R & B festival Soulfest cancelled just days before it was due to begin, but was it due to poor sales?

ORGANISERS of the R & B festival Soulfest have angered fans by axing the entire event just days before it was due to take place, citing low ticket sales.

US soul singer Mary J Blige for National Hit

URBAN music festival Soulfest has been cancelled just days before it was due to take place.

The abrupt news has angered fans who had booked flights and accommodation to travel to the R & B event.

Some had paid as much as $360 for VIP tickets to the Sydney and Melbourne shows and will now be waiting on refunds.

Promoters have cited low ticket sales as the reason for the abrupt axing of shows in Melbourne and Sydney, as well as sideshows in Brisbane.

The event was due to feature Mary J Blige, Lauryn Hill, Miguel, De La Soul, Jill Scott, Daniel Merriweather and Talib Kweli among others.

Soul removal: fans were looking forward to seeing Miguel at Soulfest. Sorry about that.

Soulfest was scheduled to take place in Sydney on October 24 and Melbourne October 25.

Sideshows in Brisbane, featuring Mary J Blige and Lauryn Hill, were due to start next Tuesday.

A statement on the festival’s Facebook page read “Despite a stellar line-up of artists and the best promotional endeavours on Soulfest’s behalf, the event has simply not received the support via ticket sales, and the financial loss that would be incurred by the event if it were to go ahead as planned would be devastating.”

The anonymous statement also notes that no further comments will be made and ticket holders are fobbed off with an email for more information.

However angry punters are stating promoters told them the events were near capacity when they contacted them about buying extra tickets.

“I had emailed you directly, as well as Melbourne promoters, consistently asking for extra tickets for friends coming from overseas,” Jana N’racci wrote. “I was repeatedly told that the event was sold out, “at capacity,” and sold more than three times the amount of tickets as last year. Now, all of a sudden, you want to pull the ‘poor ticket sales’ card? Why weren’t additional tickets released since the event was “sold out”?”

Publicity releases claimed that the first release of ‘solid gold VIP’ tickets, for $360, had sold out.

Other ticket prices were $170 for general admission and $207 for VIP front of stage.

The event had also put in place a lay-by system where punters could pay off their tickets in instalments.

No Jill: Also not coming out for Soulfest, soul singer Jill Scott. Boo.

Brisbane fans were being charged $600 for a meet and greet with Mary J Blige or $400 for the best seats for Lauryn Hill.

The festival, the brainchild of controversial promoter John Denison, started last year.

After mixed fortunes going national last year, Soulfest streamlined to just shows in Sydney and Melbourne (and Auckland) this year, with only sideshows in Brisbane.

Denison also ran the Supafest R & B festivals, which went broke in 2013 with debts of up to $17 million.

On Facebook Freeman Sion Mokia wrote “For future reference any concert or festival ending with “Fest” in its name advertising a crazy long line up of stars! DO NOT BUY THE TICKETS! I only just recently received my refund for the Supafest tickets I bought ... 2Yrs ago!!! Lol”

Last year’s Soulfest created anger when an entire stage of Australian acts was axed on the morning of the Melbourne show.

Promoters issued a vague statement saying the local acts, including Nathaniel and Ms Murphy, were abruptly axed “due to a combination of operational and logistic issues”.

Punters also slated the sound and production of the event which last year featured D’Angelo, Common and Maxwell.

The event even had to photograph the artists arriving in Australia to assure fans on Facebook everyone would be performing.

Soulfest have been contacted for further comment.

Memories: Last year’s Soulfest Facebook page had to reassure fans acts were actually down under.

Originally published as R & B festival Soulfest cancelled just days before it was due to begin, but was it due to poor sales?