Not to be outdone by the truly spectacular disaster that was Fyre Festival, local party organisers in Bondi have achieved the same thing on a much smaller scale: big promises, extremely dodgy delivery, and a bunch of very cranky punters wondering where their money is.
A would-be party attendee contacted us about the event in question. It was called The Curious Labyrinth, and organised by a Sydney event group called The Underground Party.
“We thought it was going to be an event in a hedge maze, full of music and art and food etc.”
Sounds like an interesting way to spend a Saturday night – and look at those lush hedges! – so nearly a thousand people RSVP-ed yes, spending $45 a pop on tickets to this magical hedge maze that was supposedly being constructed at an undisclosed location.
Are you seeing where this is going, though? Yeah, there was no hedge maze, and there was no secret location.
What there was, was a couple of fake plants stapled to a wall at the Jam Gallery in Bondi Junction – where the event’s afterparty was supposed to have been held.
“This doesn’t really make any sense,” our source told us, “except to maybe the party organisers themselves which just shows how stupid the full marketing campaign was. Why would you keep the location a secret when it is to be held at the same location as the after party?“Also, in terms of the event description, how can you hold a night in a hedge maze in an indoor location? Obviously something is amiss but at this point we didn’t really know wtf was going on. [On the] event page [there were] tonnes of comments with people confused AF as to where the event was to be held.”
News.com.au spoke to punters who said that there was no maze at all, only “fake greenery in a bad nightclub“. Ouch.
Considering the event organisers’ attitude towards their client base, however, it shouldn’t be a massive surprise that the event was a flop. Our source sent us screenshots from the now-deleted event of a LOT of very disgruntled comments.
Of course, as soon as they were posted, they’d be deleted, by a group of organisers clearly starting to shit themselves at their lack of forward planning.
The same pissed-off near-punter was sent a very defensive email by the planners after inquiring as to the event location, in which the party organiser appeared to dare her to take them to court over the fuckaround:
“Formal escalation? Do you really want this to be a matter for the courts? I’m happy to do that if you like? Please”
Our source assured both the organiser and us that she had only been trying to confirm whether this particular address was the best point of contact.
The organisers have told News.com.au that disappointed partygoers are being refunded. Our source says she hasn’t seen payment yet.
C’mon, everyone. The world only has room for one Fyre Festival. Let’s leave the gigantic fuck-ups to the experts.
Source: News.com.au.
Image: Supplied.
