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The Meadows golf course to refund 430 Pemberton Music Fest tickets

Money spent by residents hadn't been passed on to Huka prior to festival’s bankruptcy
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Tourism Pemberton

Finally, a good-news story coming out of the collapse of the Pemberton Music Festival.

Pemberton residents who purchased tickets for the bankrupt festival locally from The Meadows at Pemberton golf course will have full reimbursements, said general manager Kevin McLeod.

Around 430 tickets were sold through the golf organization starting from early May, with limits of four tickets per household.

The Meadows had an arrangement with organizers Huka Entertainment to sell tickets that began in the festival’s first year in 2014.

“We have the money in one of our accounts, we haven’t transferred it over (to Huka). We don’t usually transfer it over until the festival (weekend),” McLeod said.

“We won’t run out (of the money). We have money earmarked for each ticket.”

The golf course is the only Pemberton company to sell festival tickets, an arrangement set up strictly for local residents.

But reimbursements will be made slowly for those paying by credit card, McLeod said, and he asked for patience.

“We’re working with our credit-card company to get our daily refund limits raised. It has been a tough battle; they’ve doubled it but it is still not enough. I put out a Facebook post to tell people to be patient with us,” he said.

“I don’t want people to rush over. We do have a daily limit and we’re trying to get that higher.”

McLeod was unable to say how much money this involved.

The Meadows will take a loss, he added.

“We’re going to lose out on the credit card fees,” McLeod said.

He estimated it will be about 1.5 per cent per transaction.

“It’s not that bad, it’ll be a little bit of a hit. We found it easier to refund everyone the money they paid, rather than (including) net credit card fees. You know, it’s goodwill.”

All ticket purchasers who bought through The Meadows are on a list McLeod has. Reimbursements will start being paid out on Tuesday, May 23.

Other ticket holders are going through a more complicated process, with fans who bought tickets through Ticketfly being categorized as unsecured creditors, the last to be paid in a bankruptcy proceeding.

Apart from ticket holders, 120 unsecured creditors may be out millions of dollars. Accounting firm Ernst & Young is trustee for the bankruptcy.

Pemberton Music Festival, LP declared bankruptcy on Thursday, May 18.

Of the arrangement the golf course had with Huka, McLeod said:

“In years past, we were selling tickets for the locals’ early bird in November, December and January. This year, we didn’t start selling them until April or May.”

Despite the lateness of the start of ticket sales, the festival’s bankruptcy caught McLeod off-guard.

“I don’t pay too much attention to it, because I’ve got this beast to run and we’ve been busy all year.”