I would like to apologise to anybody that feels "ripped off" in anyway, my intentions were only ever to offer people a festival experiance that they would never forget, the truth is simply that the event didnt generate enough money as not enough people bought tickets despite all our advertisment efforts, the festival event costs increased greatly running up to the event as hidden costs became aparent, and the money we already had to fund wasnt enough to cover this increase in costs as well as initial costs. Chicane got paid a massive £8625 deposit, Felix Da Housecat a £5000 deposit, Audio Bullys a £3750 deposit, there balance payments that we couldn't pay due to lack of funds were due to be the same figures as there deposits again, all these acts kept there huge deposits for themselfs after the event for doing nothing at all and not showing up to play, if those three acts alone returned there massive deposits to me for doing nothing, we could refund 250 weekend camping tickets at £70, or 700 part refunds of £25, but artist agents wont part with this money (the customers money), as it was a contracted deposit agreement.

I understand and respect the fact that artists are under no obligation in anyway to return there deposits and refund customers on my behalf, however as there is no money left in Get Yr Kix Ltd and the acts didnt "earn" this money as such, I would consider them to be the only people in the position to refund seriously unhappy fans, without personal loss to themselves.

I did all I could, and I am honestly sorry to anybody who did not enjoy there weekend, it was a big step for me to put on a £250,000 music festival, I'm only 22 and full of ambition, and perhaps I took to much on to quickly and for this I am sorry.

My company "get yr kix ltd" is in the process of liquidation, and unless the artists that did not play but did recieve a deposit return these monies, refunds sadly are very unlikely.

Running up to the event it became quite clear that we wouldn't hit the sales figures that we needed to pay everyone accross the weekend, we were faced with a difficult choice, that choice being either to cancel the festival event and only a fraction (not all) of the customers would get a part refund however myself and family wouldnt loose a penny more, the other option was to open the gates to the public despite the situation and risk myself looseing a further £100,000, but at least still the customers are offered something to do as apposed to nothing at all like many other festivals this year, the second option was the choice we came to amongst myself and family in the end.

Again I apologise to those who feel ripped off, a lot of people have good things to say about Southern Sound and had a great time to my delight.

If you feel totally cheated, please send me a personal message via my Facebook profile, and though I cant offer a refund, I will happily and honestly answer your questions.

Thanks for your time everyone.

Laner
x

We ended up getting 1500 paid customers in total, 1800 customers in total on the Saturday when including non paid customers and industry/guestlist visitors, the Sunday was considerably worse in numbers.

Myself and all involved all thought that at least half capacity (2500 people) was a seriously achievable figure, if this figure was achieved the story would have been a very different one indeed, but sadly we didnt hit the required statistics we believed to be realistic to cover all costs.

Again, the break even for this event was assumption based on past experiance, and thats the best I or any promoter can go by when taking a risk, and I apologise to those who feel cheated as a result of my assumptions, the risk didnt pay off as hoped and now I must live with the result for the rest of my life.

Laner
x

Thanks for explanation.

Although was disappointed few acts I wanted to see were cancelled, I still had an awesome weekend. Not sure if that was down to Get Yr Kix or Fusion though.

A lot of events that don't already have a "following" just seem to be dead these days. No point complaining or blaming anybody! Blame the credit crunch ;)

Becki
x

fair play mate at least you got back to us was a real shame it didnt go to plan,Problem is people havnt got the money to go to these things lack of jobs etc so pulling it off was going to be a hard task.i enjoyed the saturday sun booze music met some wicked people.the set up was great just didnt have the volume to fill it. think the fee for the djs is way too high no wonder you couldnt pay them,Great venue would like to see another fest there maybe just a one day full on one and ticket prices a bit lower to give people the chance to go.

i had a wicked weekend laner, althought admittedly i didnt have to pay.

i think the people that were there were just trying to make the most of it, and the acts that still played banged out some quality sets.

Thanks for the explanation. it would have been more honest if you had announced you were cancelling acts before the event as I bought my ticket the day before and there was no info about this at all. If you had you could have sold tickets at a reduced price making it more affordable. You also might have sold more tickets if someone actually answered the ticket hotline as I tried to call that a few times with no luck. Fair play to ya for the ambition, hopefully you will learn from these mistakes and not be like the other festival organiser on watchdog last night whos cancelled 3 festivals so far! At least we got something for our money. I got something, I got very drunk :)

i like this

I can see and believe you had good intentions to be honest and I feel for you, Even when I heard about the free entry sunday I thought something was wrong from my past experience.

Its a big step and a very silly idea to jump into without fully knowing and understanding something of that scale. I dont doubt your promotion skills but obviously this was not enough to pull it off.

I will say this though I agree it is not the problem of the booking agent or the music act to pay back that money they kept as a deposit but Its fucking disgracefull that they do.

You get many 2 bit promoters who try to rip off crowds and even not pat acts and do a runner but in this circumstance alot of people are going without who bought tickets aswell as Im guessing a very ugly situation for you and your family financially.

Yes its self inflicted but Chicane are not going to lose sleep over 8K for doing nothing. If thats there deposit im sure thats just pocket change to them and just 1 weekend gig lost.

I'm not saying bands/djs/live acts should not charge this money. They would be stupid not to when promoters do in most cases make the money to pay it them but this is a whole different situation which tbh a normal human being with sympathy for others would probably do that right thing.

I wish you all the best and hope you get yourself out of the mess man, Its a horrible situation to be in.

Mate fair play for giving it a shot, I personally feel had the other promoters you had involved and where probably paying big money to (ie Fusion) had pulled their fingers out and helped promote the event through their avenues you may have done better. Never saw any big promotion from Fusion and they fill the Operah house with a way smaller line up. Maybe Fusion etc dont have that much pulling power after all :(

But one question.... I brought my ticket on Saturday evening via Paypal and regardless of your company going into liquidation you should still be able to refuse that transaction, unless after the event you emptied your paypal account or whatever to help pay of YOUR debts not mine

I know the feeling mate promotion is a risky business you can invest as much money as you want but if you don't get the numbers you end uplosing thousands hence why i've quit for the time being. Its true what beki says above its hard to keep a following these days one minute you're on top next minute all you can afford is beans for dinner.

Good luck 4 the future :)

If it wasnt for the credit crunch and you got double the numbers people would probably be talking about what a great festival it was and how the people who didnt go had missed out. As one of the people who got a cheap ticket when you were trying to boost the numbers I went there not worried about the cost. And I must say you had a great setup. Sound systems were all 1st class.

The Hardcore on the main stage all day Sunday was loud and crystal clear and far far better than Global Gathering personally!

Unlucky with the whole thing, it was brave and you got it wrong. But thankfully you have discovered a quality venue with no sound restrictions that I feel may have at least one or 2 festivals at next year! Sanctuary Festival would be ideal!

Respect for posting the details on here and I agree - some money back from the artists would be a nice touch and pay the refunds to those that desire them!

The thing is these acts were booked and its not their fault mr lane couldn't pull off such a big event, mr lane tried to go to big to quickly and failed simple as that.

They were giving them away for free at this point! Unlucky for you that you didn't get a msg via fb...

do u know what i dont know what everybody is even moaning about.. i saw all the people i went to see and more.. i had a wicked time, as he says himself it is all about the festival expiriance and who you meet and what u do.. the weekend was what YOU all made it, if u didnt have a gd one, u clearly didnt take enough drugs or money or ur just boring.. its not about how many people turn up its about the experiance end of story. :) sorry but i feel for the fella who put it all together cos if u ask me he did a pretty damn good job considering... Lies.. I have one complaint, the food was awfull the burgers were diiiiiiiiirty and the chips taste like they'd been left overnight then re-heated and it cost me £18 for 2 burgers and 2 chips.. other than that not complaints. u got my vote for southern sound 2010.

People are complaining because they paid a set amount of money for a specific thing just because you can't understand this doesn't make people boring. Some people might have had a great time but they might have had a very good time at one of their friends houses should they have to pay 70 quid for that as well. Clearly some poeople are happy to be ripped off and thats good news for mr lane perhaps he can charge you 300 quid next year and have no acts but because your off your head it will not matter.

That such a fucking ridiculous thing to say.

Not everyone takes drugs you know and people can have a good night without them.

Oh dear. What an idiot.

Perhaps you should take a loo at yourelf and your friends and ask yourself, 'Do I have a good time cos I have taken drugs, am I able to have a good time without them?'

I feel sad for you.

You still owe me money from how many years ago Lee!!! - when you paying that back???

I didnt personally go to the festival but have watched everyone get annoyed about it on DSI. Fair play to those who paid money for acts they didnt see and are annoyed but also Lane has put himself on here and taken all of your criticism on board. If I'd have gone I'd have been annoyed but festivals are what you make of 'em its true. Respect for having the guts to take on the wrath of DSI Lane.

Uh-huh... despite the fact I / we were threatened by a number of site admins such as those on Facebook for over spamming.

Anybody else agreeing with the above statement regarding Fusionnot pulling their fingers out?




....didn't think so. Nice effort at taking a pop though, facts before delivery of ill thought out comments next time please ;o)