CHORZÓW, Poland (CelebrityAccess) — Organizers for Poland’s Fest Festival announced the cancellation of the 2023 edition of the event, citing financial challenges amid slow ticket sales just days before the gates were due to open.
The festival, which was scheduled for August 9-13, featured a lineup with headliners such as The Chemical Brothers, Kasabian, Peggy Gou, and Steve Angello.
Along with the cancellation, event organizers announced plans to file for bankruptcy and warned fans that ticketholders who purchased passes for 2023 may not be able to secure refunds as the bankruptcy process prevents them from making any payments at this time.
“With a heavy heart, we must inform you that, unfortunately, this year we are forced to cancel the festival, and we will not be able to spend these beautiful moments together in Park Śląski.
Our festival was in a phase of dynamic growth, with attendance increasing by over 30% each year. Such dynamic development led us to believe that this year would be just as successful. We were looking forward to it, and based on the expected increase in attendance, we planned this year’s edition. However, despite the tremendous support from many of our partners and sponsors, this year’s crisis in the event and entertainment industry significantly reduced ticket sales, making our projections incorrect. As of today, the number of participants has reached just over 50% of the planned attendance, making it impossible to organize the FEST Festival this year.
In the last few weeks, we have done everything in our power to cope with this new situation. We used all available funds for event organization and the necessary preparations. Over the past months, we held discussions with public institutions, sponsors, and funds to secure additional funding for this year’s edition. We reduced costs and diversified promotional channels. Unfortunately, none of these actions yielded the expected results or secured the finances for the upcoming event. We fought with all our might until the last moment. We are extremely saddened and apologize for this failure to all of you who trusted and supported us over the past years. At the same time, we want to express our gratitude to the artists, sponsors, partners, performers, volunteers, and everyone involved in creating the FEST Festival, as well as to all festival-goers who were the heart of this beautiful event.”
The festival, which debuted in 2019, faced challenges when they were canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic and then forced to operate under strict COVID-19 restrictions in 2021.
For fans who do have tickets, organizers said to expect a “communication” with further communications regarding the refund process.
