An apology has been issued by the organisers of Mandurah’s Bali Fest, which was held to boost cash to assist Indonesia’s struggling vacation vacation spot.
As a substitute, they’re providing refunds and have scaled again the Easter Weekend occasion after confessing it failed to fulfill expectations.
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Dozens of punters who attended the $30 ticketed occasion took to Fb to explain the occasion as “underwhelming.”
Bali Fest promised a pageant “bringing Bali and its tradition, meals, leisure, purchasing and leisure way of life to Australia.”
However attendees mentioned they “didn’t get something remotely near a Bali expertise” and the pageant didn’t precisely signify Balinese tradition as marketed.
In line with The West Australian, a number of complaints had been lodged with the ACCC.
‘Waste of cash’
“I really really feel sorry for all of the individuals who paid for the tickets believing they had been getting what was marketed,” one attendee mentioned.
“It was an actual waste of cash that would have been simply donated on to the individuals who wanted it in Bali.”
In response, Bali Fest organisers posted an extended apology on social media on Sunday evening.
“We’re taking this chance after a number of days of the pageant to publicly apologise to those that have expressed that they really feel lied to and underwhelmed by the entire occasion.
“We’d additionally wish to wholeheartedly apologise to the Balinese group who had been offended by our lack of cultural illustration.
“This occasion was all the time meant to be a celebration of leisure & tradition whereas bringing consciousness to the wrestle in Bali as a consequence of COVID, clearly, we acquired this very improper.
“We had been attempting to deliver the relaxed Bali way of life the place you possibly can sit again and luxuriate in some chilly Bintangs with stay music whereas supporting native artists closely effected (sic) by the pandemic.
“The crew behind the pageant genuinely put in lots of effort to placed on an important expertise for individuals and comply with by way of with every part that was promised, after the previous yr of lockdowns and restrictions we wished to deliver the group again collectively once more.
“Sadly, a few of these restrictions had been nonetheless in place to hinder our general execution of the occasion, together with oversights from everybody concerned.”
The organisers supplied full refunds however mentioned the occasion would proceed with free entry on Monday and Tuesday and in a scaled-back type.
“As we’ve got dedicated to distributors, native artists and native employees we’ll nonetheless be working tomorrow & Tuesday, nonetheless, as a consequence of public dissatisfaction we’ve got allowed some distributors to bump out and subsequently we is not going to be working at full capability,” they wrote.
On Monday the organisers mentioned they might proceed to boost funds on the occasion by way of entry donations, T-shirt gross sales and gross sales on Balinese merchandise.
One Fb person congratulated the organisers for attempting to placed on an occasion to boost funds for struggling Balinese individuals.
“I feel everyone seems to be forgetting the aim of this occasion,” they wrote.
“I feel it’s nice to see somebody attempting to fundraise for Bali.
“The nation has been depending on tourism and Aussies have fuelled probably the most a part of that.”
“We loved the day, wasn’t what we anticipated in actuality however the firm and climate was fab, nice effort by all, simply have to study from the first occasion and nail it subsequent time,” one other wrote.
