All Tomorrow’s Parties role in the late cancellation of the Jabberwocky festival is attracting increasing scrutiny as attendees complain of ticket refund chaos, and the event's ticketing and PR companies have gone public with criticism of ATP's company - Willwal LtdATP organised the festival with Pitchfork and Primavera Sound but just tree days before the London event Barry Hogan of All Tomorrow’s Parties issued a statement saying: “It is with deep sadness we regret to inform everyone that as of today Tuesday 12th August 2014, ATP is being forced into cancelling this weekend’s Jabberwocky festival. Refunds will be available to all customers at the point of purchase. We have put everything into promoting Jabberwocky, and despite healthy ticket sales all our efforts could not take those sales to the point that we needed to finally stage the event. Over the past month and all the way up until this moment we have tried every possible course of action to follow through in delivering Jabberwocky to you, but the position we unfortunately find ourselves in as a result of a succession of events that have lost money in an increasingly aggressive festival market, means we are no longer able to do so." Bands such as Deafheaven, James Blake and Neutral Milk Hotel were set to play the festival which was to be held at the ExCeL Centre in London."
ATP put the ticket refund responsibility on Dash and those with tickets were told to seek refunds at the outlet from which they purchased them. But Dash was not impressed by these instructions, and the ATP statement was followed by one from Dash pointing out that its terms of sale say that responsibility for refunds lay with the promoter of the event. It also added that all money from sales had already been passed on to ATP. Saying that it was considering legal action, the ticketing firm said: "Our trust in ATP seems to have been misplaced, as their emails to fans and customers today concerning refunds have become deliberately misleading. It is for this reason that we feel compelled to make it clear that Dash has 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 company later added: "To be clear about our service to ATP and yourselves, we have not been acting as a traditional 'ticketing agent', but have simply provided online software as a service exclusively to ATP in the UK. ATP has used our software to setup the Jabberwocky event and sell their tickets. This is why the T&Cs went to lengths to alert everyone that ATP holds the funds on all sales and that refunds can only be actioned through ATP".
However, ATP again refuted that it had any responsibility for any refunds. In a new update to ticketholders, the promoter said: "For the vast majority of people, Dash Tickets will be their point of purchase. It is their responsibility to refund the customer, as they were the company that took payments; not ATP. 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".
There has also been further confusion over the involvement of other partners on the event. Jabberwocky was billed as being presented jointly by ATP, Pitchfork and Primavera. However, ATP's original cancellation statement did not mention either of these partners, and both merely re-posted that announcement without reference to their own involvement either - Pitchfork as a news story and Primavera as an update on its website without context. Pitchfork then posted an update on its website stating: "Pitchfork worked alongside All Tomorrow's Parties and Primavera Sound to curate Jabberwocky, helping to choose which artists would play. We did not have any financial involvement in the festival, in terms of either providing funding ourselves, managing how the money was spent, or receiving any portion of the event proceeds" and continued with: "Apart from recommending artists, we were not involved with decision-making concerning the event. Our sales team did assist in trying to find sponsorship for the festival, but the sponsors that ultimately signed on didn't come through Pitchfork's channels".
It also seems that the event's PR firm is looking at legal action, with the Zeitgeist Agency
saying it would "like to distance ourselves from both the event and the promoter of the event - Willwal Ltd (ATP)" adding in a statement "Willwal Ltd have failed to pay us for several months. We have tried hard to overcome this situation and find solutions, but Willwal’s representatives have revealed to us in writing that they used the funds destined for us in order to protect payments for venue and artists, rather than settle essential and agreed amounts to our company. It would appear that Willwal Ltd has been experiencing and is continuing to experience cash flow difficulties. We had a great campaign and as a trusted and respected contact we wanted you know to know that this situation has nothing to do with any wrongdoing by The Zeitgeist Agency Limited." adding that Zeitgeist had "no alternative but to pursue Willwal Ltd by instituting legal proceedings on the 20th July to recover the substantial debt, to which Willwal Ltd have not responded."
ATP has responded to both Dash's and Zeitgeist's comments saying that the PR agency had been dismissed for "for doing a disappointingly substandard job" and that Dash had changed their T&Cs to attempt to avoid making refund repayments saying "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".
http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/aug/13/jabberwocky-atp-music-festival-cancelled-no-surprise
http://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/21267/1/atp-is-being-taken-to-court-over-jabberwocky-cancellation
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