TORONTO – After being burned by a disappointing show on Sunday, people who bought tickets for the Kingston Music Festival held at Downsview Park were burned again when they were offered a 50% off coupon for next year’s festival as compensation. When asked if ticket holders could expect a refund, the event promoter says no.
“Because our festival guidelines were that we deliver the show and that all artists perform, there will be no refunds at this time,” said promoter Dwayne Hines.
A lack of water for attendees, audio issues, and a lack of security are just a few of the complaints voiced by people who attended the Kingston Music Festival on August 7th. Boasting an impressive lineup including Popcaan, Shenseea, and Skillibeng, tickets for the inaugural Kingston Music Festival sold quickly, but now online people want their money back.
“Kingston Music Festival was the worst live music event Ever!!!!! Even @PopcaanMusic agrees!!! Mi waan mi money back right NOW!! No water..ppl passing out. 4 bathrooms! Paid for VIP and that was over in 30 mins when I arrived. #KingstonMusicFestival refund now!!!!”
“Kingston Music Festival was a dumpster fire. No water. No sound. Straight f***kery. Never been this mad at an event. REFUND THE PEOPLE.”
Organizer Points Fingers at Crowd for Kingston Music Festival Issues
When asked what he thinks went wrong, Hines points fingers at the crowd who attended the show.
“I think the crowd became excited that the festival was finally happening, and you know crowd mentality. They see something happen, then it trickled down into a series of events, and our safety measures kicked in,” Hines told Brandon Gonez.
Hines claims to have been involved in organizing events at large venues throughout the city, including Scotiabank Arena and Budweiser Stage and says that a lot of planning went into the Kingston Music Festival.
“We say to ourselves, ‘Wow, how did this happen when we put everything in place? Was the crowd too excited? Do we need to change the venue?’,” Hines told Brandon.
“And then we say, do we put an event like this in Budweiser Stage? Do we put an event like this in Scotiabank [Arena]? But it’s hard to convince these venues that our culture deserves these venues. And it’s weird when I say this but it’s true, because we tried,” Hines continued, adding that certain venues in the city denied organizers of the Kingston Festival their spaces.
“We could bring anything else and they’d love it,” Hines continued, saying that they were told that their dates weren’t available.
Hines says that his team has been producing festivals and concerts around the world, across Canada, and throughout Toronto over the past 15 years. When asked why the show started late, with headliners hitting the stage hours after the scheduled start time, Hines claims that the show actually began on time.
“What happened was that we did a secondary screening of the venue to ensure our security plans were in place,” Hines said.
“We have to distinguish between the showtime and the prime time [for] the audience. Showtime began at 3 o’clock. Our festival was the only festival that had 13 Canadian opening acts,” Hines said, adding that they were showcasing those Canadian acts.
But organizers did not provide a rundown for attendees to know what to expect, so the audience did not know what times the artists would hit the stage. Hines said that they didn’t distinguish between headliners and openers.
“What happens is that if we differentiate the times between the headliners and the opening acts, people don’t see the opening acts,” Hines said, clarifying that leaving the audience in the dark as to the show schedule was intentional and organizers expected the headliners to begin at six o’clock.
Hines Blames Security Breach for Lack of Water
Safety concerns were also abundant throughout the festival. Some ticket holders fainted in the heat, while others were not able to access water.
When it comes to these issues, yet again Hines pointed fingers at the crowds for the security breach, claiming it had a ripple effect. He told Brandon that they had enough water to support the crowd. However, he says a breach of the outside perimeter meant that festival officials were not able to bring the water into the venue. He also blamed the breach for other issues.
“At five P.M. when the first breach happened, the left side of the perimeter fencing for the general and the V.I.P. area was breached partially, [and] our security teams they reacted,” Hines said, then blamed the crowd for the security breach, not the security team.
“Because the patrons, they pushed it down,” Hines said, still not providing an answer as to why there was not enough security to stop them.
Hines said that the crowds then began looting the bars, taking bottles and cash. He says that their security teams worked with police to shut down the bars, but then the crows cut the fiber optics that connected the front of house to the stage.
“We’re not passing the blame, we’re just saying the crowd is excited,” Hines backtracked when asked if he blamed the crowd for the issues experienced by Kingston Music Festival-goers.
Hines also wants to thank the police.
“Several times our production crews said this cannot go on, the Toronto police said ‘what can we do to ensure these people have a safe show?’,” Hines told Brandon, adding that police worked with them to adjust their security plan.
But the organizer doesn’t seem to want to take much responsibility for Sunday’s pandemonium.
“There’s nothing else that we could have done more because that same setup was there in 2019 with our risk management, the insurance company, with more than that amount of people, and we executed it flawlessly,” Hines claimed.
Dwayne Hines continued to explain how his team experienced security breaches, why they won’t be issuing refunds to patrons despite a lack of audio, and more on this episode of News You Can Use.
