Music fans are set to be left out of pocket and performers have been left 'angry and confused' at shock news that an eagerly-awaited new music festival has been cancelled just over a month from its planned debut.
The inaugural Leazes Live had been due to take place in Newcastle on the May Bank Holiday weekend, with Manchester indie-rockers James headlining a bill which also included North East favourites The Futureheads; The Pale White and Mercury-nominated Lanterns On The Lake. But just days after promoters were heralding new additions to the line-up there came abrupt news of its cancellation.
It seemed that news came out of the blue to those due to take to its stage too, with local singer-songwriter Charlotte Grayson claiming artists had been asked not to post anything about it on social media but, being 'mad' about the situation, she decided to make her own apology to ticket-holders.
Read more: guide to North East music festivals
And one ticket-holder who had paid a total of £87.90 for two to attend the May 1 festival at Leazes Park said his only notification had been an email from the ticket company telling him the festival would not be going ahead. He said: "There is no explanation other than 'matters out of their control'," and he added that he is now out of pocket having paid booking fees which are not being repaid.
"The refunds are only on the face value of the ticket and not the additional booking fee which is approximately £4 per ticket, which I'm really not happy about to be honest, paying almost £8 for two tickets that I'm never going to receive," he said. "Also, I note that the Leazes Live website has disappeared as well as most of their social media pages."
The new festival, organised by Dance Generation Events, had just been announced in February, with concert promoter 456 Live saying it was "super excited" for "an amazing day of live music" in Newcastle to kick off summer 2022.
This Tuesday, Charlotte Grayson posted a message on her Facebook page, saying: "I have seen a lot of confusion regarding #LeazesLive in the past day. From an artist perspective, we got an email yesterday informing us it was cancelled with no explanation, and have been told not to post anything.
"The organisers said they were going to 'quietly delete everything' from online and that we should not announce the cancellation. I was highly uncomfortable with not being allowed to announce a cancellation for a festival I had promoted so I emailed back. No response." The performer, who has a new single out on Shy Bairns Records on May 28, was critical of how the cancellation was being handled, with social media pages deleted and tickets being refunded through the ticket sellers.
"This is not the way to handle a cancellation which is 'out of your control'," she wrote. "Radio silence and hiding your trail looks bad." She added in her post to followers: "If you bought tickets, we are all upset and angry and confused. And I’m sorry that even we don’t have answers. I was looking forward to it, and now I’m mad." She also said that posting her message is "the right thing" to do."
The ticket-holder, who did not want to be named, said he bought two tickets with a 'face value' of £39.50 but actually paid £43.45 per ticket due to fees and a £1 transaction fee, making a whole order total of £87.90. He said the message from ticket company Gigantic notified him he would receive a refund on only the face value of the tickets , £79, leaving him £8.90 out of pocket.
He said this, covering administration fees as part of its terms and conditions, "I guess is fair enough" but he had received no apology for something that wasn't his fault.
He added: "I do know of two other people in the same situation as me, and I have searched online and noticed people on Twitter and Facebook with the same concerns. It also looks like some ticket websites were still advertising the tickets which is concerning." He said he found the "general radio silence" the most worrying part.
Leazes Live's day-long programme also had been due to include the likes of The Prodigy's Leeroy Thornhilll; rave DJ Thornhil; The K's, Bez from Happy Mondays, electronic music duo Altern8 and DJ Slipmatt. Bill-toppers James, who released their latest studio album All The Colours Of You last year, had been seen as a coup for the debut event.
A spokesman for Leazes Live said: "It’s with regret that we have to cancel our Leazes Live event. With the ever changing landscape of rescheduled shows and supplier issues over this busy Bank Holiday period, despite every attempt to try and make it work we were just unable to fulfil the required spec to deliver such a high standard live production safely.
"We are hopeful to bring this gig back in the near future. Customers will need to contact their ticket agents for a full refund."
