelled event. The legality of this move has also been called into question, with government body Consumer Affairs Victoria previously stating that all ticket holders should be entitled to a refund.

Quite how many ticket buyers got their money back, from one source or another, before this statement was issued isn’t clear, though legal action could follow if the majority are out of pocket, however good that planned Grand Final Long Weekend party may sound.