Reggae Retaliation
From Reggae Rising
As reported by the North Coast Journal yesterday, a group of disgruntled and disenfranchised Reggae Rising ticketholders, pissed off by the announcement by event organizer Tim Dimmick that tickets will not be refunded after the Humboldt County Planning Commission vetoed the necessary conditional-use permit required for the festival to take place, formed a Facebook group in the hopes of engaging in collective action.
The group, “IF THEY DON’T REFUND REGGAE RISING TICKETS WITH THE QUICKNESS,” already boasts 146 members as of Thursday (minus me, since I’m just keeping track of the group’s happenings) and has been a place where people have vented their frustrations with the event and its organizer. Some are sharing stories about trying to reverse credit card charges via their banks, successful and not, while others, particularly other festivals, are trying to monopolize on the incident by offering discounted tickets to Reggae Rising ticketholders. There’s an estimated 2,000 ticketholders who purchased their tickets prior to the decision, according to testimony from the Planning Commission. The group’s mission:
A group for all the people and people who know people who bought their tickets to reggae ahead of time to join together as a group and move forward with a class action lawsuit against Tom Dimmick if refunds are not issued before July 20th. Ripping people off is not Irie, y’all shouldn’t have been selling tickets if you had knowledge that permits may not be issued. Reggae fans like to promote peaceful solutions to their problems but common Tom, I don’t care if you have to sell your ranch to pay us back.
Here’s a snapshot of some of the musings put forth in the group:
“i have been a faithful reggae on the river goer for many years…until it turned to reggae rising..this would have been my fourth year in a row attending reggae rising …. and they decide to pull this crap… i will never spend my money with them again.. im sticking to reggae on the river in july at least they dont scam people.” -
“still waiting to hear from my credit card company on their investgation, Tom Dimmick remains silent and doesnt answer phone calls while the reggae rsing facebook site comtinues to block all the truthful posting about the fraud that is reggae rising 2010.”
“I AM FRICK*IN PISSED.”
“Reggae Rising site on facebook has been blocking me for a while. Then I get to post, and they censor it like 5 minutes later and block me from posting again. File a dispute with your credit card company. The more people that do this, the more likely we all get our cash back. Screw Reggae Rising. Reggae on the River 2011 or bust!” – Ed Spicer
It also appears one of the organizers of Reggae Rising responded to an invite for the group, giving a blanket threat to all the members who have joined the negative campaign the event by promising to never allow those people to be a part of the event in the future. One of the group;s members who received the message posted this:
“Do me a favor and DON’T send me anti-Reggae Rising shit, as I am a part of the RR family, and I do not appreciate it one bit!! If you send me anything else that is a direct diss against Reggae I will remove you from my friends list…I am trying to run a business here and negative shit against RR doesn’t help me at all. Honestly, I’m not sure why you joined the group, as you aren’t a ticket holder, so it seems like your just spreading negative shit for no reason. Anybody who’s publicly come out on facebook against RR will NEVER work for us again, so I hope you know what you’re alligning yourself with….”
Needless to say, this latest development in what has been for the past four years an at times heated and public battle between the organizers of Reggae Rising and the Mateel-sponsored Reggae on the River could have long-lasting ramifications for the event. Confidence in Reggae Rising, at least for those ticketholders who feel shat upon, will likely not attend any future events. Whether or not Reggae Rising will manifest elsewhere this year is also up for debate, but if it does, it would mean it is either illegal, in terms of permitting, or if a permit is acquired would mean that the process to get it started before the Planning Commission came down with a final verdict. Or something else. We’ll see.
Maybe I should read the NCJ story, but have you tried to get in touch with the event’s organizers to ask them about the tickets? And why can’t they try to get a change of venue? Jessica(Quote) (Reply)