The organizer of the S2O Taiwan Songkran Music Festival and government officials would meet on Monday to negotiate a solution for refunds after 11 international headliners were dropped from the event at the last minute due to insufficient COVID-19 planning, Consumer ombudsman Chen Chin-yi (陳瑾儀) said yesterday.
Local governments could fine the organizer, Spunite, if the parties fail to reach an agreement, she added.
The two-day festival over the weekend was to feature international performers, including CL of the South Korean girl band 2NE1, Dutch DJs R3hab and Yellow Claw, and US musician KSHMR.
Photo: Chen Chih-chu, Taipei Times
However, Spunite on Friday afternoon announced that the foreign performers would not be able to attend, as the Ministry of Culture had not approved the company’s application for a quarantine exemption, and COVID-19 pandemic preparations for foreign performers and staff.
The ministry said Spunite submitted an incomplete plan on Wednesday, despite numerous reminders, leaving no time to make changes and send the plan to the Central Epidemic Command Center for approval.
Spunite has refused to offer refunds to concertgoers, citing its contractual “right to change venue or lineup,” instead allowing attendees to bring a friend for free.
The incident has led to thousands of complaints, including from Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Mark Ho (何志偉), who held a news conference at the legislature yesterday demanding that Spunite offer refunds to the more than 20,000 people who bought tickets.
Decrying fraud as a “national shame,” Ho called the incident a “new type of concert scam,” in which the organizer sold tickets with the promise of featuring star performers who never showed up.
The organizer not only refused to offer refunds, but also tried to “trick” people into believing that the ministry was at fault, he said.
A concertgoer identified as Heidi told reporters that she bought a ticket on Aug. 3 for NT$3,400, only to discover on Friday that CL, the artist she bought the ticket to see, was not attending.
She called Spunite many times seeking a full refund, but never received a response, she said.
According to ministry regulations governing concert contracts, ticket holders have the right to at least a partial refund if a change is announced before the event and a full refund if it is not announced, Chen said.
Taipei consumer ombudsman Kung Chien-ya (龔千雅) on Saturday said that following negotiations, Spunite agreed to remove text from its Web site and Facebook saying that no refunds would be given.
She also advised ticket holders who did not attend the event to keep their tickets if they wish to seek refunds.
The organizer has not said whether it would offer compensation to people who did attend, Kung added.
Additional reporting by CNA
STRONG RELATIONSHIPS: China would not blockade Taiwan, because President Xi respects him, and Russia would not have invaded if he were president, he said Former US president and the Republican candidate in next month’s presidential election Donald Trump said he would impose additional tariffs on China if China were to “go into Taiwan,” the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported. “I would say: If you go into Taiwan, I’m sorry to do this, I’m going to tax you, at 150 percent to 200 percent,” Trump was quoted as saying in an interview with the WSJ published on Friday. Asked if he would use military force against a blockade on Taiwan by China, Trump said it would not come to that because Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) respected
The Taipei Department of Transportation discouraged YouBike 2.0E users from taking them on long-distance trips after a Taipei city councilor said that riders often use the new electric bike, YouBike 2.0E, to climb Yangmingshan (陽明山). Taipei earlier this year began offering the first 30 minutes of YouBike 2.0 rentals for free, with Taipei and New Taipei offering the YouBike 2.0E on Aug. 30 to encourage rider usage. For YouBike 2.0, the rate is NT$10 per 30 minutes within the first four hours, NT$20 per 30 minutes for five to eight hours and NT$40 per 30 minutes after eight hours. Meanwhile, for e-bikes,
RESOURCE RICH: Taiwan is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire and has up to 30 gigawatts of the potential energy, of which 10 gigawatts could be economically viable Academia Sinica and CPC Corp yesterday began drilling the nation’s first deep geothermal well in Yilan County’s Yuanshan Township (員山). The 4km-deep well is expected to take 18 months to complete and has an estimated investment of NT$337 million (US$10.54 million), Academia Sinica President James Liao (廖俊智) said. “While Taiwan has up to 30 gigawatts of potential deep geothermal energy, with an estimated 10 gigawatts being economically viable, only by digging wells can we determine the actual amount of commercially viable geothermal energy,” Liao said at the project’s opening ceremony. Data collected during and after the excavation process would be used for future
HACKERS’ MARKET: Chat logs about Taiwan and documents outlining ways to take over online accounts were leaked from a company that sells data from hacks Taiwanese cybersecurity specialists found 577 leaked documents which show that the Chinese Communist Party is engaging in “cognitive warfare” against Taiwan through cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns, a documentary released last month by Japanese public broadcaster NHK showed. The filmmakers behind Tracking China’s Leaked Documents said they spent six months visiting seven countries, including Taiwan, where they interviewed members of TeamT5, a malware research and cybersecurity firm, which found the leaked documents. TeamT5 said they discovered a string of mysterious URLs on the social media platform X, which they suspected could be accounts created by hackers or people who leaked data, which led