Ticket holders frustrated after Lyte Sky Lantern Festival in Chicago postponed days before event
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A widely-advertised hot air lantern festival that was scheduled for this weekend in Chicago was postponed, leaving ticket holders unhappy.
They accused the company of being deceptive.
As CBS 2 Investigator Dorothy Tucker had the story. The company producing the Lantern Festival began selling tickets in Chicago months ago, and the website clearly said the location was "TBA."
Consumers were okay with that until the location was never announced.
"It looked really exciting, it was like a quick video where it had all these things floating," said Emma Kruis, who was so excited she bought two $35 tickets and a $20 parking pass to the Lyte Sky Lantern Festival last July.
"I was really looking forward to it," she said.
The show was scheduled for October 21 with the location to be announced.
So Kruis expected a call, a text, an email, something.
"I checked my email. I checked my spam folder, everything," she said. "I could not find an email that said where this location was."
And then Kruis searched social media and found something she wasn't happy about.
"People in different cities had very similar experiences to me, where they purchased tickets, and then a location is never disclosed, and the event will be canceled," she said.
They were complaining on TikTok and on YouTube.
Sure enough, three days before the scheduled Chicago event Kruis got anemail.
"Our weather watchers have been keeping a close eye on the weather and unfortunately had to make the tough decision to push the event to a later date."
But here's the interesting part…
"No sky lanterns can be released in winds above 5 [miles per hour] or during a drought, this is a global safety standard."
The forecast for this weekend is windy but when the CBS 2 investigators checked National Weather Service data for this year, average wind speeds for every month are above 5 miles per hour.
"This seems to be an excuse that is used to cancel all the events that people had bought tickets to," Kruis said.
Needless to say, the refund policy for canceled events is pretty strict. In fact, refunds are not given, and events are rescheduled.
"I'm pretty frustrated," she said.
According to the company's website, the show in Chicago has already been rescheduled to April 2024, but Kruis said she won't be going.
"This is never going to happen," she said.
CBS 2 reached out to the company on its Facebook page and through its website, but never heard back from them.
But here's what we did learn, the City of Chicago never received a special permit application from Lyte Festival for the month of October.
As for Kruis, she was able to get a refund on her tickets from her credit card company.