Ever After concert ticket holders question refund announcement

Ticket holders for the Ever After Music Festival continue to search for answers after the team posted on social media that refunds were being issued.

"I've gotten nothing," said ticket holder Mandy Dessureault. "That's a huge amount of money to spend on nothing, and at this point, I've kind of lost hope I'm getting my money back."

On Friday, the Ever After team posted to Instagram that an email had been sent with information on how to obtain a refund.

The social media post comes a week after the popular electronic dance festival pulled the plug on the event after it failed to get the proper approvals.

But many ticket holders said they have yet to receive any word on getting their money back.

"I haven't gotten an email. Nobody I know has gotten an email," said Dessureault.

Emilie Rainville says she's been trying to get a refund for two years, adding she spent around $1,000 on the festival in 2020, which was postponed by the pandemic.

She's looking for a lawyer and launched a page on Instagram called 'everaftervixtims' for those impacted by the cancelled festival, which has gained nearly 600 followers.

"A lot of people feel really, really disappointed," said Rainville. "I didn't think it would get that much traction so fast."

A source who works directly with the event's operations told CTV News that roughly 14,000 tickets were sold from 2020 to this year's festival.

According to Ever After's website, Unity Travel, a long-time partner of the festival, took over this year as the "primary platform."

CTV News learned that the company that ran the event before, Beyond Oz Productions, filed for bankruptcy in December.

Although Unity Travel's website notes refunds will not be issued after 24 hours, Toronto-based music lawyer Paul Banwatt said it's not that simple.

"Ultimately, when somebody doesn't give you what you bargained for, when it's beyond the reasonable expectations of the parties who entered that agreement, you should have some kind of recourse in the law," said Banwatt.

At the same time, Banwatt said it could be tricky to pinpoint what people are entitled to because every situation is different.

"We have to look at the circumstances of that particular event, what went wrong, how far from the original promised event was it in those circumstances. What what's promised and how was it promised and what did the contract say, all of these things," said Banwatt.

"You can take away some of that uncertainty by passing legislation. If this is something as a whole that people feel strongly about, then that is a very logical way to address it," he finished.

In a statement, the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery wrote it's "strengthening consumer protection for Ontarians and promoting fairness and transparency by conducting the first comprehensive review of the Consumer Protection Act in over 15 years."

The statement added that people are encouraged to contact Consumer Protection Ontario if they have questions about their specific circumstances or refund entitlements.

In the meantime, it's a game of wait and see as ticket holders continue to search for answers.

"I started this Instagram, and now I feel like I have a big responsibility, but no one is answering me," said Rainville.

CTV News reached out to Unity Travel about the email and how people can get refunds but did not hear back.