It’s always infuriating when you’re at a concert and the performer isn’t on stage at their scheduled time. You feel kind of helpless, just standing around, constantly checking your watch, without a clue about when you will actually get to see the show you paid for. Finally, the lights go down, and all is well.
With your favourite artist strutting their stuff on the stage, you completely forget about the fact that they kept you waiting. You’re totally engrossed in the music now, dancing and jumping and singing along with every word. The artist performs two songs, and then promptly leaves the stage and you go home. Wait, what?
This is precisely what happened during a recent New Zealand performance by US R&B singer Ciara, and her fans in Christchurch are seriously pissed. As Stuff reports, punters who attended Ciara’s performance at Ilam Fields on Wednesday are demanding refunds after the singer performed for just five minutes.
Worse yet, the singer reportedly took the stage an hour after she was scheduled to finish. According to the singer herself and her touring agency, technical issues meant the sound quality of the gig was poor and a “curfew” meant the DJ had to be cut off at 11pm. Ciara ultimately performed just a handful of songs.
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“I was very disappointed with what happened,” one said on social media, via Stuff. “I would like a full refund. The concert was due to finish at 10pm according to tickets and the headlining act was on for five minutes at 11pm.” Criticism was also lobbed at an MC who was described as “incredibly offensive” and “disrespectful”.
“I want to emphasise that I am a Ciara fan. I would not have stayed if I knew she was only coming on for two songs… the MC was awful and offensive and I would never pay to see him; I really just wanted someone to take the microphone off him.”
Unlike Axl Rose, Ciara did express some contrition for her late arrival to the stage and the show’s short duration. “They said curfew and cut off the DJ. I was just as surprised as you, and truly disappointed! There were a few other things out of my control as well,” she wrote on social media.
Meanwhile, Matty Peilua, of Australian touring agency Ginnen Group, posted an apology on the event’s Facebook page: “The event team wish to apologise for the events which took place last night, although it was outside of our control we are truly sorry.”
“We, like you, are disappointed that the headline act was unable to perform as we had been assured they would from the booking agent. Please be assured that we did everything we could from our end to try [to] make the show still go on. We are not going to blame anyone or any one thing, we will simply say that we are as disappointed as everyone else.”
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In addition to the aborted performance, the singer also failed to show up for a fan meet-and-greet, which cost punters $110 per ticket. While Peilua said that these ticketholders would receive a full refund, he wrote that Ginnen would only “negotiate part refunds for other ticketholders”.
Despite this, Consumer New Zealand’s Jessica Wilson tells Stuff that concert-goers paid for a service that was not performed — “or only five minutes of the service were performed” — and thus have good grounds to claim a refund on tickets under the Consumer Guarantees Act.
“They should request a refund from the ticketing retailer,” she said. “Consumers who paid by credit card may be able to get a chargeback on their card.” General admission tickets to Ciara’s Christchurch show reportedly cost between $45 and $55.
Of course, while the tech issues and aborted set have been addressed by the artist and promoter, it’s not clear why Ciara was so late in getting to the stage to begin with, though Stuff reports that Ciara’s management had requested a higher appearance fee when the venue was shifted outdoors, following high ticket demand.
