Bloc festival organisers go bust: where's your refund?

Baselogic Productions, which organised this year's disastrous Bloc dance music festival, has gone into administration. The festival was cancelled last Friday night, due to safety concerns, pushing the business into administration.

So what does this latest twist mean? Will people get their money back?

Cancellation

The event, held at the London Pleasure Gardens in London Docklands (pictured), was cancelled at midnight on Friday, with clear evidence of overcrowding. The Pleasure Gardens issued a statement saying that: "Bloc was subject to a controlled shut down due to crowd safety issues."

It left people speculating that the problems were due to the weather, some sort of ticketing issue, or problems with security at the entrance which meant people passed through without having their tickets checked.

In the subsequent days the company in charge of ticketing, CrowdSurge, outlined that they had not sold too many tickets, and that the system they employed meant that fraudulent tickets were not to blame.

Martyn Noble, Chairman and CEO of the ticketing company did say: "CrowdSurge were advised to 'shut down' scanners at 21.27pm on Friday 6th July 2012, whilst the queuing barriers were reorganized. At this point 8,000 people had been given access to the site. The entry gates were reopened and scanning and personal searches ceased as per the request of Baselogic and London Pleasure Gardens staff. "

It is not known whether too many people were admitted - although the event was not sold out. The Met Police claimed that the problems were people crowding under shelters to keep out of the rain, which created 'pinch points', rather than simple overcrowding.

Baselogic Productions issued a statement saying: "The team are working hard with the administrators to investigate the issues that led to the closure of the event and people will be updated as and when we have new information."

Refunds?

However, for many of those who bought tickets and were left outside in the dark, the priority is ensuring they receive their money back. Unfortunately there is no guarantee of this now. Jamie Playford of Parker Andrews Insolvency Practitioners has been appointed as administrator and said: "It is important that we understand the full facts including what funds will be available to creditors and ticketholders and to ensure the information we provide about the next stages of administration is clear and concise".

Ticket-holders can do little other than wait and see what is left when the administration process is finished, and how much of their money they will get back.

Other festivals

With such terrible weather affecting music festival season, this is far from the last festival to be cancelled. MFest, the festival at Harewood House organised by Morrisons, was also cancelled at the weekend.

The good news is that the usual procedure is to automatically refund debit and credit cards - which is what MFest has done (it is also refunding booking fees). Those who paid by cash will need to contact whoever sold them their tickets for their refund.

Those waiting for news about the Bloc festival are the unfortunate minority who will struggle to get their money back. This will, undoubtedly, come as absolutely no comfort to them.