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What was supposed to be a weekend of sweet live music, left people with a sour taste in their mouth.
The Sweet Escape Fest hosted in Victoria Park over Labour Day weekend received a lot of notoriety over its inaugural event
Organizers of the two-day music festival have been criticized over the event’s lack of security, lack of refunds for drink tickets and artists themselves claiming they were not paid for their performances.
Some people on social media are calling it Regina’s Fyre Festival, which was a fraudulent luxury music festival to be hosted in The Bahamas back in 2017.
In a statement to 980 CJME, the Regina Police Service said there were issues with staffing, security and entertainers not being paid on Saturday.
However, organizers Simon Tekeste and Jeremy Lauagan say the event was a success.
“Definitely a lot of positive feedback, a lot of people got to see some of their favourite artists and a lot of the performances were stellar,” Lauagan told 980 CJME on Tuesday.
“To be an outside venue in the heart of the city was a very special moment.”
Tekeste said Sweet Escape wasn’t able to serve drinks on Saturday even after people had purchased drink tickets.
“In response to the lack of security guards at the event, all the festival organizers acknowledged that oversight and due to the breakdown of security, we were unable to continue to sell those drink tickets at the event,” Tekeste said.
“Unfortunately, this was not clearly communicated in a timely manner but it was staffed, the beer gardens were staffed, and once more, we do apologize and we are committed to making improvements.”
Tekeste said security was contracted to work both Friday and Saturday, but they didn’t show up due to circumstances the duo claimed were out of their control.
He said the crew is working on getting people their refunds.
The festival hosted performers like rappers Polo G and Fat Joe.
Polo G was one of those who took to the stage while saying they hadn’t been paid.
Tekeste said the matter of artists not being paid was due to a misunderstanding about the payment arrangement regarding the despots and final scheduled payment, but it has since been resolved.
“We are still committed to improving our communication and transparency in the future as well,” he said.
The duo has plans to bring Sweet Escape Fest back in 2025 “bigger, better and stronger.”
“We understand that there were some that were disappointed,” Lauagan said. “We share your disappointment as well, and there were some challenges that we needed to face. We apologize. We wanted the music festival to be enjoyable experience for everybody and just bring the community together and share this music festival together.”
The duo said some proceeds from the event would go to the Hospitals of Regina Foundation (HRF).
Bonnie Monteith, the vice president of marketing for HRF confirmed this, but said it normally takes weeks after such an event before any proceeds would be received.
– With files from 980 CJME’s Roman Hayter and Abby Zieverink