A nurse has spoken of her ‘stress and anguish’ after refund requests for more than £500 she paid to attend a Blackburn music festival have been ignored.
The SummerFest was due to be held in May at Ewood Park, the home of Blackburn Rovers, but was postponed only weeks before the event.
SummerFest was due to bring 80s music icons such as Boy George and The Human League to the town for a three-day festival.
Companies House had listed Anthony Baldwin and Andrew Gregory as directors of Summerfest UK Limited and are said to be based at Waterside Business Centre, in Canal Street, Leigh.
However, on October 26 both Anthony Baldwin and Andrew Gregory ‘resigned’ as directors of the company.
The company does not have any telephone number visible on its website and all social media links from the website appear to be no longer live.
There was also no response from its customer service and general information email addresses.
Speaking to the Lancashire Telegraph, the nurse from Liverpool, who did not wish to be named, said: “We paid £535.50 for VIP tickets and my husband and myself were due to spend a few days staying in the county as we took in the festival.
“I have contacted the company on the e-mail given and have not received any reply. It is really worrying for me as it has been a few months now.
“It is a lot of money and it is causing me a lot of stress and anguish not knowing what is going on. Customers just want to know what it happening and if they get their money back.
“I am not sure if there are other people in the same situation as me.”
Summerfest was due to take place at Ewood Park from May 27 to 29 with acts also including Midge Ure, Kim Wilde, Tony Hadley, UB40 Featuring Ali Campbell, Maxi Priest, Aswad and Soul II Soul.
In January, organisers Andy, a rugby league legend and his business partner, Tony Baldwin, said they had been organising sporting events and two years ago decided to branch out and set up a gig in their hometown.
Struggling to land a venue in Wigan, the pair said they managed to secure Ewood Park.
But then in April the event was ‘postponed’.
A statement from the organisers had said they had ‘taken the difficult decision to postpone SummerFest 22 at Ewood Park, Blackburn.’
They blamed increased costs ‘out of their control’ as the reason, and that ‘all tickets from this year's event will be automatically rolled over for 2023’.
The statement added: ‘For those unable to attend the new date in 2023, full details of how to request a refund will be made available at the earliest opportunity.’
The event was not planned by Blackburn Rovers, and Rovers pointed to the same statement and correspondence e-mail but did confirm, as far as they were aware, that the event would not be taking place at Ewood Park in 2023.
Blackburn with Darwen Council said this was an outside event and nothing to do with the council so they could not comment on it.
The Lancashire Telegraph has reached out to Summerfest Limited but has yet to receive a response.
Did you buy tickets for Summerfest at Ewood Park in May?
E-mail skhan@nqnw.co.uk with your story.
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