Dear May Heydays Hopefuls
We have been given the friendly advice that it is not legal to do
other than make a full refund of ticket price paid under the
circumstances in which we now find ourselves with the festival.
Further, that the wording of our mail to those whom we have already
refunded could have been clearer, by inviting our supporters to
contribute to the irrecoverable costs and agree a reduced amount,
rather than just deducting a sum. (For your information, that sum was
about 5% of the ticket price paid).
We did signal in our 17th March general announcement to all our
supporters that we would act to cover any losses incurred for 2020 and
how we would do it:
Please give us a couple of weeks to consult with everyone who may
have incurred costs on our behalf. Most of our
suppliers/performers/the school will not charge us anything at all,
so the total of incurred costs we will need to
recover will be quite minor in the great scheme of things. Once we
know what our total cost is for 2020, we will
apportion this cost to all ticket holders (except, for those paying
via WeGotTickets, where we will not be able to
make any such retention).
No-one at that time came back to us to say it would be unacceptable to
them in particular or to our wider community in general.
In our mail to those already refunded we have said:
We hope you find all this acceptable and we thank you for your
support for all that the committee has sought to achieve
this year
- which has elicited the one mail we have received pointing out the
legal position.
We are therefore perhaps guilty of taking for granted the generosity
of the folk dance community. In the circumstances we will hold off
making refunds at the moment to the small number of people whose
requests are yet to be actioned and we now ask for wider feedback on
the matter – especially as we would have deducted 5% from those
rolling over their monies to next year (where a top-up would be
required in any case for the full Monday programme).
Also, anyone who has been refunded at a reduced level but would like
the full amount should not hesitate to contact me.
We are naturally sorry if we have caused any upset or offence by our
actions. We are but a small band of volunteers trying to keep what has
been a great festival going, at a new location/venue and under new
management – and under trying conditions. We are not and have no wish
to be a commercial, profit-making organisation, but feel we owe it to
ourselves and our dancing community not to accumulate losses.
With best wishes to you for your continuing good health.
Mecki Testroet
Director