The ongoing controversy surrounding Heatwave Festival continues to build with disgruntled fans jumping on social media to express a range of grievances such as missing out on meet & greets they’d paid for, and headliner D12 missing the first three cities of the tour.
D12 failed to catch their flight before the festival tour even kicked off and the promoters had up until today not been forthcoming with anxious ticket holders on whether the act would show in their city with Sydney, Brisbane, and Adelaide all missing out on the group.
Despite this Heatwave had continued to advertise D12 as appearing in Brisbane and Sydney although the promoters would have no doubt been aware that it would have been impossible to get the group to those dates. Last night promoters only announced an hour before the show that D12 would not be appearing.
Heatwave’s behaviour has now drawn the attention of the NSW Department of Fair Trading who have received a number of complaints from attendees. A spokesperson for the department said that the promoters have a responsibility to alert consumers to any changes to their lineup.
“NSW Fair Trading is currently making inquiries with the festival promoters,” the spokesperson said. “Fair Trading has an expectation that while the circumstances may not have been foreseen, any significant change to the performance line-up should quickly be reflected in any advertising and promotion.”
But missing artists isn’t the only problem Heatwave is facing with a number of VIP ticket holders expressing their outrage on the festival’s official Facebook page at not getting what they paid for. VIP packages were touted as including meet and greets with the artists, autographed t-shirts, access to VIP areas, and entry into the festival afterparty.
A number of attendees in Brisbane and Sydney have commented that they didn’t receive anything their package supposedly included and that organisers had not been helpful or passed on vital information on the night.
Canberra, Perth, and Melbourne are next up and organisers are promising that D12 will finally make their debut performance. A message posted on the Heatwave Facebook wall last night said that D12 had made it onto their flight and were expected to arrive in time for Canberra this Saturday.
“Due to reasons beyond our control, d12 unfortunately didn’t arrive in Australia in time for the first Heatwave shows,” they wrote. “We have been doing absolutely everything we possibly can to get them here as quick as we can.”
“We would like to sincerely apologize to any disappointed fans. D12 have now been confirmed to join the tour for the Heatwave shows in Perth, Canberra and Melbourne.”
Organisers are currently promising a series of free concerts in Adelaide, Brisbane, and Sydney for attendees who bought D12 VIP tickets. We’ll let you know if we hear anything more from Fair Trading or about the free concerts.
UPDATE 19th January 2012 @ 8:18pm: According to Music Feeds the NSW Fair Trading have now contacted Heatwave, Ticketek and Enmore Theatre. As a result of their investigation a notice has now been posted on the websites of both the Enmore and Ticketek offering refunds to patrons.
Those who wish to no longer attend the event can receive a full refund by applying online. Tickets purchased by cash or EFT can be refunded at the point of purchase*, at head office agencies or by post only. *Please note, refunds are not available at Westfield agencies.
