Promoter under fire for chaos at festival
AMUSIC promoter originally from Wales has been revealed as one of the people behind the failed Hope and Glory Festival in Liverpool on the weekend.
Lee O’Hanlon, who now lives in Lichfield in Staffordshire, but who is from Cardiff, was one of those under fire from angry music fans as the festival descended into chaos.
The second day of the festival was cancelled and the first day was dogged with problems, over-running by several hours leaving bands scrabbling around to reschedule their shows in the city.
They included Charlotte Church who thought she’d have to disappoint fans on Saturday night after her planned Pop Dungeon show couldn’t go ahead at the last minute.
She had been due to appear but her slot was called off when the event’s schedule over-ran.
Not one to be outdone, the Cardiff singer – who’d already travelled from the Welsh capital to Merseyside -– took to Twitter asking any venues if they’d like to play host to her band for what she called a “guerilla gig”.
Speaking to our sister title the Liverpool Echo, Charlotte said: “We came up here from Cardiff this morning and was supposed to be going on at 4.45pm, but obviously something went wrong with the organisation. We’re gutted we came all the way up here and we really wanted to perform.”
But within less than an hour, she’d secured a venue – Liquidation at E.B.G.B.S.
Event organisers issued a statement stating their side of the argument – but it appeared ticket holders were still in the dark over whether they would receive a refund. In a lengthy statement on their Facebook page they apologised to fans and acts, but also placed the blame on Liverpool City Council and others.
When addressing the subject of refunds the statement read: “All ticket purchasers should consult the company they purchased their tickets from for advice on this.”
However, this appeared to be not the case at all. Ticketing website Skiddle told the Liverpool Echo: “We understand that Hope & Glory Festival have prompted customers to contact their ticket agent. However, this information is incorrect. All payments for this event were handled directly by the organiser’s nominated payment service (Stripe). As such, Skiddle hold no funds and do not have customer’s card details to issue refunds. We have emailed every customer letting them know the process. We sincerely hope all customers receive the refunds they deserve as soon as possible.”
Eventbrite, who also sold tickets to the event added: “While we can support the organisers behind Hope and Glory, eg by processing refunds, the decision to refund and the refunds themselves are ultimately the responsibility of the organisers, and we will work with them to clarify whether impacted attendees can be refunded.”