Investors Chase Money After Another Aussie Festival Flop

While the liquidators of the annulled Peats Ridge Festival are continuing the investigation into nearly $1.2 million in funds owed to creditors, investors into another Aussie music festival are seeking thousands of dollars of their money following some shady dealings and suspected fraud from the event’s promoter.

As the Sydney Morning Herald reports, investors poured money into helping bring Arabic pop superstar Amr Diab to Sydney last month to top the bill of what was touted as the biggest Middle Eastern music event in Australia, which was set to take place on Saturday 2nd February at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium.

Amr Diab was the major draw card of the event, with a 20 year career that spanned nearly 30 million in global sales for his Egyptian el-geel pop music, receiving top billing around the world.

The event was presented by organisers Le Mirage International Entertainment Group, with the headlining Egyptian pop star topping a bill that featured DJs, belly dancing, a sword fight show, and Middle Eastern musical acts M.I.B. and Manny Boy, but none of the performing acts have been paid, while thousands of dollars in licensing fees are also owed to APRA.

Though Ticketek were handling sales for the event, which was also promoted by the venue itself, the ticketing body has filed a report with police over suspected fraud involving online credit card ticket sales to the Middle Eastern music festival after 10,000 tickets were sold, but attendance reports show just a few thousand turning up for the event.

The resulting attendance flop has revealed the true numbers of the flagging ticket sales, with performers and investors left wondering what happened at the event, while angered at the lack of promised pay and reimbursement from what they was slated to them as a hugely successful event.

One investor – who wished to remain anonymous – tells the Sydney Morning Herald he is owed more than $100,000 following the phantom ticket sales, putting up his share of the investment after he was shown documents by the promoter, Le Mirage International Entertainment Group, that more sales had already reached $1.5 million for the event.

All traces of Le Mirage, which was the business and trade name for Alphonse Dimian, aka Alphonse Fouad, and family partners T. Dimian and Alphonse Hani Fouad, has disappeared. Including the shutdown of their official website, and its social media sites drying up following the event.

Without any way of reaching the promoters, investors and performers are out of pocket, furious, and have no way to contact representatives of Le Mirage, who according to the news article,  have refused to answer or return calls.

A spokesman for ANZ Stadium stated: “The venue is hired by numerous sporting groups and entertainment promoters on standard hiring terms. In this case, all production costs were paid, but we are not privy to how the promoter financed the event.”