Elton John fans won’t be refunded for rained-out Yarra Valley show; but can get free tickets to upcoming shows at the venue
Elton John fans who attended the rained-off A Day on the Green concert at the Yarra Valley won’t be given refunds, but promoters are making a special offer to punters as a gesture of good will.
Entertainment
Don't miss out on the headlines from Entertainment. Followed categories will be added to My News.
Punters who were at Elton John’s rained-out Yarra Valley gig will not be given refunds, but instead offered free tickets to other concerts at the venue as a good will gesture from promoters.
The superstar musician played 96 minutes of his January 31 A Day on the Green show at Rochford Wines in the Yarra Valley before a freak rain and wind storm unleashed hell on the stage.
John was soaked, while his piano’s electrical system short circuited and other equipment on stage was water-damaged, meaning the concert was unable to continue that night.
The 12,000 ticketholders were told last week the show was unable to be rescheduled.
In an email sent out today, according to Consumer Affairs Victoria A Day on the Green are not legally obliged to offer refunds to ticketholders as over half the concert was performed before the freak weather event cut the show short.
Punters who were at the January 31 show can choose from seeing a-ha, Rick Astley and Pseudo Echo on Saturday February 22, James Blunt and Jason Mraz on November 15 or Simple Minds, OMD and Eurogliders on November 28 – all at Rochford Wines.
Those who purchased through authorised sellers will be contacted today with details on how to secure their complimentary tickets, and offered a code to redeem a new ticket to one of the three shows – the tickets must be redeemed before February 20, or until the allocation is exhausted.
“We think offering people three options to shows at the same venue is a fair compensation for the part of the Elton show they unfortunately missed,” Michael Newton, promoter of A Day on the Green, said.
“We’ve had to get approval off all of those bands, to their credit they all understand. Hopefully the punters can come to one of those three shows and enjoy it.
“There’s been no untruths or malice or trying to duck and weave. We put a statement out, we tried to reschedule the show with Elton’s people, we had meetings a few days after the show, we couldn’t get another date, we just needed time to work out what we were going to do as a make-good, as a gesture, this is what we’ve come up with. We had to talk to legal people, Consumer Affairs (Victoria) and cover everything off completely.
“We think we’re doing the right thing. There’s a lot at stake if you do the wrong thing. We’re very grateful for the people who come to A Day on the Green shows.
“If he played for 15 minutes and the show ended it’d be a different story, but they got a big hefty dose of Elton. It’s no one’s fault. The storm wasn’t forecast that day, we weren’t expecting the impact that weather had. Some people have said the rain stopped afterwards, he should have come back on. Elton and his team knew there’d been too much damage to the equipment on stage. We don’t cancel shows lightly.”
John’s Australian promoter Michael Chugg had told punters to hold onto their tickets on the night of January 31, however due to the superstar’s tight schedule a new date was unavailable.
“At no time did I promise anything, but I did say we would see what we could do,” Chugg said.
“We spent four or five days trying with Elton’s people in London, trying to find room to fit another show in, it’s just impossible. He’s got commitments overseas as soon as he finishes in Sydney (on March 7) and he’s out of here. When you think he’s been here since November it’s quite amazing, just that effort alone.
“We do feel bad, maybe I shouldn’t have said a word about trying to reschedule on the night, because I didn’t have a clue, it all happened so quickly, there was no time to look at itineraries, I just said we’d do our best. I understand everybody’s disappointment, we’re disappointed too.”
Chugg, a veteran of tour promotion in Australia, said the January 31 show was one of the worst weather conditions at an outdoor concert in his experience.
“We saw this wind pick up, and out of nowhere came this sleet rain, the biggest rain I’ve ever seen. The wind picked up massively and within five minutes had destroyed everything. There was stuff whirling everywhere, Elton tried to keep playing. You can see in the footage people (on the night) took there’s sleet and rain everywhere. Eventually the piano blew up, the stage gear went, the monitors went. The stage was six inches underwater.
MORE NEWS:
TOORAK SCHOOLGIRLS MAKE MEAN GIRLS LOOK TAME
BEAUTY QUEEN’S DREAM US TRIP ENDS IN NIGHTMARE
MASTERCHEF REGULAR CHOPPED AMID WAGES SCANDAL
“It was coming off the roof in buckets, I couldn’t believe how quickly it happened. Everybody was in shock. It was quite stunning in how violently it happened, I’ve never seen anything like that. We’ve had a lot of shows rained out, we’ve also played a lot of shows in the rain, but never anything that intense. It was horrible.
“We knew rain was coming that night, it came earlier than expected, but there was nothing on the radar about winds or anything like that. It came out of nowhere.”
As punter video and photo detailed Elton initially tried to perform in the rain before stagehands covered him in tarps.
On the Saturday February 1 show, which was completed in full the superstar stated “We had a horror last night, we had to abandon the show. There was so much rain the piano died. I would have carried on but we just couldn’t do it so I apologise profusely to the people who were here and didn’t see the last part of the show.”
“Elton was totally soaked,” Chugg said of the Friday gig. “Rain was bouncing off the piano, there was shit flying past his head. He was drenched when he came off stage I went to see him in his dressing room when he left the stage, he was soaking wet. He was quite stunned by it all, as were the entire crew and audience, it was just horrible.
“He did play 96 minutes. But there was no way we could get any of the instruments or equipment working again that night, it was just unbelievable.”
Fans who bought through secondary sites and unauthorised sellers such as Viagogo will not get an email from Ticketmaster and will need to contact the site they purchased their tickets from.