Summer brings on not only hot weather and beach days, but outdoor concerts and festivals. While your intentions of enjoying a music festival may be having a dance and a drink, sometimes situations arise out of our control where we don’t get the experience promised, or become involved in accidents. Depending on the nature of the incident, you may be eligible for a full ticket refund or injury compensation.
Under Australian Consumer Law, people have the right to seek compensation or reparation if a business hasn’t provided a product or service promised. This includes cancelled concerts, or injuries that occur onsite.
The music festival got cancelled – what can I do?
Purchasing a concert ticket is entering an agreement – you have paid money on the assertion that you will be receiving a specific service or experience in return, in this case, a music festival. Terms and conditions surrounding a ticket are generally shown to you at the time of purchase. No matter what the conditions say around refunds, if the festival has failed to deliver the event you were promised or cancels it altogether, you are liable for a refund under Australian Consumer Law. This can include alterations to a line-up – if the main act has pulled out or refuses to perform, you may be able to be fully refunded.
What happened after the Falls Festival stampede?
In 2016 at Falls Festival in Victoria, a massive crowd crush took place as hundreds of concert-goers headed to a narrow exit at the same time. Audience members were trampled by each other and suffocated beneath the mass of people. Twenty-nine people were hospitalised after the stampede, and another 80 were treated by ambulances onsite. Injuries from the event included broken bones, scarring, head injuries and post traumatic stress disorder. One plaintiff had significant nerve damage in her arm which resulted in permanent numbness.
At a Supreme Court hearing in November, the events company behind the festival, Ash Sounds Pty. Ltd., agreed that it was negligent in caring for the safety of the festival goers. It was estimated that “significant injury” compensation could cost over $150,000 per person injured.
If you have been at an event where you have sustained an injury, and you believe you could be eligible for compensation under a slip and fall public liability claim, get in touch with the team at Gerard Malouf & Partners Compensation, Medical Negligence & Will Dispute Lawyers.
