Entering liquidation

I received a disheartening email from a liquidator on Friday. It said:

Dear Sir/Madam,

Ticket holders, Parking pass customers, and Campers.

On 12 March 2026 Bluesfest Enterprises Pty Ltd was placed into liquidation because it cannot pay all of its debts.

If you are a ticket holder, parking pass customer or camper you may wish to lodge a claim in the liquidation for the amount of money you have paid to the company. You can lodge this claim online at the File Information page of our website (details attached). At this stage it seems unlikely that you will be refunded from the liquidation any money, but we will notify you if the position changes.

FFS. Bluesfest cancelled and refunds “unlikely”, less than three weeks out.

I was very not happy to get that email. I bought two three-day tickets to Bluesfest in November last year, plus I booked four nights of accommodation that’s been fully paid for and needed to be cancelled by March 3 to qualify for a refund.

Bluesfest owes $23 million to ticket holders. Under NSW consumer law, ticket holders to an event are entitled to a refund if it is cancelled by organisers, but Bluesfest entering liquidation means ticket holders classified as unsecured creditors in the liquidation process.

I was already not a fan of the bloke who organises the event because of his “this is the last Bluesfest” stunt last year, which lured more than 100,000 people. Then he promptly turned around and started selling tickets for 2026.

But, when Split Enz was announced as the headline act, I put my doubts to one side and handed over my credit card details.

My credit card offers insurance on purchases, but I can’t make a claim on the tickets because my policy doesn’t cover liquidation.

As for the accommodation I booked, we could still drive eight hours to Byron Bay and spend four nights there, then drive eight hours back. But the only reason we signed up for that road trip was Bluesfest.

We don’t fancy travelling all that way at Easter without it, no matter how cute the accommodation might be.

So dirty about it.

All the artists who were flying in for Bluesfest to perform must be even crankier than me. And I feel so sorry for the staff who are suddenly out of jobs. Not to mention all the businesses that are out of pocket – apparently a company that produces Bluesfest merch is down $90,000.

DD and I had some wonderful experiences at Bluesfest over the years, including seeing artists including Crowded House, Madness and Iggy Pop perform. The kids came along too one year and grooved out.

But those happy memories have been tarnished – I feel so let down by the organisers. They must have known long, long before this that they didn’t have the funds to proceed, but they continued to take people’s money right up until the day before the collapse.

You don’t rack up gazillions in debt without noticing the ever-deepening hole you are digging. How can $23 million in ticket sales be gone and more than $5 million still be owed to creditors?

I feel scammed.