Irish music festival who owes over €300k to fans asks for more money

REFUNDS of nearly €300k, that have not yet been paid for one Irish music festival that was cancelled, has faced backlash.

The Forever Young festival, which took place in July 2023, had one day of their weekend-long festival largely abandoned, due to poor weather. 

Just before Christmas, the organisers sent a blanket email to all those who signed up to receive correspondence - including that of the people who they owed refunds to. This email asks for monetary support for 2024. 

There have now been complaints made by those who were supposed to attend the festival in Naas, Co Kildare, who have not yet received their refunds, yet were asked to raise €1,000,000 in ‘crowdfunding’.

Speaking to Joe Duffy on RTÉ radio this Tuesday, one angered festival-goer got the chance to air their grievances: “I’m owed €485. I asked the direct question on July 17 if I would get a direct refund and the reply was ‘yes’.”

The caller, named Dave, said that he and his wife were not interested in ‘rollover tickets’ or ‘ticket credits’ and were informed that refunds would be paid within six weeks, which they have not yet received. 

Festival organiser, Dr Sharon Alston, replied by saying that they have experienced “a series of unfortunate situations”, which has led to a “delay” in refunds.

“We are waiting on a large rebate by the Revenue which would have paid the refunds by December - the refunds amount to nearly €300k.

“While we have €300k raised in crowdfunding out of €1m, we do not receive it until we reach the full amount - therefore, we cannot take peoples money to refund others.”

When asked if the Forever Young music festival will be going ahead this year, Ms Alston’s response was “if we can secure the money we need then yes, absolutely” which festival-goer Dave responded to by saying “no, I will not be going if it goes ahead this year”.

Iconic media has reached out to Forever Young for a reply in relation to this article