Groundswell Festival cancelled

Sep 13,2011 @ 3:23 pm

GS Logo with strapline Groundswell Festival cancelledWe’re really sorry to have to tell you that  Groundswell Festival in France has been cancelled. We’re incredibly sorry for everyone who has purchased tickets based on our suggestion.

They will of course refund all purchased tickets, but most of the travel arrangements visitors have made will most likely be non-refundable so we have decided to put up a little contest for all peeps who planned to attend Groundswell and have decided to go to France anyway. Share your experiences and photos with us (email to anna (at) coolermag.com), and the best “What I did instead of Groundswell” stories will be published on our website and Facebook.

Here’s the official letter from the organisers, explaining what went down, well kinda…

13th September 2011

To All Media,

As per the meeting on the 12th September at the Mairie of Angresse, it is with great disappointment that Allez-oop Promotions can confirm that we have been forced to cancel Groundswell Festival.
This decision has not been taken lightly, and comes after 2 years of working full time to launch this project, and investing everything we had in to its success.
Our primary investor withdrew all his funding from the event on Friday 9th September. Previously, with the support of our investor we had the ability to lose some money in our first year, knowing that we can build the event in future years.
We have been in the event industry for seven years, so we know its never likely to make a profit the first year. So you must be prepared for the longterm project to develop the brand and following from the public, and then the event will have fantastic longterm success. Our investor understood this, but unfortunately due to the last three weeks being particularly difficult he decided not to invest further. This meant that running the festival would leave other related businesses in a far worst position then if we canceled beforehand.
Please be aware that the decision was taken in order to limit the amount financial damage to everybody involved on the project.
Without the support of our investor the financial damage to all the suppliers working on Groundswell would have been much greater after the event then if we stopped now.
It has been suggested that we should have carried on, but this would have been dishonest trading as we would have known that we would be unable to pay everyone post event without our investors backing.
We cancelled the event to reduce the damage as best we could.
We are working through everything with our accountant, and suppliers to ensure we manage this as best we can.
We have a “freeze” on all trading, at the moment which I am working through with our lawyers in Jersey to have this lifted.
All suppliers will be paid in full for their work up to this point.
All ticket sales are not held by Allez – oop. The ticket sales are held by the bank, and will be refunded in full.

This has been very difficult both professionally and personally and we are doing the best we can. On Friday evening Lizi Wilson (Co – Director and my wife) was taken to the hospital after suffering a panic attack and collapsing in our Hossegor apartment Friday evening.

We sincerely apologise for this situation, and ask for your understanding in this matter.

Kind Regards,

Jeff Wilson
Co-Director, Allez-oop Promotions Limited


Tags: , ,

Related posts:

  1. Lineup for Groundswell Festival fixed
  2. Groundswell – new surf music festival in France
  3. Roxy Chicken Jam cancelled!
  4. Sweden’s Top All-Girl TTR Event Cancelled
  5. Burton Canadian Open Snowboarding Championships Cancelled

14 Responses to “Groundswell Festival cancelled”

  1. Rebecca Says:

    September 14th, 2011 at 9:15 am

    Dear Jeff and Linzi ( and groundswell crew )

    I am soooooo sorry to hear that you have had to cancel after all your hard work & commitment you put into organizing this event over the last couple of years. Having organised other ( far smaller ) festivals I understand how heart breaking & stressful organising & having to cancel an event can be..

    My heart & thoughts are with you guys, and I just wanted to send my love to Linz, and let you know I you are in my thoughts. You guys are strong & a fantastic couple & I just know that you’ll get through this. I hope Linz gets better soon (((((hugs)))).

    If there is anything I can do to help, please don’t hesitate to let me know !!

    Sending loads of love, happiness & peace & GET WELL SOON vibes !!
    love
    Becca xxx

  2. ACM Writing » For The Love – A Story of Overcoming Adversity Says:

    September 20th, 2011 at 4:05 pm

    [...] have been much greater after the event than if we stopped now.” Read the whole press release here. http://cooler.mpora.com/news/groundswell-festival-cancelled.html And that would have been that, [...]

  3. cm Says:

    September 22nd, 2011 at 8:28 am

    anyone knows how to get reimbursed ?
    thx

  4. Laura Says:

    September 22nd, 2011 at 12:24 pm

    I’ve been trying to get in touch with Allez-oop with no success. Can anyone tell us when can we expect our money back? thanks

  5. Swan Says:

    September 30th, 2011 at 4:55 pm

    We would also like to know how and when we get the refund!! Nobody answered our e-mail… Thank you!

  6. Ezz Says:

    September 30th, 2011 at 7:24 pm

    Time is ticking on and we still have not heard anything regarding ticket reimbursement. Has anyone had any luck finding out how to go about this?
    After finding out 3 days before the festival that it was cancelled, I think Allez-oop should at least provide some information on how to go about getting our money back and when this might happen. Getting frustrated…

  7. Simon Says:

    October 11th, 2011 at 10:36 am

    Still no refund or news ?? i bought 2 tickets and cant find anything on how to get a refund??

  8. Nils Says:

    October 11th, 2011 at 3:10 pm

    Same for me. Bought 4 Tickets but I have no clue how to get the money back :-(

  9. Cooler Says:

    October 11th, 2011 at 3:40 pm

    We haven’t gotten any more info yet either but we’re chasing as hard as we can and will let you know as soon as we know more!! Hopefully soon…

    UPDATE: We’re in contact with the PR person of the event (who haven’t seen any money or payment either) but all they could give us are the email addresses of the organisers: linzi@allez-oop.com and Jeff@allez-oop.com but apparently it’s quite unlikely to get anything but an auto-reply.
    We’re incredibly sorry for having recommended this festival to our readers – we had no idea this was going to go this way.

    But seeing there are so many people without refunds etc – maybe you can all team up and start something together?

    We really hope there is going to be some kind of an at least halfway nice ending to this all

  10. Gabriele Says:

    October 19th, 2011 at 5:35 pm

    Hi,

    I’m in the same situation. We bought 4 tickets and we don´t know anything about the money. Our bank told us that they have nothing to do with the tickets…

    DOES ANYONE KNOW ANYTHING???????????? Please…

  11. Morag Says:

    November 1st, 2011 at 8:44 am

    Hi,
    We booked 2 tickets for Groundswell and booked a 2 week holiday in Hossegor to fit around this event..We were gutted when we read on Facebook the Monday before,that it had been cancelled but still decided to go to Hossegor and so glad we did!! Woody at Le Surfing bar arranged an amazing last minute gig “For the love” and in our eyes was better than Groundswell could ever have been. Yes, we are annoyed about not being refunded for our tickets, but it seems that the 100euros they owe us is nothing to what they owe others, especially the workers in Les Landes who were not paid. Would be great if a concert like “For the Love” could be arranged every year..was just fantastic and thank you for everyone involved for producing a rainbow at the end of a storm :)

  12. luis Says:

    November 25th, 2011 at 9:46 am

    i am still waiting for my refund!!!!

  13. Harm Lindhout Says:

    November 29th, 2011 at 10:56 am

    Hey guys how about you let us know what is going to happen next. You tell us we get out money back and then nothing. I am a bit done with the sympathy shit. Communicate with your customers!!!! You’re letting us in the dark here. This has nothing to do with your sponsors bailing out anymore. When can we expect our money back!!!

    Greets,

    Harm

  14. Marc Says:

    February 13th, 2012 at 11:46 am

    Is there any update on the refund? I bought 12 tickets and Allez Oop won’t reply to my emails and don’t seem to be making any effort to sort this out. I think that any festivals they do in the future should be boycotted!!
    Marc

Leave a Reply

connect to cooler

twitter updates

Ford Endless Winter