The Jabberwocky festival was set to make its debut in London this weekend, presented by All Tomorrow’s Parties (ATP) alongside Pitchfork and Primavera Sound, with an impressive lineup of acts and arts.
But as reported yesterday, ATP announced the cancellation of the music festival just 72 hours before its kick-off, citing that insufficient ticket sales and the high finances for staging the event “would have 100% been the end of ATP.” The surprise news caught bands on the lineup off-guard, while angering ticketholders who were confused by ATP’s promotions saying Jabberwocky was close to selling out just one week ago.
Now the fallout has widened as some serious legal proceedings begin to loom on the horizon with news that the festival’s publicity and ticketing companies are now seeking legal action against ATP, with both pointing fingers at the other over who should be refunding the money to disappointed ticketholders; revealing a very worrying fact: nobody seems to know where the money went.
Following on from cries from ticketholders who’d failed to get their money back from “point of purchase” (as initially advised by ATP’s Barry Hogan), a statement posted to ATP Festival’s Facebook told Jabberwocky ticketholders to contact Dash Tickets for refunds “It is their responsibility to refund the customer, as they were the company that took payments; not ATP,” the statement reads. “And if Dash are not being helpful facilitating this matter, your next point of contact should be directly with your bank or card provider to order a chargeback of your purchase amount.
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Dash Tickets have hit back in their own statement, saying their “trust in ATP seems to have been misplaced,” claiming that the organisers have been “deliberately misleading” patrons, as they had “given to ATP all funds that Dash received for ticket sales to Jabberwocky. In addition to giving ATP all the ticketing funds, Dash has made substantial advances to ATP which remain unpaid, as do considerable fees for the work we have undertaken on their behalf.
The ticketing agency states they “are very keen to learn where the money has gone,” and states it is now “commencing legal proceedings” against ATP’s registered business Willwal Ltd in an “attempt to recover all funds,” while criticising the festival organisers’ conduct.
“It is important that everyone knows that Dash Tickets is in no way responsible for ATPs financial problems, nor with their conduct post cancellation… We thought more of ATP and its Directors. We hope that they will do the right thing and expedite refunds to all fans.”
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Meanwhile, UK publicity company, the Zeitgeist Agency, is also “instituting legal proceedings” against ATP/Willwal Ltd to recover “substantial” debts after the company had “failed to pay [them] for several months.”
As revealed in their own statement, Zeitgeist claims the finances they were promised were instead used “to protect payments for venue and artists,” adding that ATP “has been experiencing and is continuing to experience cash flow difficulties.” Regardless, the publicity says it has sought to “distance ourselves from both the event and the promoter of the event.”
Likewise Pitchfork, who have been reporting on the cancellation they were co-presenting, but have issued their own statement seeking to clarify their role as curators of Jabberwocky, with no financial stake in the festival.
Pitchfork says it was “helping to choose which artists would play” the event – a lineup featuring Neutral Milk Hotel, James Blake, Kurt Vile, Liars, plus Australia’s Ben Frost and Mick Turner, and more – but “apart from recommending artists, we were not involved with decision-making concerning the event,” they state.
“We’re as disappointed with the actions taken by ATP as everyone else, and hope they will fulfill the commitment they have made to return all ticket fees.”
As for Jabberwocky attendees in London – some who’d booked flights, accommodation, and annual leave – a group has set up the suitably titled Jabberwocky Fallout website to compile the various replacement gigs organised by bands who were originally scheduled to perform at the festival.
