The Havelock Jamboree is an outdoor camping and outdoor country music festival that has been on hiatus since 2020 due to COVID-19. With no 2022 lineup announced and little communication between event organizers and fans, some ticketholders who held onto their tickets through the pandemic are demanding refunds and filing complaints with credit card companies, banks and the Ontario Ombudsman.
“I do not believe it will go on,” explains Carl Prince. He and his wife have been attending the four-day festival in celebration of their anniversary for nearly 20 years.
“There’s been no advertisement whatsoever. There’s no lineup. So would you go a concert in which you didn’t know if it was going to go on? Who’s going to be there? What stars are there or if they’re going to be the top country acts or just some local bands?”
Prince and his wife doled out more than $1,100 for tickets, reserved camping and preferred seating.
“It looks like everybody’s washed their hands of it,” added the retiree.
Organizers of the event have hosted more than 4,200 musicians over three decades on their iconic twin stages, including Dierks Bentley, Alan Jackson and Reba McEntire. More recently they’ve hosted large Canadian acts such as Tim Hicks and Brett Kissel, as well as The Good Brothers – a band that’s been around since the festival’s early days.
Like most festivals and events in 2020, the Jamboree was forced to close its gates that year due to the ongoing pandemic and threat of the novel coronavirus. It was cancelled again in 2021 despite the fact a line-up announcement was made, and additional tickets were sold to fans online.
“Everybody’s hope rose with those tides and again it was not meant to be, and we moved through the summer,” explains Jesse Ryan, a Markham-based businessman who also has attended the event for more than two decades.
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“Very disappointing because there were signs of life when it came to festivals and concerts and those types of things,” Ryan explained as he held up eight tickets for the festival at a value totalling $2,080.
Fast forward to 2022 and there has been little to no communication with ticketholders.
A call the jamboree’s toll-free line goes to voicemail which advises to “stay tuned” for more updates on the events website. On the website, fans are asked to “hang tight” and are told: “we will have news by the end of May.”
Global News’ calls to the jamboree went unanswered, as did emails. A letter to longtime organizers Paula Chopik and Ed Leslie asking what the festival’s next steps were and whether refunds will be offered also went unanswered.
“It’s starting to feel like the money’s gone,” Ryan said.
Global News stations in Peterborough and Kingston have sponsored the event in prior years and requests from the sales departments regarding advertising for this year’s event have also gone unanswered.
The festival hosts about 20,000 people a year, an early bird general admission ticket costs $260, not including extras such as hydro sites, reserved camping, and preferred seating. At the base cost, that adds up to more than $5 million in tickets alone — tickets which have “non-refundable” written on them.
“The seller of a service like that has an obligation to provide it once they’ve taken the money from the people who plan to attend,” explains University of Toronto marketing professor David Soberman. “It doesn’t in any way give the seller the right to basically not provide the service. The contract is, the service will be provided if you go there.”
Soberman, who is also the Canadian National Chair of Strategic Marketing, says there’s an issue as to what is reasonable when it comes to postponing an event.
“I think that in 2020 postponing is probably reasonable; 2021 maybe even reasonable, but in 2022 when we don’t even have mask mandates anymore in this province, I think is unreasonable.”
Some ticketholders have taken to Facebook, threatening a class-action lawsuit against the jamboree.
“This is a pretty serious issue,” adds Soberman. “They’re probably better off giving a refund because a successful class-action will not be just for the cost of the tickets but for all of the expenses people incurred.”
Nonetheless, with an event spanning 30 years, there are many fans who are standing behind the jamboree.
“The pandemic has messed up many venues and festivals over the last two years and it will take some time to recover so let’s give them the chance to move forward at their own pace,” wrote Barb Blanchard who is a Jamboree fan, in an email to Global News.
At least one administrator on the events Facebook fan page, not an official page, is standing steadfast, supporting the event stating that “any negative posts as to the announcement that is to be made from the ownership of the jamboree, in regard to whether or not it is a go this year will be removed.”
“They have said there will be announcement, it will happen when they decide. The constant complaining will not make it happen any sooner,” writes Kyle Céitinn.
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