Example has criticized the promoter of a Welsh festival for not paying him his full fee before the event was canceled due to weather problems.
The rapper, also known as Elliot John Gleave, was set to headline the Gwen Gwen Festival in Kidwelly, South Wales on Sunday at 9pm.
However, the 41-year-old announced he was withdrawing from the event after the festival promoter made “no communication” about how the event was going and claimed that he and his team had not been paid the full fee.
This came hours before festival organizers announced they had canceled the festival altogether because “extremely difficult weather-related circumstances” had made construction of the site difficult.
Tickets for the Gwen Gwen Festival cost up to £165 and it was due to start on Saturday, with the first acts set to perform at 10am and 12pm.
Example (pictured) has criticized the promoter of a Welsh festival for not paying him his full fee before the event was canceled due to weather problems
Tickets for the Gwen Gwen Festival (pictured last year) cost up to £165 and it was due to start on Saturday, with the first acts due to appear at 10am and 12pm
In a statement Gleave posted to his 550,000 followers on Instagram on Friday, he said: “Dear folks of Kidwelly. I was due to headline the Gwen Gwen Festival in your beautiful city this Sunday and I’m really looking forward to it.
“It is with great regret that my team and I have had to make the difficult decision to pull out of this event.
“The organizer of this event has breached a number of contract points.” We had no communication whatsoever regarding the stage, technical and backstage facilities.
“Something we can’t just come across unprepared and that would basically go blind into the show.”
“More worrying is the fact that the promoter didn’t pay us the full fee.
“That rarely happens in my experience, but for obvious reasons it’s now impossible for us to honor and fulfill that agreement.” Elliot x’
Just hours later, the festival organizers informed attendees on the event’s Facebook page that the festival had been cancelled.
They said: “We are truly devastated to announce that the 2023 Gwên Gwen Festival has been cancelled.”
“The team has worked tirelessly over the past 9 months, especially this week under extremely difficult circumstances as the weather made construction on site difficult. Because of these challenges and the additional costs involved, we have made the very difficult decision to cancel the event.
Gleave posted a statement to his 550,000 followers on Instagram that he had pulled out of the event
Just hours later, festival organizers (pictured last year) announced on the event’s Facebook page that the festival had been cancelled
“This is not a decision we made lightly and we sincerely apologize for any disappointment this will cause.”
“We would like to thank all the ticket holders, volunteers, artists, vendors, contractors, security guards and everyone who helped and did their best under extremely difficult circumstances to make this work.”
“All refunds are currently being processed and an email will be sent to all ticket holders. These will all be processed with immediate effect. Please allow 5-7 business days for the funds to be credited to your account.
“Again we apologize for this disappointment, we will issue a further statement on Monday.”
Single day tickets to the Gwen Gwen Festival started at £50, weekend tickets cost over £72 and family tickets start at £150, according to a flyer for the event.
Camping facilities were also expected to be made available, with campsites due to open at 3pm on Friday. It’s unclear if anyone was on site before organizers announced the event’s cancellation.
Organizers posted on the festival’s Facebook page last Saturday that construction work was already underway to build one of the event’s three stages.
They said: “The big build started today – if you thought the stage was big last year, you’ll be delighted.”
“This year the stage is bigger and better – we can’t wait for this year’s line-up to grace our stage.” Construction will continue tomorrow, hopefully with some sunshine.’
Artists such as Example, Gentleman’s Dub Club, Sigiriya and Cities are scheduled to perform over the weekend along with a range of stand-up comics.
Web has reached out to the organizers of the Gwen Gwen Festival for comment.