No refunds for canceled reggae festival in Mendocino County, organizers acknowledge
The canceled Sierra Nevada World Music Festival announced it will not refund patrons after weeks of silence and uncertainty among ticket buyers as how they could recoup lost funds.
In a lineup of more than 30 bands and artists, the festival would have brought Grammy-winning acts Koffee and Steel Pulse and reggae greats Beres Hammond, Third World and Barrington Levy to the Mendocino County Fairgrounds in Boonville. Yet its cancellation has left many patrons both eager for reimbursement and dismayed by the loss of a notable reggae event.
Festival organizer Gretchen Franz Smith announced the cancellation over Instagram on June 16, just five days before the three-day reggae binge's planned start on June 21. In the post, Franz Smith pointed to "extreme financial challenges," without further explanation of such budgetary woes, then told hopeful festivalgoers refund information was incoming.
After ticket buyers both commiserated and fulminated on Facebook and Reddit and their posts amassed hundreds of comments, communications from the festival on July 14 finally told its patrons no refunds awaited them.
"We are truly sorry for the unavoidable cancellation and the delay in getting information to you," the statement said. "We are devastated to inform you that SNWMF does not have sufficient funds to reimburse ticket buyers."
The statement said it was a bear year for the festival's ticket sales, which unexpectedly collapsed just three weeks before the festival. And with much revenue from those lackluster ticket sales already spent on artists' performances, airfare, insurance, licensing, advertising and other pre-festival costs, patrons' money could not return to them, according to the statement.
Scott Romer, one of the ticket buyers, spent approximately $1,085 on his order for the event: $595 for preferred parking and two $215 three-day festival tickets for him and his wife along with a service fee of about $60.
"I'm not a person who just has an extra $1,000 to throw around at all," said Romer, who had scheduled time off work to attend the event. "It's definitely been a hardship for us."
Romer alleged it is against a California law for the festival to not reimburse its patrons. Since the festival's cancellation, Romer said he has filed a complaint with the California attorney general. He has also sought legal counsel from law firms interested in taking on the case.
The festival's July 14 communications also indicated SNWMF patrons could pay only $49 to attend Reggae on the River, another reggae music event in Humboldt County. Without tickets to the cancelled SNWMF, Reggae on the River charges $299 for a three-day pass, $249 for a two-day pass and $125 for a one-day pass to its festival, according to its website.
"We spent $595 plus their fees just for the preferred RV parking, and there's just absolutely nothing that translates to that," Romer said. "I'm not willing to put even another dollar into trying to go to another event somewhere, in particular that Reggae on the River event."
Eric Andersson, who purchased approximately $350 of tickets and campsite access in January, considered taking the discount to attend Reggae on the River, but ended up declining the offer.
"I'd have to get time off," Andersson said of Reggae on the River. "But it was just too late."
Though SNWMF organizers announced the cancellation one weekend in advance, Andersson did not know until the Thursday before the festival, after he had started making his way up to Boonville. He said it was at a campsite in Sonoma County where the camp host told him the festival had been called off.
"It took me a while to just accept it and kind of move on -- just accepting the loss of the money and the one big thing I planned for summer," Andersson said.
In the July 14 communications to patrons, SNWMF management said they had been working with the festival's ticket vendor See Tickets to "lessen the painful impacts" of the cancellation.
SNWMF management did not respond to repeated requests for comment on legal allegations against them and how they had worked with other organizations to reduce such impacts on their patrons.