Ever After Music Festival officially cancelled

It’s not the happily ever after ticket holders were hoping for as the Ever After Music Festival officially announced the cancellation of the event.

With less than a week to go until the festival was slated to start, there is no word yet on what will happen to the tickets or if refunds will be offered.

In a statement posted to social media the Ever After team says, “Throughout the course of the past two years, our team has worked tirelessly to plan and execute the biggest and best edition of Ever After yet.”

“Unfortunately despite our tremendous investment of time, effort, commitment and money, we have been met with a series of obstacles from several key third parties that will prevent this event from moving forward as planned.”

The team claims the festival “had requirements levied on it far greater than the event just one week before (which we agreed to meet) and still we were met with rejections.”

“Let us be clear, this is not our decision to cancel, we have been forced to cancel by third parties.”

 

 

 

 

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In a statement the Township of Oro-Medonte said, “Over the past several months, Township staff and agency partners (i.e., OPP, AGCO, County of Simcoe Paramedic Services, Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit etc.) have communicated with representatives from the Festival for the purpose of providing logistical assistance to facilitate the development of an acceptable operational plan that is required for the issuance of a Special Event Permit by the Township.”

“Given the incomplete status of the operational plan submitted by the organizers for the Festival, the ability to implement appropriate controls and public safety measures and requirements within an appropriate timeframe prior to commencement of the Festival, and potential adverse impacts to public health and safety and security of attendees, performers, vendors, and residents; the Township’s agency partners could not approve the operational plan for the Festival.”

In a council meeting on July 21, a special events permit was denied after the Mayor told CTV News last week that none of the agencies required to approve the festivals operation plans had signed off.

The popular electronic dance festival was slated to run Aug. 11-14 at Burl’s Creek, after it leased the land from the venue.

Having attended in the past, Taylor Burgess said he was looking forward to making the trip from London with his group of friends. In total he said they spent more than $4,000 which included tickets and a camping package.

He said the first red flag that something wasn’t right is when his wrist band never showed up.

“Nearing the end of July, still not receiving a wrist band I was concerned and that was the first time I tried reaching out to Ever After and Unity (Travel),” Burgess said. “No responses from them and more red flags started popping up.”

Luckily, he said he was able to get most of his money back for the tickets through his credit card company. However, he said he is still waiting to see if any of the camping money will come back through the same process.

“The festival organizers seem to have done nothing to actually run a festival and have just sold tickets,” Burgess said. “I have zero faith that unless something is legally done, Ever After and their promoters will pay out a dime to any customer.”

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

According to Ever After’s website ticket holders from 2020 and 2021 had the option of holding onto their tickets or repurpose them. Which meant adding them to a que to be re-sold for this year’s now cancelled event.

It also notified ticket holders that Unity Travel, a long time partner of the festival, was now the “primary platform” for the 2022 event.

Anthony Suppa who goes by Suppa Hot Fire is a DJ out of Mississauga who was set to perform at the festival in 2020 but the pandemic pushed his show to the local stage in 2022.

He said he was not made aware of the event’s cancellation until he saw it on social media.

“The last thing I heard from them was last week or two weeks ago on Wednesday they said they were going to be putting out the set times for all the locals,” said Suppa. “As of Wednesday there has been radio silence.”

“I’ll usually do three to four events between Thursday and Sunday so since I do the scheduling I gave it away to other people. Now I’m pretty much losing out on three to four gigs of money.”

While the question of refunds remains up in the air, the team did say on social media, “All ticket buyers will receive an e-mail with more information about their orders and their options by next week.”

CTV News made multiple attempts to reach the organizer for comment but has not yet heard back.