‘Online abuse and death threats’ as events firm goes into liquidation

West Yorkshire-based Gateways Event Limited has gone into liquidation, amidst a furious response from some angry ticket holders.

The business was the organiser of the recently postponed Gateways Festival and The Great Yorkshire Dales Proms, which was due to take place between 1 and 3 September 2023.

Kate Ellis, of insolvency practitioners Ellis Breese, has been appointed as Liquidator. She said: “The festival organisers Gateways Event Limited have faced considerable financial challenges and have worked very hard to resolve these.

“Unfortunately, the financial failure of StagedUK and Festickets has directly damaged the viability of Gateways Event Limited.

“I am currently trying to determine the position between Gateways Event Limited and Festicket Ltd to ascertain where certain creditors sit.

“I encourage Festicket customers, in the first instance, to contact their credit card providers or payment card provider to determine whether a chargeback can be claimed.

“There are ticket holders who understandably remain dissatisfied. Regrettably, some have taken to online abusive behaviour even to the extent of death threats. Any such occurrences will be referred to the police for full investigation.”

The supplier of the festival staging, StagedUK, suffered financial problems and ceased trading in July 2022, despite a deposit being paid in advance.

This forced Gateways Event Limited to postpone its 2022 event until September 2023, with customers allowed to transfer their tickets and receive additional free tickets.

Separately, Festicket Ltd, the company’s ticket agent, then collapsed and was placed into administration in September 2022. Festicket Ltd held a proportion of customers’ ticket money at the time of its collapse.

Once the decision to postpone the event was made, Gateways Event Limited refunded a number of event contractors who had made payments direct to Gateways Event Limited.

These were the contractors for The Kids’ Zone, Food Traders and Non-Food Traders. A refund was also made to Skipton Bid and volunteers’ deposits were returned.

Refunds were made to ticket holders who had purchased tickets from local outlets, as well as any customers who purchased direct from Gateways Event Limited. The firm also paid as many people who worked for it as it could.

Due to the company indemnifying Festicket for all costs and losses in relation to event cancellations and customer chargeback charges it is unclear if Gateways Event Limited will be able to prove as a creditor in the administration.

Sums were paid in advance to artists and contractors. Gateways Event Limited has approached each of them to request refunds, given the collapse of Festicket.

This would have enabled Gateways to process refunds to the customers who had requested them. However, only a small amount of money has been refunded – not enough to process the refund amount required.

Gateways Event Limited has approached lenders and private investors but has not been successful in funding the business any further.

Ticket holder details were unable to be obtained from the administrators of Festicket Ltd prior to the liquidation of Gateways Event Limited due to GDPR regulations. Steps will be taken to obtain these details and contact ticket holders.