Gin lovers’ fury as festival is cancelled hours before event leaving 20,000 punters with NO REFUND
Gin Festival Limited went in to administration on July 5, leaving thousands of gin lovers stunned and demanding refunds for their now-useless £14 tickets.
The West Yorkshire based firm had at least twenty gin festivals on the calendar, and the company’s failure will see 27 staff members made redundant.
Cancelled events include Gin Festival Norwich, which was due to take place at the weekend and was a near sell-out.
Ticketholders for events in Sandown, Worcester, Liverpool, Birmingham, Lincoln, Portsmouth, London, Wakefield, St Albans, Sheffield, Oxford, Edinburgh and Leicester, will also not be reimbursed.
Most punters claim they only discovered the company’s fate through social media posts, adding that the company had not bothered to inform them directly.
Others say they received emails saying the event was cancelled but no information about the company going bust.
Almost 48 hours after the company’s failure, Gin Festival limited posted a statement to social media, saying it had “tried everything we could to rescue the business”.
They added: “"After five years of hard work and passion, this was not a decision we have taken lightly and personally this will mean we lose our home and everything we have worked hard to build.”
Julian Pitts, of administrators Begbies Traynor, said: "Our aim was, of course, to find a purchaser for the business as a going concern in order to safeguard the jobs, but unfortunately, despite our efforts, this did not prove possible."
"In this case approximately 20,000 tickets have also been sold for forthcoming events which will not be reimbursed as part of the administration process," he added.
The advice to those who bought a ticket is to check with their credit or debit card provider to see if they are covered for the loss under the Chargeback system.
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