All Tomorrow's Parties Release Further Jabberwocky Statement In Response To Dash And Zeitgeist
Friday, 15 August 2014
Written by Huw Baines
All Tomorrow’s Parties (ATP) have released a statement responding to Dash Tickets and Zeitgeist’s recent posts in the wake of Jabberwocky’s cancellation.
The two day festival had been set to take over London’s ExCeL Centre between August 15 and 16, with James Blake and Neutral Milk Hotel lined up to headline. Jabberwocky was pulled on Tuesday, with ATP’s Barry Hogan citing insufficient ticket sales as the reason.
Dash Tickets and Zeitgeist, who handled PR for the event, posted statements earlier this week announcing their intention to pursue legal action against the festival’s promoter, Willwal Ltd. You can check out what they had to say here and see ATP’s response here.
In their statement, ATP said:
“Firstly, the claim that ATP has received all the funds for Jabberwocky is not true. We have not received a payment from Dash for more than two months. Any advances from the sales before that, went straight into event costs such as various artist fees and venue hire. But we have not received all the funds for Jabberwocky sales from Dash, and for them to make statements on their social media saying we have in fact received all these funds is simply not true. If that was the case, then we would not have struggled to stage the event.
“As per their Terms & Conditions at the time Jabberwocky went on sale, we were always under the impression that in the event of a cancellation; all refunds would be processed by Dash, as the funds were sent directly to Dash's PayPal account - not ATPs. Since then, Dash's Terms & Conditions have changed on their website without our knowledge, well after Jabberwocky was on-sale, in an attempt to reflect no responsibility for the payments accepted into their PayPal account.
“We know you are angry, and quite rightly so as you are hearing contradictory information concerning the source of your refunds - we are NOT trying to pass the buck, but any funds we did receive from Dash are tied up in the cancelled event and we too have lost considerable amounts of money. But we are petitioning Dash and working closely and restlessly with Paypal to ensure all customers receive their full due amount.
“Secondly, the PR firm we originally engaged for Jabberwocky, Zeitgeist, felt it was necessary to announce to the world that they were taking legal action against us. What they neglected to mention was that we actually terminated their services for doing a disappointingly substandard job on the Jabberwocky press campaign and are in a legal dispute with them over the amount owed. When we dismissed them, they also started circulating rumours that Jabberwocky was in trouble, which of course did not help with advance sales and unfortunately, became a self-fulfilling prophecy.”
Meanwhile, Neutral Milk Hotel, Deafheaven, Kurt Vile and Pissed Jeans are among the bands booked to play Jabberwocky who have arranged London shows in its stead.
UPDATE: Following the publication of ATP's message, the Zeitgeist Agency's Jamie Stockwood released the following statement:
"It's good of ATP to finally respond on this matter. It would appear that our company, the ticketing agency, all suppliers and all the disappointed fans were wrong about Willwal Ltd. Even their partners have distanced themselves from the situation. This is a matter for the courts now but we are sure the overwhelming recent media coverage and ongoing investigations will ensure the good will out."
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