Following the last-minute cancellation of the Jabberwocky music festival, which was set to make its debut in London over the weekend, promoters All Tomorrow’s Parties (ATP) found themselves slugged with legal action from the event’s ticketing agency, Dash Tickets, and publicity company, Zeitgeist, each accusing the company of withholding payments – all while angered ticket-holders were left wondering where their promised refunds had gone.
All in all, it’s been a pretty bitter saga that’s unravelled over the last week or so, doing some serious tarnishing of the well-respected ATP brand, and now the festival has responded to many of the allegations from their business associates, disputing claims of preventing booked bands from playing replacement gigs, and attempting to explain the sticky red tape involved in refunding confused customers.
In a statement issued on Friday, ATP maintains that they had not received any payments from Dash Tickets “for more than two months. Any advances from the [Jabberwocky ticket] sales before that, went straight into event costs,” stating that the company’s allegations that they had in fact been paid “is simply not true.”
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“We know you are angry, and quite rightly so as you are hearing contradictory information concerning the source of your refunds – we are NOT trying to pass the buck, but any funds we did receive from Dash are tied up in the cancelled event and we too have lost considerable amounts of money. But we are petitioning Dash and working closely and restlessly with Paypal to ensure all customers receive their full due amount.”
To that end, ATP yesterday began emailing customers about refund claim options, while posting new information on their website for disgruntled ticketholders.
Despite the arrangements, the discussion on the ATP Festival Facebook page has been extremely varied, with many still criticising the event for the sudden cancellation and for its treatment of paying ticket-holders in the days following the last-minute announcement over delayed refunds.
“So ATP recommended agent who wasn’t STAR regulated, took payment from a platform that wasn’t protected, took most of the money from Dash, and then blamed Dash for not wanting to offer refunds?” quizzed one commenter. “I have loved ATP, I went to 10 camps and countless gigs. I’d live with a balls up, but there is dishonestly and blaming from ATP, and why should we have any sympathy?”
ATP organisers also state that PR firm Zeitgeist was “terminated” of their services well before the festival was cancelled due to “doing a disappointingly substandard job on the Jabberwocky press campaign.”
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As the two companies set to move forward with a legal dispute, Zeitgeist’s Jamie Stockwood issued their own reply: “It’s good of ATP to finally respond on this matter. It would appear that our company, the ticketing agency, all suppliers and all the disappointed fans were wrong about Willwal Ltd. Even their partners have distanced themselves from the situation. This is a matter for the courts now but we are sure the overwhelming recent media coverage and ongoing investigations will ensure the good will out.”
It seems the messy result is far from over, but for it part, ATP is defending its actions throughout proceedings, while asking festival fans to consider their motives; “If you really believe that there was some machiavellian intent to rip off music fans,” ATP writes.
“If people want to continue slinging mud at us, we can’t stop them […] If anyone out there says they believe in what we do; now is the time to support us more than ever, rather than letting others try and kick us while we are down.”
As for those in London over the weekend looking for alternatives to their cancelled festival – some who’d booked flights, accommodation, and annual leave – a collection of fans had set up an online listing of replacement and alternative gigs, suitably titled Jabberwocky Fallout, to compile concerts from bands and artists who were originally scheduled to perform at the event, such as Neutral Milk Hotel, Speedy Ortiz, The Bug, Kurt Vile, and more.
You can read ATP Festival’s full statement below:
In the past 72 hours there have been many accusations thrown at ATP and some so vindictive that we feel it necessary to defend our position.
Firstly, the claim that ATP has received all the funds for Jabberwocky is not true. We have not received a payment from Dash for more than two months. Any advances from the sales before that, went straight into event costs such as various artist fees and venue hire. But we have not received all the funds for Jabberwocky sales from Dash, and for them to make statements on their social media saying we have in fact received all these funds is simply not true. If that was the case, then we would not have struggled to stage the event.
As per their Terms & Conditions at the time Jabberwocky went on sale, we were always under the impression that in the event of a cancellation; all refunds would be processed by Dash, as the funds were sent directly to Dash’s PayPal account – not ATPs. Since then, Dash’s Terms & Conditions have changed on their website without our knowledge, well after Jabberwocky was on-sale, in an attempt to reflect no responsibility for the payments accepted into their PayPal account.
We know you are angry, and quite rightly so as you are hearing contradictory information concerning the source of your refunds – we are NOT trying to pass the buck, but any funds we did receive from Dash are tied up in the cancelled event and we too have lost considerable amounts of money. But we are petitioning Dash and working closely and restlessly with Paypal to ensure all customers receive their full due amount.
Secondly, the PR firm we originally engaged for Jabberwocky, Zeitgeist, felt it was necessary to announce to the world that they were taking legal action against us. What they neglected to mention was that we actually terminated their services for doing a disappointingly substandard job on the Jabberwocky press campaign and are in a legal dispute with them over the amount owed. When we dismissed them, they also started circulating rumours that Jabberwocky was in trouble, which of course did not help with advance sales and unfortunately, became a self-fulfilling prophecy.
We are trying to get everyone refunded as soon as possible and honour all bands agreements. We have tried to assist in organising shows this weekend so all the door money goes to the artists to help pay their fee due for Jabberwocky and ensure that they are not out of pocket. The rumours that we stopped a band from playing a show because of a contractual obligation is also untrue. They assure us that they had not confirmed a show with another venue and were happy to book a show assisted by us in order to help secure their immediate expenses for the weekend and go towards the original fee that they were offered, which is being honoured.
If people want to continue slinging mud at us, we can’t stop them, but we would ask that you pause to think about what it takes for a company of our size to continue to exist in the current music climate, and question if you really believe that there was some machiavellian intent to rip off music fans that we have given so many years of our life to, whilst trying to survive and deliver quality shows. If anyone out there says they believe in what we do; now is the time to support us more than ever, rather than letting others try and kick us while we are down.
We are devastated the event didn’t happen. It has always been a dream to finally get together two of our long time friends – Pitchfork & Primavera – and Jabberwocky was to be this dream realised. We have all worked tirelessly for almost a year on this, and so of course, tried absolutely everything in our power to stage it right up to the very moment that there were no options left other than this absolute last resort.
