Altfest?

fadegirl

Hey Guys
Anyone heading to Altfest this August?

Passenger

They were giving away tickets to this at Revolution in The Voodoo Lounge on Sat. Seems like decent lineup if you're into that particular side of things.

fadegirl

Yeah I think its pretty awesome. Im going to see Marilyn Manson, Cradle of Filth and Arch enemy.. ^_^ Altho dead hearts should be good aswel.. With rest of the bands im not so familiar tho, BUT i believe its going to be a brill festival

Passenger

Definitely check out Paradise Lost if you're unfamiliar with them.

Wrongway1985

fadegirl wrote: »

Hey Guys
Anyone heading to Altfest this August?

I wish! Can't seem to do more than one fest but the one I did do Arch Enemy were at it and think they were actually better with the new front woman breathed new life into them I'd go as far to say. Amen have the potential to be good craic and Dave Lombardo has joined them on drums too.

Zwillinge

Yeah - can't wait!

Should be all sorts of fun! Just trying to organise transfers from Luton Airport to Kettering is a proper pain in the rear

Raminahobbin

Passenger wrote: »

Definitely check out Paradise Lost if you're unfamiliar with them.

I would love to see them
Someday. Hopefully.

Links234

Nope, but between Fields of the Nephilim, Satyricon and Cradle of Filth, I'd be there in a heartbeat if I could afford it

Irish Halo

Zwillinge wrote: »

Yeah - can't wait!

Should be all sorts of fun! Just trying to organise transfers from Luton Airport to Kettering is a proper pain in the rear

Not that bad there is a "direct" train from Luton Airport to Kettering (short bus ride from airport to train station), just check times with the National Rail journey planner (LUA to KET) and the site says there is a shuttle bus from the train station/hotels

Zwillinge

Irish Halo wrote: »

Not that bad there is a "direct" train from Luton Airport to Kettering (short bus ride from airport to train station), just check times with the National Rail journey planner (LUA to KET) and the site says there is a shuttle bus from the train station/hotels

I've been trying it for the past 2 weeks, anytime it comes to payment, it won't take any of my cards - frustrating!

wolfmoon87

Zwillinge wrote: »

I've been trying it for the past 2 weeks, anytime it comes to payment, it won't take any of my cards - frustrating!

I booked my train tickets here last night.

http://www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/

Zwillinge

wolfmoon87 wrote: »

I booked my train tickets here last night.

http://www.eastmidlandstrains.co.uk/

Thanks very much!

I'll give that a proper look later on

scudzilla

Hearing news that this festival has been cancelled due to poor ticket sales

Wrongway1985

scudzilla wrote: »

Hearing news that this festival has been cancelled due to poor ticket sales

No official word though but supposedly some bands have been notified.

http://metalmouth.net/2014/07/alt-fest-cancelled-if-its-gone-it-wont-come-back-they-havent-got-the-resources

Reiketsu

scudzilla wrote: »

Hearing news that this festival has been cancelled due to poor ticket sales

It was not ticket sales, there was only a few hundred left.

No official word from the festival yet but a lot of bands coming out now and saying they've received emails about it being cancelled.

Edited to add that Marilyn Manson has cancelled now. Still no official statement from Altfest but I guess that's official enough...

Wrongway1985

Yeah it wasn't ticket sales it seems but some other factor??. Marilyn Manson has it as cancelled on their facebook events page anyway...

Zwillinge

Very strange way of working things!

Wondering what happened, only earlier in the day they were on about transport for people and announcing stage times and site maps.

Was really looking forward to it 'n' all!

EDit: Combichrist announced its cancelled on Facebook now

scudzilla

Marilyn Manson's website had the date, then cancelled, then back on again, now cancelled

Reiketsu

Don't know what I'm supposed to do with flights and a hotel in the arse end of nowhere now :pac:. Train to London is cheap enough, might go there.

Zwillinge

Know the feeling, though I don't even have a hotel booked. I'll camp outside your hotel, ok? :P

Links234

Oh man, that's horrible So sorry for everyone who's got things booked for it

Reiketsu

There still isn't any word from the organisers about this. I know they might have some legal stuff to deal with but a simple "Yes, its cancelled, statement coming" would do. They also posted that the first batch of wristbands had been posted last week (1000s apparently...) and not one person has received one. That tells me they've known for a while and that's a straight up lie. The organisers are well known in London for Club Antichrist, so can't imagine its a scam, but lies have been told...unless those wristbands turn up and I am proved wrong, that it is indeed some last minute unforeseen circumstance.

Zwillinge

They do huge parties it seems and have tried organising some other, smaller stuff that also fell through in the past.

I really feel for people who helped with the kickstarter campaign, bought tickets, bought glamping, merchandise, organised ALL travel (planes, trains, buses) and also the special "close as possible to performer" ticket for extra £50 - 100.

So many rumours going about, such as; the guy spreading the emails was fired months ago and is taking revenge and the other two confirming it are Bloodstock organisers trying to kill it off :pac::pac:

Hopefully an announcement soon and refunds issued, if cancellation is the case.

Reiketsu

There are people saying they have received emails from Tangerine Fields about their tents and it says they are getting a refund. A friend of mine received his wristband today as well so seems they did send them out. Haha those rumours are hilarious, I think people are just clinging on to any wee thing that they can in the hope that it'll go ahead.

Zwillinge

I just seen a lad put a picture on Twitter of his ticket, wristband and camper van thingie.

And then Tangerine are now doing refunds with an announcement from the organisers next week - should be earlier/this week I think.

Reiketsu

Tangerine Fields are sending out refunds today apparently. Also rumours a statement is due today, rather than next week like Tangerine have said/been told. Seems the organisers are out of town based on FB posts from people.

Someone called Clubtickets today and they will not be dealing with the refunds. It's up to AF organisers themselves to give them to us. I'm not going to hold my breath!

Zwillinge

Reiketsu wrote: »

Someone called Clubtickets today and they will not be dealing with the refunds. It's up to AF organisers themselves to give them to us. I'm not going to hold my breath!

Yikes!!! :eek:

I know Clubtickets has a refund policy if an event is cancelled;

f your event is cancelled or postponed, please get in touch and we will be able to assist you once we have received authorisation from the promoter or venue.

As long as they do cancel it and don't downsize it into a day out or something .

Suppose it would be the best time for Dom and Missy to be out of town :P

Reiketsu

Clubtickets might only refund tickets bought directly from them and not the ones bought via Kickstarter and transferred over. Really have no idea. They might be out of town but Dom had enough time and the means of communication to post that before he deleted it so a simple word to the people who backed and funded it with their own money wouldn't have been impossible. I'm annoyed at how we are the last to be told considering they relied on us backers to get things moving to begin with.

Zwillinge

I agree; they're handling it all very poorly.

I get that they're probably up to their eyeballs with legal mumbo jumbo and tearing their hair out, but even some of the bands don't know what's going on and are trying to stay positive.

People who backed it, have paid and coming from all over the world have a right to know! Kinda destroying their own reputations.

Pingi

Flight €30 - non refundable (Session in Birmingham anyone?)
Train £30 - £18.50 is refundable!
Hotel £220 - Refundable/was pay when you arrive
Ticket £70 - Going to raise Chargeback with bank if refund is not easy with organisers.
Hunter wellies Too much (Im a dope) - They'll do for next time.

I wanted to get my dance on at the industrial stage.

Reiketsu

Our flights are into Birmingham too. Trying to see if there is anything on there the same weekend and cancelling our hotel and booking somewhere in Birmingham instead.

Dom has posted on his personal Facebook saying that they are working flat out on a statement.

Reiketsu

We at Alt-Fest HQ would like to sincerely apologise for our silence over the last 24 hours. Currently we are working all hours to deal with some extremely challenging & stressful issues for Alt-Fest. We will be able to provide an official statement with full information before Monday and answer any questions you may have at that time. We want you to know that we have been doing everything we can to take the right steps for you: our fans, friends & customers - we assure you we only have your best interests at heart.
Missy and Dom




Yay for statements that tell us nothing!

Zwillinge

Best try and get my Annual Leave back in work

Whole lotta nothing in that statement. Kinda EEEk seeing the band XP8 commenting asking why they're being left in the dark about everything, I'd say the smaller bands are furious with them now!

Curiously, the larger names all have Alt Fest back up on their tour dates on their main sites, but they weren't there yesterday!

Mad as a bag of kittens!!

Reiketsu

Are you sure? Manson's site still says cancelled beside it in the tour dates (his site is glitchy so you may need to refresh). Numan cancelled today, as did The Damned, who have announced a London show for the 16th instead. You are right about the smaller bands though, most don't even have a clue. Marco was right to pull them up on it, he also said elsewhere that he had been asking for a logistics schedule for a month to no avail.

I think its obvious its all gone tits up so they may as well just announce it instead of this waiting about. They are either trying to salvage it and create a smaller festival (to avoid forking out refunds) or are figuring out a way to tell us they have no money to give us.

Zwillinge

On my mobile, so it may look funny

From Gary Numans Twitter:

Sad to say Alt-Fest is cancelled & fans should be able to get refunds from points of purchase. That's all we know right now. GN


Think its time they just said "Sorry, here's refunds!"

Irish Halo

Wait what does this mean for the Amen date in London, which I do have tickets for? Those kinds of gigs are usually dependant on the festival and they've already cancelled the other UK dates (before the Alt-Fest fiasco)

Reiketsu

Irish Halo wrote: »

Wait what does this mean for the Amen date in London, which I do have tickets for? Those kinds of gigs are usually dependant on the festival and they've already cancelled the other UK dates (before the Alt-Fest fiasco)

Aw man, hope they still keep it on


I hope by saying before Monday that they tell us something today. I backed via Kickstarter so I doubt I'll see my money again.

Reiketsu

"Good morning everyone.... time for a new update on the Alt-Fest situation: we finally got a facebook message from the promoter, Dominic, last night.

in that he mentioned again what he told us in reply to our public comment to their only statement so far, and that he never got any of the 5 emails we sent him yesterday, and he also remarked that he doesn't have any spam filters... guess those emails just vanished into thin air.

anyway: he basically only told us in private what he/they told you all... to wait till they come up with an official statement.

that's it, no further information whether the festival is cancelled or not, or any reasons why this is happening: this is the only FACT I can provide you - we don't know anything yet.

this situation is frustrating for all and everyone involved, and I am afraid that no matter how it will be resolved in the end, we all lost a lot in this.

thanks for those who followed this comment thread and checked us out in the meantime!"


From XP8, as confused as the rest of us. Doesn't bode well when even bands don't know.

Reiketsu

Official statement;

It is with a heavy heart that we must confirm we have had to cancel Alt-Fest. We tried to put on a ground-breaking event for you & the alternative scene, and it was your support that was helping to make it happen. From our early days on Kickstarter through to all of you who have purchased tickets we thank you. We the organisers of Alt-Fest have done everything we can to save it, but this week we ran out of time to raise all the required funds that was needed upfront of the festival.

We also wish to apologise for the delay in releasing a formal statement cancelling the festival. We realise this has severely damaged our personal and professional reputations, we can only sincerely apologise for any additional stress and upset this has caused, we were honestly looking to act in your best interests.

We are very sorry to tell you that we have been advised to not reply to any individual comments or emails regarding the festival and instead make a comprehensive statement. It’s not how we like to do things, it feels wrong to walk off and let your questions, thoughts and opinions go unanswered. So we’ll try to answer them all briefly here.

We were doing very well for a first year festival. We sold over 7.5 thousand weekend tickets, and as you were aware we had a great line up with plenty going on. This however meant we had to pay for over half of all the band’s fees, with the remainder due just before & at the festival itself. Securing bands was not the only cost. The festival was going to cost £1,703,000 in total to put on, including artists, riders, travel, accommodation, production: power, staging, sound, lighting, track way, fencing, water, waste, the venue fee, security, medical assistance, traffic management, health & safety, marketing and much more. We ourselves and all of the Alt-Fest team have put in huge amounts of effort and time over the past two years and done everything within our power to make this work.

If we were to sell a minimum of another 1,000 tickets between now and the festival, we’d have suffered a significant loss that we couldn’t carry. This recently came to light based on a costing error explained below & inevitably down to the fact that the investor unfortunately pulled out last minute. We were expecting to sell more tickets based on our line-up, and if we had sold just 3000 tickets more then we would have been over the breakeven line, or if we could have deferred a percentage of our contractor’s payment, which they sadly were not prepared to do.

We thought our logic was sound and this was also backed by other promoters and people we respect in the music industry in general – Marilyn Manson can easily sell out a 5000 capacity venue, as can The Cult, Arch Enemy or Cradle of Filth. Then there’s the rest of the line-up plus the circus, steampunk, traders and art installations. Perhaps the people who would go to see them at a gig wouldn’t go to a 3 day festival, but they could still have bought day tickets and seen some of the 60-odd bands on that day as well as the headliners, and bring their kids along for free too – we are still trying to understand why we haven’t sold more tickets despite the offering & energy that has gone into it.

We’ve also been contending with a costing error made and ultimately poor advice in the early stages by a company who were supposed to help us work out what the festival would cost to put on. Coupled with the fact that in order for us to compete against the larger festivals then we had to put in very strong offers to be listened to by the agents & hence secure the talent. Additionally during the latter planning stages we were forced to move our main arena, through no fault of our own. This caused many extra costs that further increased the budget upfront of the event.

We have held continuous meetings and tried for months to secure investment & had genuine interest to cover this shortfall from individuals, investment firms and equity funding companies. Whilst there was every likelihood of this happening due to the positive feedback we were receiving, it was this week that our last option had run out. This was mainly because they didn’t understand the festival market or the alternative scene. We even tried, as a last resort to save the festival for you all, going to the corporations that dominate the music and festival industry to offer an ownership over the event to ensure it’s facilitated for our customers, but to no avail. We had exhausted all options but please know that we did everything within our power to make this happen.

We even looked at how we could make it to the festival and then recover this year’s loss from next year’s sales to get back on track. Unfortunately, we can’t manage that either because of the way the festival industry and its operators are prone to work. We would have to pay all the contractors before they even come on site to build the festival – they all want the full fee upfront due to the state of the market. We also had the remainder of band deposits to make up before and at the event. We just could not raise all the money needed upfront to continue, nor offset it against any revenue coming after the event – bar, car parking revenue as examples.

We are so, so deeply sorry, it’s awful to think of all the people who bought a ticket in good faith, who booked travel, some from the other side of the world. We massively appreciate the support you have shown, especially all the people who championed and defended us.

We do want you to know though, that it was never a scam or a con. We tried to do something new and different for you and the alternative scene, which was not easy. We have not gone on any exotic holidays or feathered our own nest, in fact exactly the opposite. We did not embezzle the money, or spend it recklessly, we used it to secure some of those great bands we had in the line-up, who required considerable deposits, and other aspects of the event as previously mentioned. We intended to make it an exciting event that would be enjoyed by every single one of you who supported us, so that we could grow even more in future years. Those of you who know us, we work tirelessly to put on excellent events. We never expected it to turn out this way and tried desperately to stop it from happening. However we could have done with better costing advice at the start and stronger ticket sales in this final period to get us through to the event.

We feel we have let the alternative community down, this saddens us immensely & the process we are about to go through is going to bankrupt us, which as I’m sure you can imagine adds huge strain on us as people & as a family.

It is just simply awful and we can only thank those of you who have shown us kindness and endless support, especially now in our most testing hour.

To claim a refund on your tickets, please look carefully at the following list, and at your email confirmation, to ensure you claim a refund from the correct retailer.

Festival Tickets via Amazon = Amazon Local are contacting their customers direct and processing refunds now.
Festival tickets, Dismembership and addons (car parking etc) purchased through our website via clubtickets.com = by email at helpdesk@clubtickets.com
Festival Tickets via Festickets = direct with them festicket.com

Dismembership purchased through our webshop (with glamping/merch in) = contact Paypal to a raise a dispute.
Glamping purchased through our webshop (with merch etc in, NOT the same as the ticket page)= contact Paypal to raise a dispute
Viewing platform = contact Paypal to raise a dispute
Tangerine Fields = direct with them http://www.tangerinefields.co.uk/
Big Green Coach are contacting all of their customers directly with advice on refunds. Refunds will be issued automatically.


Now that we have had to cancel the festival we need to take steps to place the Company into Liquidation and we want to express our deepest regrets to the artists and to thank all our staff, suppliers and contractors who worked so hard with us.

Our deepest & sincerest apologies go out to you.
Missy and Dom

scudzilla

I really don't know what to make of that statement, i read it twice and am still undecided.

Sure i feel sorry for them, they've lost a lot trying to put something different on, then on the other hand people have lost a lot on tickets/travel etc.

As for the refunds, raise a paypal dispute, doesn't that mean you have to pray paypal will refund you, and if the company goes into liquidation and they go bankrupt them i doubt people will get a penny.

I think it's a case of a couple of hard working people just biting off WAY more than they could chew

Reiketsu

I guess the people who have been asked to raise a Paypal dispute won't be seeing a penny, nor will the people who put money in via Kickstarter. Someone asked about it and they replied to say they would contact all Kickstarter backers separately next week. My friends and I may kiss goodbye to our £165. It's the people who believed in the festival and got it off the ground to begin with that are getting shafted .

Using my flights to have a wee long weekend in Birmingham. Might as well use them and not lose them too.

Pingi

Canceled hotel and train, forwarded my confirmation email from last september to clubtickets along with request for refund.

Found out today Im allowed cancel leave from work so all in all not too bad. Down €50 and disappointed but longer xmas holidays and my bank balance is about €600 healthier than it would have been other side of the weekend.

Zwillinge

Forwarded on my confirmation code to ticket folk.

Didn't have a hotel to cancel, doubt I'll get to cancel/refund Ryanair flight and the check in baggage for the tent.

Not really sure what to make of that official statement, it's almost like "We tried, but we're still blaming everyone else."

Feel so so bad for all the Kickstarter people and it kinda makes you think twice or three times to helping fund something like that, which is a shame.

Reiketsu

Apparently it'll be the end of the month that Kickstarter might know something. So much for this week but no surprise. Already booked a hotel in Birmingham and have pretty much planned something to do every day. I'll not be letting this ruin my summer

Arcto

Did anyone actually get a refund for this yet? Am waiting on one for three tickets myself.

Clubtickets.com website was up and running 90 minutes ago, now it is showing as down (offline).

Reiketsu

Waiting on my bank to send out a claim form, the only way of a refund at this point by the looks of things. Seems Clubtickets have gone bust and apparently Trading Standards are involved in Altfest now too.

Arcto

Initiated a chargeback yesterday.

Fuxake

Zwillinge

I rang AIB, the lad was very nice and told me that I was 100% entitled to refund.

He took my information, what happened and sent it onto the Chargeback people to get the ball rolling.

He said to send all my details, what happened (dates tickets were purchased and dates the festival was cancelled) and any proof of purchases (Emails, websites being down, website addresses) to the chargeback department and they would sort it out.

Rumor has it that the Club ticket fella is in Ibiza and not wanting to know what's happening/phone turned off. Am going there next week, will keep an eye out for him :pac:

Reiketsu

I have my claim form from the bank now, must get it filled in and sent off. Mr Clubtickets has indeed buggered off, nowhere to be found. He had forwarded the ticket money on Dom and Missy, who spent it on bands etc. It totalled just under £700,000 and they have taken on the dent themselves now, along with the Kickstarter money. Not sure how they plan on paying money back that they dont have.