Pemberton Music Fest cancelled, company in bankruptcy

The 2017 Pemberton Music Festival planned for mid-July was cancelled on Thursday, potentially leaving ticket holders and local firms high and dry.

Pemberton Music Festival LP and 1115666 B.C. LTD, collectively know as “PMF,” is in bankruptcy and Ernst & Young has been appointed as trustee, according to a media release on the festival’s website.

“As PMF is now in bankruptcy, it has no ability to provide refunds for tickets purchased,” the document says. “However, ticket holders may file a proof of claim form as an unsecured creditor with (Ernst & Young) in accordance with the claims process.”

Some ticket holders may also be able to get refunds from third parties if their tickets were purchased using a credit card. They should contact their bank or credit card issuer regarding a refund, the document says.

Huka Entertainment, the producer contracted for the event, said in a statement that it did not make the decision to cancel the festival, which it claims came from Pemberton Music Festival LP.

“For the past four years, Huka Entertainment has worked to create a one-of-a-kind experience in the most beautiful place on earth,” the statement says. “We are heartbroken to see the 2017 Pemberton Music Festival cancelled.”

Multiple sources involved with the event’s production, who spoke off the record with Postmedia before the announcement, said they had learned about the cancellation and bankruptcy Wednesday night and Thursday morning.

Lewis Neilson, owner of Production Power Corporation, a Vancouver firm that provides electrical, heating and lighting services to the film, entertainment and special events industries, said he is among the many local firms that have lost money to the festival.

He is owed $55,000, his only loss in 35 years of working with the entertainment industry, he said. He received word of the cancellation Wednesday night.

“All of us are owed a lot of money,” he said. “No one’s going to get anything. As far as I know, they have no assets.”

Neilson said he believes the festival went bankrupt by bringing in U.S. firms and staff for the event and paying double or triple what local firms would have charged.

“They had no faith that any suppliers in Canada could do a decent job,” he said.

Slated to run July 13 to 16, it would have been the fourth year for the Pemberton event, and was to feature headliners Chance the Rapper, Muse and A Tribe Called Quest, as well as Major Lazer, Haim, Run The Jewels and other acts.