Festival organisers still owe money
In the aftermath of the cancellation of the Waikato Cherry Tree Festival, it is still not known whether ticket holders and creditors have got their money back.
Paul Oulton and Anne Cao, directors of NZ PURE TOUR Ltd, put the business into liquidation in September, on the eve of the festival, after they were not granted resource consent for the event from Waikato District Council by deadline.
The consent was required if the company were to hold an event with more than 1000 attendees – and the hope this time was that the planned 10-day festival would attract 12,000 people.
Hundreds of ticket holders and creditors were left wondering whether they would get their money back after the festival near Hamilton was canned.
The liquidator’s first report was requested by Stuff.
In its pages is a declaration by NZ PURE TOUR Ltd that 800 tickets to the Cherry Tree Festival had been pre-sold to people who wanted to attend, generating approximately $80,000 in revenue.
As well as that amount being owed, ticket holders had lost an undetermined amount of money on accommodation and transport expenses.
Some said they had travelled from as far as Hawke’s Bay.
When approached the liquidator, Imran Kamal of Liquidation Management, he expressed the understanding that the ticket holders had been paid back.
But he couldn’t completely confirm this, as he had not been presented with any evidence of the refund transactions from Oulton and Cao.
‘‘The director has advised me that he has personally paid all ticket holders for their cancelled tickets,’’ Kamal said in a statement. ‘‘The director has also informed me that he is in the process of paying out all creditors.’’
The liquidator’s first report indicated that creditors possibly owed money included ACC, Inland Revenue, BNZ Bank, Eventfinda, and Waikato District Council, among others.
made multiple attempts to get in contact with Oulton and Cao, but they did not answer the phone, or reply to any voice messages, texts or emails.
The liquidator said Oulton had previously advised that he would prefer to terminate the liquidation process, by paying creditors off. For the liquidation to have been terminated, Oulton would have been required to make an application to the High Court.
‘‘He has subsequently come back to me saying that he doesn’t want that to happen,’’ Kamal said.
The liquidator could not share specific names of creditors with
No expected completion time of the liquidation process could be given.
‘‘I’m just continuing with my normal duties as the liquidator and continuing with my investigations and my statutory duties as liquidator,’’ Kamal said.
It isn’t the first time that the Waikato Cherry Tree Festival has slipped up in the area of resource consents.
Waikato District Council received complaints during the previous festival in September 2018, which was put on without a consent application, and led to an investigation.