There was disappointment for hundreds of music fans at the weekend as the Indie’Go festival in Ballydarton House in Fenagh, County Carlow was abruptly cancelled on its second day at 4pm.
The event had kicked off as scheduled on Friday, with John, Shelley & The Creatures and the Groovalicious DJs among the acts who performed.
“It was a series of events really,” said Festival Director Margaret McMonagle talking this morning on Radio Kilkenny. “Ticket sales weren’t great and we thought we’d have more of a walk-up than we did. The security company pulled out, which is what set everything in motion. It all spiralled out of control. The rumour went around that no one was going to be paid blah blah blah, which wasn’t the case. What happened is that everybody started demanding money upfront, which is impossible to do, and that left us in a position where we had to make a decision. There’s been a lot of stuff online about it being disorganised, actually it was really well organised until the security team left and we had one of the best security teams in the land. Anyone who’s bought tickets online will be refunded straight away. We then need to sit down this week and sort out refunding other people. We’re all gutted here – the atmosphere on Friday night was great.”
McMonagle also revealed that a private investor had pulled out a few weeks ago, but that they felt they had sufficient funds to carry on.