‘Ripped off’: Ticketholders still chasing refunds two years after Vanfest cancelled

Two years after a popular music festival was cancelled, ticketholders are still thousands out of pocket — despite the company receiving $736k from the taxpayer.

EXCLUSIVE

Two years after a popular NSW music festival was cancelled due to rain, customers who purchased tickets are still thousands of dollars out of pocket and chasing refunds.

The organisers of Vanfest, which was due to be held in Bathurst in September 2022 featuring well known artists including The Presets and Hilltop Hoods, appear to have gone missing and customers say attempts to get their money back from Moshtix have been rebuffed.

Experts say the saga highlights a major flaw in Australia’s consumer law, which does not require companies to offer full refunds if an event is cancelled due to an “act of God”.

“I have completely lost faith in any sort of booking system,” said Heidi Hopper, 45, who paid $1420 for two tickets for her and her partner to the 2022 “glamping” trip.

“It was our anniversary coming up — we don’t normally spend that much. I’ve basically given up any chance of getting the money back. Now I’m at a point I just want justice to be served.”

Vanfest, previously held in Forbes, received a $736,000 federal government Covid grant in 2021 under the $200 million Restart Investment to Sustain and Expand (RISE) Fund to “support and strengthen youth culture and regional tourism”, records show.

“It’s incredible that the government uses taxpayer dollars to prop up companies that return the favour by ripping off their customers,” said Adam Glezer of Consumer Champion, who is representing Ms Hopper.

Vanfest 22 ticketholders have been chasing refunds for two years. Picture: Facebook

The company’s email is no longer active and its Facebook page has been taken down.

“They’re a bit of a ghost company — they don’t have a phone number,” said Ms Hopper, a house painter now based near Rockhampton in Queensland.

Vanfest has been contacted for comment.

Attendees were informed that Vanfest 2022 had been cancelled due to recent flooding across the state.

“We have continued to fight the good fight, giving it everything we have, and to meet each challenge head on,” a message on Vanfest’s website reads.

“The current challenges faced by the festival due to the flooding disaster across the state have made it near impossible to recover from. Unfortunately we are going to have to look at options to push the Vanfest 2022 event to the end of the year. It is not without saying how disappointed we are and sincerely apologise for any inconveniences. It breaks our heart to not be able to bring the music to the regions due to the devastating floods late last year.”

The message promised that “for any ticketholders out there, we will reach out to you directly”.

“We are just as sad as you are,” it said.

“We will continue to fight to bring the best performing talent to the regions. More updates coming soon. Stay tuned.”

According to Ms Hopper, ticketholders were initially offered a refund or to keep their tickets for a rescheduled event in December the following year.

The regional music festival received a $736,000 Covid grant in 2021. Picture: Supplied

That too was cancelled, with customers informed via email last November that “despite our best efforts, we have been unable to revive the Vanfest 22 event” as the challenges caused by the “once-in-a-lifetime” western NSW floods were “far too great to overcome”.

It offered to exchange their tickets for one of three different festivals — Rolling Sets, Let the Good Times Roll or Changing Tides.

The organisers of Changing Tides stressed they have no association with Vanfest.

Ms Hopper said her reaction was “we don’t care” that the replacement event was cancelled as “we weren’t going to that one”, and they just wanted their money back.

She and her partner had submitted a refund request to Moshtix in November 2022 and were informed “it is now in the queue for processing”.

“Every couple of months” they asked for an update on their refund but were told “just be patient, things are taking longer to process”.

“We went to Fair Trading, this went on and on,” she said.

“There’s Facebook groups about it, all the people that got ripped off.”

The ticketing platform finally informed them in December 2023, more than a year later, that Vanfest “used its own merchant facility for your payment, so your payment was made directly to Vanfest and was not received by Moshtix”.

“Where this occurs, under our terms and conditions of sale, it is the obligation of the event organiser to provide refunds to ticket purchasers,” a customer service rep wrote. “Unfortunately, funds have not been made available by Vanfest to pay refunds.”

Heidi Hopper paid $1420 for two tickets. Picture: Supplied

Ticketmaster, owner of Moshtix, has been contacted for comment.

Ms Hopper said after the experience “I will never book anything online again because we don’t have any protection, especially not anything of value”.

“Overall the system is just flawed,” she said.

“I would have thought that under consumer law I would automatically get a refund. I would love to see the laws changed so the corporations aren’t protected and you’re looking after the consumer. It seems logical if you pay for a service and don’t get it you should get your money back.”

Mr Glezer said the case was “another perfect example of how our law lets us down”.

“I believe that consumers should always be entitled to an automatic refund for any cancellation,” he said.

“Under consumer law, if an event is cancelled due to an act of God — weather, terror, pandemic, whatever it might be — there is no obligation on the company to refund customers. It comes down to their terms and conditions, which is a disgrace.”

He slammed Moshtix for stringing ticketholders along.

“Heidi was promised a refund by Moshtix and then months later, they deferred responsibility to the event organiser,” he said. “What Heidi has gone through by being bounced around between two companies is extremely common. There is only one loser in situations like this, and that’s the customer.”

NSW Fair Trading confirmed it was investigating Vanfest “following complaints about cancellation of the event, accepting payment without intention to supply, changes to the event date, difficulties receiving a refund and unsatisfactory goods”.

“NSW Fair Trading has received a total of 84 complaints, nine in 2024 and 75 in 2023 about this trader,” a spokeswoman said.

“As the investigation is ongoing, further comment is not available at this time. Consumers who continue to have difficulties resolving their issue with this trader are encouraged to submit an online complaint with NSW Fair Trading.”

Consumer advocate Adam Glezer said the law should be amended. Picture: Wayne Taylor

Australia’s once-thriving music festival scene has been hit with multiple cancellations this year including Splendour in the Grass, Groovin the Moo, Spilt Milk and Coastal Jam.

Organisers have blamed rising costs, poor ticket sales and lack of government support.

Earlier this year, industry expert Danny Grant suggested the Covid “hangover” was a big reason so many were failing.

“After Covid … the government pumped a whole lot of cash into festivals,” he said.

“They used this to buy massive artists. After Covid we had this fake economy, this false economy of artists coming through, every single line-up was packed to the brim. With such massive amounts of money in Australia, everyone was getting a taste of that pie. All the festival line-ups were stacked double, triple, more than they would normally be.”

As the Covid money dried up, this false economy had been pulled out from under festival promoters, according to Mr Grant.

“So they have got to go back one step and basically lower the line-up,” he said.

“So when they lower the line-up, people are getting pissed off about it and they are saying, ‘Well I am not going to support that and go to this because the line-up is not as good as the year before.’”

But Mr Grant said the biggest reason festivals are “flopping all over the country” was low ticket sales.

“If you sell hundreds of tickets or even just a couple of thousand, you aren’t running that show,” he said.

“There is no one crazy enough to do that. So when they are looking down the line, they need to decide if they are going to cancel now, or they are going to hold off. Basically, if they cancel now they are going to rip up the artist deposits and they can move forward.”

That meant the organisers “don’t have to pay for the infrastructure, they don’t have to pay the final amounts and all the other shit that goes into a festival”.

“They might tear up, for argument’s sake, $1 million,” he said. “If they run and lose, they might lose $8 million to $10 million.”

Mr Grant said the current festival economy was “really awkward and weird” and many organisers were choosing to play it safe by cancelling and coming back when the situation was more stable.

— with Ally Foster

Originally published as ‘Ripped off’: Ticketholders still chasing refunds two years after Vanfest cancelled