By Bernard Zuel
Having the Presets replace the withdrawn London Grammar on the Splendour in the Grass bill this weekend may be seen as a good save.
It means that while refunds are available until 5pm on Wednesday (only for single-day tickets for Friday, when London Grammar would have been playing), the festival has found a high-quality replacement quickly and may not lose any ticket holders at all.
Ill feeling: London Grammar pulls out of Splendour.
However, it is not always as straightforward as this for festival organisers. What happens when a tour or a festival loses an act because of illness? Is there any return or is it a case of take your lumps as a promoter?
When a band cancels a tour for health reasons, promoters will hopefully have already included medical issues as part of their tour insurance, including pre-existing factors which might lead to cancellation. A cancellation on those grounds of pre-existing issue may also trigger a clause in the contract requiring compensation by the act.
More commonly, a new/unforeseen health issue would in almost all cases require the equivalent of a doctor’s note. No note means no insurance payout. And even with a note, in circumstances such as bereavement, insurance might not cover the circumstances unless the doctor was to advise that the effects of the bereavement were so severe as to prevent the performance.
In that situation, it may come down to goodwill and flexibility. Or just how good your contract was in the first place.
Darren Sanicki, entertainment lawyer and principal of G.I. & Sanicki, said that with contracts, sensible promoters or festivals would want to be ''providing a very high bar in terms of cancellation'' and understand how far they would be prepared to go if something went wrong.
''There are two levels. One is how much recourse you want against the band,'' Sanicki said. ''And sure, if you are promoter and the band effectively screws you, you’d want the contract to be as tight as possible so you would have as much recourse as possible. The second thing is have insurance.''
Festival cancellations are complicated by the number of artists on the bill and the fact insurance may not cover individual acts or only the headliners. ''Insurance is there to claim against the loss you suffered and it's harder in the context of the festival where you’ve sold the tickets anyway and there’s a bunch of other bands,'' Sanicki said.
One approach not popular with bands, who prefer to be paid in advance, is for money to be held in a trust where a portion or all of it can be reclaimed by the promoter in the event of a cancellation or breach of contract.
Of course, whether such clauses are in the contract depends on how much relative clout each party brings to the negotiations. It is well recognised in the industry that in negotiations between the local promoter and a band, the bigger the act, the more likely they are to impose conditions themselves rather than have any imposed on them.
And in the end, long-term relationships – with bands, managers and agents – or the chance to tour a band again, as is happening with Splendour promoters Jessica Ducrou and Paul Piticco who will bring London Grammar back in March next year, may mean all parties just play nice.
For those who purchased a single day ticket particularly to see London Grammar, refunds for July 25 single-day tickets only will be available from Moshtix until 5pm July 23. More info about refunds: ticketsupport.moshtix.com.au/home.