Forever Young Festival 2023 - Have you received a refund?

Silvera

Myself and my wife booked tickets to attend the 'Forever Young' festival near Naas, County Kildare last July. We booked a day (Saturday) ticket.

Due to the wet weather, all day tickets were cancelled at the last minute.

The event organisers promised to refund the tickets. Months have since dragged by and the last (general) email from them was sent out in October... again promising a refund as soon as they receive a rebate from Revenue (or words to that effect). Since then ..silence.

Has anybody received their refund?

con747

It was highlighted in RTE's new programme "The complaints Bureau" a week or so ago and they got someone a refund but I doubt most will see any money back. I hope you all do though!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058347216/forever-young-festival-2023-have-you-received-a-refund

Silvera

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122028408#Comment_122028408

Thanks for your reply.

I looked up a couple of episodes of that RTE programme. Neither mentioned the 'Forever Young Festival'. A husband and wife who featured in one episode got a Tickmaster refund related to a different music event / concert.

Was 'Forever Young' specifically mentioned on the programme you watched?

rockterrain

The organisation of that festival seems a shambles. Know a couple of people who went last year and they said not even basic adverse weather mitigation measures were in place. They're also looking to raise a million quid in crowd funding to keep the festival alive. Surely that's the risk of being a promoter? It shouldn't be up to the general public to bail them out. I'd be wary of that investment opportunity. Hope people get their refunds.

goodtiming

My wife and I paid €500 for the Saturday hotel package and were told on the morning not to travel and that we would be refunded.

I've emailed them numerous times and they haven't even responded with a generic email. It's an absolute disgrace.

mondeoman72

Forever young was meant as a fundraiser for an animal charity.

A little bird tells me that the lady running it has lost everything on this and their home is at risk

Atlantic Dawn

Can you not just do chargebacks on the cards used to buy the tickets?

Silvera

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122030594#Comment_122030594

Good idea. I must look into it.

Though a quick google search suggests that chargebacks must be done within 180 days

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122030503#Comment_122030503

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122032112#Comment_122032112

Try Small Claims Court

goodtiming

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122032112#Comment_122032112

This might be why they made such a big deal of asking for patience and promising to have refunds sorted once they were given the space to deal with things. it never occurred to me that I'd have to charge it back….I assumed they were being honest.

Irish Aris

I think they are honest, but probably inexperienced and haven't figured out how to proceed. They were very unlucky with the very extreme weather that weekend.

I've only been once for one day - I don't do camp- and thought it is a good festival. But between the distance and the ticket price, I easily need more than 150 euro ( + food) and having seen most names that attract the festival, it's not worth it.

Wishing them best of luck - and best of luck to anyone waiting for their refunds.

Ashfield_House

We are all in the same boat - no refunds - and no acknowldegement of refund requests and updates. Seeing that the two Directors of Forever Young resigned in Oct 2023 - our money is gone - Dr Sharon Alston and Naoimi Shairp have walked away from MUSIC FOR ANIMAL WELFARE LIMITED !! See the CRO document. Anyone know a good "Joe Duffy Journalist"?

126426976.pdf

Silvera

I received a reply from Dr Sharon Alston three weeks ago. Effectual stating that the charity are still awaiting a rebate from Revenue - from which they hope to issue refunds.

Why would she reply if she resigned in October 2023?

con747

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122030211#Comment_122030211

That programme is being repeated now on RTE1. I was mistaken in my other post, nobody on the show received a refund. The person on the show got a charge back on their card.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122028408#Comment_122028408

kg703

Quick check, myself and others received an email about forever young which has now gone into liquidation.

It says for those who want a refund read attached which is some legal letters mention proxys and that a meeting is being held on October 3rd but no clear mention of a refund (which is unlikely now).

Anyone know what's to be done here?

Fanirish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122637598#Comment_122637598

as unsecured creditors you probably won’t see a penny. Depends how much secured creditors like revenue are owed. They might offer you penny’s on the euro

Beechwoodspark

My neighbour - former boxer and well able to mind himself in a dust up - went to one of the directors workplace and caused a scene until he was refunded in full (in cash).

He was demanding compo on top of the refund but left once he received full refund.

Beechwoodspark

not recommending it as an approach - but - ways and means as they say…

Mrs Shuttleworth

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122637598#Comment_122637598

A company goes bust. A "Receiver" is appointed on behalf of any bank or lender who has registered a "charge" over the company's assets.

Anyone owed a refund here is an unsecured creditor - ticket holders don't have charges registered over company assets.

You'll appear at the meeting, the Receiver will tell you if there's anything in the pot or not for unsecured creditors after secured creditors are paid .A company search downloaded from the CRO should show you what secured charges were registered.

The meeting will likely be similar to those meetings of Anglo Irish Bank account holders in 2008, but with funkier attendees.

Keep us posted.

AndrewJRenko

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122637629#Comment_122637629

Sure Jan

Beechwoodspark

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122637863#Comment_122637863

No skin off my nose if you don’t believe me.

My account is based on what he, a good neighbour and genuine man, told me.

pale rider

I wanted to invest with Spark, I made my pledge and was a big festival fan but the supporting information was imo deliberately on the sparse side, genuine questions went unanswered so I pulled out before the cash raise ended.

We are now all unsecured creditors, not a hope of seeing our money and the animal charities supposed to receive funds from this festival only got what went into buckets at the festival.

All a mess and all preventable.

Yet there is clearly a market for a similar festival at this great venue.

Mrs Shuttleworth

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122637648#Comment_122637648

Just wanna slightly correct my post above, the meeting will be held by a Liquidator not the receiver (the receiver takes possession of the assets subsequently).

In general, the Directors of a Company can be sued personally if it is found they continued to trade whilst knowing they couldn't pay their debts as they fall due.

It appears from what I've read elsewhere that the correct insurance policy hadn't been purchased to cover refunds.

I went in 2022 and it was excellent, cannot fault the organizers on that front at all, but asking anyone out of pocket from last year looking for refunds to have patience needs to be examined closely in the context of them winding up.

jams100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122641873#Comment_122641873

Yes, that's what I read too re-insurance. It appears that the insurance policy stated that payouts would be given if no attendees (ticket holders) were on the property, unfortunately, in this case everyone who had a weekend ticket and arrived on Friday were already on site, before the torrential rain hit. So insurance won't pay out, quite an unfortunate scenario for the directors and ticket holders who won't get any refund.

Fanirish

easiest way to lose money and your reputation is to put on a festival.

Deagol

Some very harsh comments on here.

I attended this every year it was on and it was very, very well run with very little issues.

The torrential rain in 2023 was extreme and unprecedented in Ireland. The fact that they managed to keep it going at all was a testament to the efforts and care the organizers took. The emergency services wanted to cancel the whole festival.

The fact that the insurance company managed to find another way to weasel out of their responsibilities is testament to something we all know, they will do anything avoid paying out. It's them we should be angry with, not the organisers who tried very hard to sort out refunds but ran out of options in the end.

To be clear, I have no connection other then as an attendee to anyone involved. I had 2x gold/loyalty tickets that I've lost out on so I have a stick in the game. But I'm in no way angry with Sharon and her team as they tried their very best and got caught by the snakes who run the insurance game IMHO.

Mrs Shuttleworth

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122642213#Comment_122642213

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122642213#Comment_122642213

If emergency services wanted to cancel the whole festival then that instruction should have been abided by in order for insurance to be claimed on. And that would/should have been known by the organizers in advance. Comments here are not harsh.

I note you mentioned "Sharon and the team". I've never attended a festival where the promoter personally was name dropped as much as the acts performing and I noticed this the year I went. She's not Michael Eavis nor even Melvin Benn (gossiped about frequently on this thread but ask any EP attendee and they wouldn't have the foggiest notion who he was). It's all a bit strange really.

kg703

100% as someone who works in events and has done for years, if the health and safety team said shut it down and they continued, it would be reckless, stupid and could get them sued into oblivion.

They should always have had an emergency plan in place in case of weather, especially rain considering the country.

If they did not purchase adequate insurance (maybe to save a few bob) or didn't engage with the insurance brokers correctly, that again, is their fault. Not the insurance company. Healthy and safety aspects have to be your number one in event planning they would have had a huge amount of risk management docs, so they only would be following their own plans that they created.

No doubt they didn't want this outcome but it's still hundreds maybe thousands of people out of pocket and unfortunately, it's their fault.

Mrs Shuttleworth

Given the price of tickets I'd say some punters must have bought that "ticket protection" insurance. I wonder has anyone tried making a claim on those policies?

Fanirish

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122645025#Comment_122645025

it wasn’t sold through ticketmaster. That’s any no one is getting refunds.
so no ticket protection insurance offered for them as that’s an TM add on