Roxodus Festival: What went wrong?
Written by Camões Radio on July 10, 2019
Had everything gone according to plan, the stages and other structures for the first-ever Roxodus Music Festival would have been nearing completion. Doors to the campground would have opened tomorrow with the music of the three-day set to start on Thursday.
Instead, nothing is happening. Everything has been cancelled. Why? And what happens to all that ticket money?
Global News spoke with Mike Dunphy, the logistics guy for Roxodus. He left promoter MFLive on June 21 just as he was directing crews on setting up the fences around Edenvale Airport, the site of the gig. His ex-partner, Fab Loranger, canceled the event about a week later, citing unsafe wet and soggy ground conditions at the venue. Despite not being involved in that decision, Mike has been taking a lot of heat over the cancellation of Roxodus.
This was the explanation available on their official website:
The blaming game
In a statement to Global News, Fab Loranger blames his former partner, Mike Dunphy, and a loss of “millions” as the real reason why the concert is not happening.“Our specific role in the entire project was to provide the funding,” Loranger writes. “We invested millions of dollars. We relied on Mr. Dunphy, his representations and his advice, to ensure everything was properly taken care of. It obviously wasn’t. We lost it all.”
Loranger’s former partner, Dunphy, called the allegations “ridiculous.”
“That is an incorrect statement,” Dunphy said. Dunphy believes the cancellation happen due to the poor ticket sales. He left MF Live Inc. on June 21 prior to Roxodus being cancelled because he could no longer “draw a salary,” adding he never thought Roxodus wouldn’t happen.
Tickets Refund
Meantime, ticketing company Eventbrite responded to concerned ticket holders “After multiple attempts to communicate and secure funds back from Roxodus organizers, they have provided no indication that they will refund ticket holders,” the company said. “We believe attendees deserve to get their money back now, so we have set up an Eventbrite-funded Fan Relief Program to make all Roxodus ticket holders whole while we continue to aggressively pursue the return of funds from the festival’s creators.”
Source: Global News
