VIDEO: Festival axed just weeks before event

Wednesday 10 May 2017

MASS festival promised to be "Jersey's Greatest Dance Party" - but festival organisers have axed the event just weeks before it was scheduled to take place.

The festival was due to be a new addition to the Jersey summer scene but the MASS festival team announced the cancellation this week, blaming poor ticket sales as the reason.

In a statement released on Facebook they said: "Despite strong early ticket sales, we, the organisers are not confident at this stage, that the number of tickets sold at this point is strong enough to enable us to produce an event to the level we would all be proud of, both from a production and customer satisfaction point of view."

"Outdoor events are extremely expensive to produce and take a lot of time and effort to prepare and plan for, but if the event doesn’t appeal strongly enough, then it is not worth the risk of waiting in hope for last minute sales. Jersey historically sees strong sales later rather than earlier in the sales period, but this must change for event organisers to feel more confident. Whilst we still have the opportunity to cancel the event cleanly, and refund all tickets holders, we feel it is the right thing to do."

VIDEO: Noisia was one of the headline acts scheduled for the festival.

Over 800 users had clicked 'attending' on the Facebook event with a further 1000 users expressing 'interest', however, how this social media response transpired into actual ticket sales is unknown.

The festival was due to take place at Val de la Mare on 27 May. Some acts have been rescheduled for the same day at different venues; Rojo and Mimosa- and all ticket holders have been offered a full refund. 

Social media was rife with Islanders voicing their disappointment at the cancellation. 

first they cancel Jersey Live, now Mass festival .. they trying to kill us off

— Hannah Le Lievre (@Hanroxana) May 8, 2017

However, whilst some showed sympathy with the organisers with one user writing: "Some people are so ungrateful. You're all getting a full refund and it's not like the organisers wanted to do this. If people aren't putting their hands in their pocket and buying tickets then there's nothing they can do",  others did not accept low ticket sales as a justifiable reason.

One facebook user wrote: "some people don't have the money to buy the tickets straight away? it's almost like your blaming the public for this event being cancelled? If the organisation didn't have the money in the first place why take on such a big event? Especially after jersey live being axed."

Mass festival has been cancelled:(((

— Elise Jade (@EJKleis) May 8, 2017

Read the full statement from the MASS team below: