SO WHATS GOING ON !!!!!

[Paul ™]

I'd also echo what Neil says. Also I don't know about this years online sales, but previous years I've bought tickets and it's always been done via Paypal, hence probably all going to one party. 

Give them a chance, this is a big shock to their core colleagues and festival community, this isn't a huge corporate festival, its only been a short time since all this has come to light to them too.

The festival is still over 8 months away, let's see what they come up with.

[elfweirdigan]

True what admin and Paul say here... and also, I've just heard that the folks who're going to start the new festi (the phoenix rising with all the good bits of Alchemy intact) will honour Alchemy tickets as a goodwill gesture, even though they haven't got the ticket money!!

This means it will be harder for them to be financially stable, so they really need our support. They'll be making more statements (and probably launching a website etc) soon

 

Edited January 14, 2016 by elfweirdigan

[atomised]

I hope they manage to. I really do. They dont deserve to be tarred with the same brush but sadly some people wont think like that

[eFestivals]

14 minutes ago, atomised said:

They dont deserve to be tarred with the same brush but sadly some people wont think like that

I think it's all a bit more complicated and nuanced than just a basic undeserved prejudice.

i'd say that the thought of child abuse leaves a bad taste with most people, and when there's other festivals that don't have anything bad associated with them as a fact of history, if everything else was equal, which are most people going to choose? People will intellectually understand it's a fact of history and nothing current, but it's still there and it's unappealing.

This is why I think they'd be better to avoid any association (as much as possible) or use of the same name. It's such a touchy subject with many and something that can often provoke strong reactions, why put extra things in the way that might turn out to be a problem at any point in the future, when it could be easily avoided via a fresh identity?

 

[atomised]

I certainly hadnt meant to suggest it was a simple issue. Even offering to honour Alchemy tickets whilst on the.face of it is a generous offer associates the potential new event with the old 

[eFestivals]

14 hours ago, atomised said:

I certainly hadnt meant to suggest it was a simple issue. Even offering to honour Alchemy tickets whilst on the.face of it is a generous offer associates the potential new event with the old 

Yep, that's the difficult part in it all, and is the specific reason I included the "(as much as possible)" part in my words above.

I don't claim to know the best answer to that dilemma, but I do think the new peeps should keep in mind the possibility of certain choices they could make having a possible impact back on their efforts, and that that possible impact could be at any time (not necessarily just for a fest this year) - because of how much of a sensitive subject it is, because of how it provokes strong reactions, and because of how the views around this can change quite rapidly at any time.

[Paul ™]

It's now called Equinox Festival, more info to come out about tickets bought for this years Alchemy Festival, but they are saying they will honour all early birds sold for Alchemy and allow entry to Equinox.

It's also been moved forward one weekend, so no longer clashes with SEITD.

 

 

[Goblinz]

Back to eFests after a long break, surprised my account is still active! One of the reasons I've not been doing many festivals for a few years is that I've been running one of the stages at Alchemy  (Psy Breakfast) so after seeing this thread i thought I'd log in and give some input!

Alchemy festival was run by one person, it's not a case of other members of management allowing him to take the ticket money and disappear with it for whatever reason.

A community sprung up round the festival with a few of the people who have put in loads of hard work at the event living on site to deal with pack down and clean up. These guys along with other various stage areas and performers have been left in the sh*t, simple as. They've not been paid from the last event and have been left to take the brunt of people who have bought tickets and locals assuming they were involved with whatever it was the previous organizer has in his past. They have not received any money from early bird ticket sails, their role at previous festivals was working on site from months before the festival to months afterwards.

These are the guys that have taken on running the new Equinox festival which will consist of all the old crew from Alchemy, just with other people running the show. It is now a board of directors as opposed to a one man band which will hopefully give them time to organize things a little better than how it was before (one man running round trying to do everything).

The new management is in a bit of a tough situation. Alchemy started off as a small festival and grew. These guys do not have this luxury, they are expected to go straight in with a reasonably sized event which people have certain expectations of. Before the event starts they are going to be short of the revenues from 400 tickets. The result of this is that most people on site will be putting in a lot of hard work and only getting their expenses covered (if things work out) with the hopes that these 400 people are the one's that will come back next year.

The early bird tickets were sold through paypal, I spoke to the new management about this at the weekend and even though it's been relayed through email people still don't seem to realize they can claim the cost of their ticket back from Paypal within 180 days of purchase, which essentially means free entry for the event. I think the plan is though to have a way of making a donation to make future plans for the festival a little easier. I'm going to try and drive this as much as possible because the event deserves to continue.

 

To Summarize.

Equinox Festival has not received any of the Alchemy 2016 Early Bird Ticket money- they are probably more p*ssed off with the situation than anybody else.

If you bought an early-bird ticket then put in a paypal dispute and get your money back (just the same as you would with an ebay purchase that hasn't turned up).

If you get a refund and want to ensure the future of the festival then make a donation to the event - I'm sure details on how to do this will be published in the future

If anybody wants to ask anything then I'm more than happy to respond to PMs

Thanks
Gobzzzie
(Psychedelic Breakfast)

 

[Goblinz]

Forgot to mention - One other difference. The event will be a week earlier, starting on the 16th, this sucks for me as I'll now be rigging a marquee on my Birthday... If anybody feels like putting enough alcohol/whatever in me to ensure the rest of my team have to let me have some time off then it'd be appreciated 

 

[THEBOILERMAN]

We bought earlybird tickets through paypal and are in the process of getting the money back, If I understand it correctly  we can still use the paypal receipt to get into Equinox fest, if thats the case we shall be donating the refund to the fest........ hopefully everybody who bought earlybird tics through paypal will do the same