The Aussie music festival market experienced a pretty drastic year of change in 2013, with many of the biggest events undergoing a major squeeze.

The most major victims cancelling within the span of a few months included Pyramid RockHomebakeHarvest Festival (whose axing was voted as the 2nd Saddest Event of 2013 in our Readers Poll you) and the canning of Big Day Out‘s second date in Sydney (before the whole Blur cancellation fiasco), while many promoters of many of those same big-name festivals admitted that the festival market has been more than a little more problematic.

As if to put a punctuated full-stop on the year’s troubled events, a cancelled New Year’s Eve festival to be hosted at the recently opened Wet ‘n’ Wild theme park in Sydney has undergone a million dollar bungle that angered thousands of pissed off patrons when the event cancelled just six before it was due to start.

Presented by One Cube Entertainment, the NYE Water Festival promised a fresh New Year Party at Sydney’s all-new Wet ‘n’ Wild, located west of Parramatta, with a lineup of electronic acts such as Will Sparks, Yolanda Be Cool, Tigerlily and nearly 20 more across seven stages; selling around 8,700 tickets at a price range of $110 to $200 to the event.

But just six hours before gates were set to open, promoters announced that they had cancelled the New Year’s event, citing unspecified technical production issues, as The Australian reports.

“One Cube Entertainment, an external entertainment promotions company organizing the event, has made the decision to postpone the planned NYE Festival promoted at Wet’n’Wild Sydney due to a major technical production issue,” read a statement on the Wet ‘n’ Wild website on December 31st at the 11th hour. The promise of a ‘bigger and better’ Australia’s Day replacement event with “the addition of some brand new headliners” was offered to sate the 8,700 festival ticket-holders…

Adding that: “A new date has been selected for the event, which will now take place on Australia Day 2014 (Sunday 26 January). A spokesman for One Cube Entertainment stated ‘We have made the very difficult decision to postpone our New Years Eve event at Wet’n’Wild Sydney.’”

Yolanda Be Cool quickly followed with a Facebook post to their fans claiming that the cancellation was “due to Health & Safety issues… We are as disappointed as you guys must be, but it is totally out of our control.”

Shortly after, the NYE Water Festival’s own Facebook account was flooded with angry punters and ticket-holders fuming over the last-minute cancellation, filled with complaints ranging from those that have had their New Year’s celebrations scuppered to those that had wasted money on travel and accommodation to attend the event, only to discover that it had been scrapped when arriving at Wet ‘n’ Wild.

Among the dissent levelled at One Cube Entertainment, some even accused them of continuing to promote NYE Water Festival and sell tickets after announcing its cancellation, while others slammed them for the lack of communication and demanding refunds.

The promise of a ‘bigger and better’ Australia’s Day replacement event with “the addition of some brand new headliners” was offered to sate the 8,700 festival ticket-holders, with One Cube Entertainment pledging to contact ticket-holders with additional information on the new event.

The Fair Trading commission soon took notice, strongly encouraging punters to demand for a refund than accept a mooted replacement event that may or may not go ahead. The Fair Trading pressure eventually saw the return of an estimated $1 million plus in ticket refunds over NYE Water Festival via Moshtix and MyGuestList, while the second proposed Australia Day event has now also been cancelled, as InTheMix reports. “[It] indicates that certain things weren’t being met. Those [issues] were taken to them and on that basis they pulled the pin on the event.”

Promoters One Cube and its four directors – Eric Woo, Ruchita Perera, Nikola Alavanja and Diego Tobar – had combined experience in organising club nights at Sydney venues, but the company was only integrated by Wet ‘n’ Wild’s management company just four months ago, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

Criticism has now extended to Wet ‘n’ Wild owners, Village Roadshow Theme Parks, for outsourcing a company whose track record did not seem up to the task of hosting a large outdoor event to the scale of the proposed NYE Water Festival. Darrin Davies, a Village Roadshow Theme Parks spokesman, says the arrangement with One Cub was a “hire only, a venue only” agreement.

“We entered into an agreement to hire the venue, under a normal commercial relationship. It was our understanding they have had events of a similar kind in NSW previously,” he told SMH. Ahead of the cancellation, the Wet ‘n’ Wild management went to One Cube over “some concerns around production issues and transport issues… [which] indicates that certain things weren’t being met. Those [issues] were taken to them and on that basis they pulled the pin on the event.”

In response, One Cube’s Diego Tobar claimed that “the production was fine, transport was sorted” but that Village Roadshow Theme Parks “made us pay a large sum last week Friday of 250k upfront room hire or event will not go ahead, as well as sign a contract 4days prior event.”

Additionally, a report from The Age into the backgrounds of One Cube’s four directors reveals some troubling warning signs. “Stressing Hard!!!” read a Facebook post in the lead-up to the cancelled event by Eric Woo, who along with Ruchita Perera forms touring and promotion company Urban Agent.

Ubran Agent’s previous track record includes aiding in promoting Australian tours by Mariah Carey and The Jacksons, but also a severe backlash over the Bollywood concert Temptation Reloaded, including late-running performances, ticket pricing, and failed promises of access to Temptation Reloaded star Sharukh Khan.

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