We're trying to figure out a tactful way to request a refund due to a promoter's lack of advertising and lack of response / support for the artists.
A little background, for the last 4 years we've participated in a local show that was held in a college auditorium. That college is a non-profit and due to some changing rules regarding the limited use of their facilities for any commerce, were forced to make the decision to discontinue promoting and providing space for the holiday show. The local county fairgrounds decided to continue the show and contacted all the artists.
Having participated for 4 years at the college with reasonable success we went ahead and signed up for the event in the new location, assuming that part of our booth fee would be for marketing and informing the public of the change in venue. Turns out the only marketing the promoters are doing is to post it on the fairgrounds website, that's it. The old show had a huge reader board that could be seen from the freeway, they had fliers, posters, etc. in the local area, it was a well known event. The new promoters seem to think the public will just find their way to the new venue and all the artists will just magically have the same level of sales we've had in the past.
We've had absolutely no contact from the promoters other than cashing our check, no communications to the artist regarding show logistics for a show that is less than 3 weeks away now, never received any word that we had even been accepted. We've left voice mails, sent emails, no response.
Based on the lack of response and the lack of marketing we've decided it's proably not worth wasting our time on this holiday show and maybe for the first time in 5 years we'll actually take Thanksgiving weekend off and just relax.
Any suggestions on how we can obtain a refund? I don't feel like the promoters have lived up to their responsibilities to either inform the artists of their acceptance, logistics, etc. and without marketing the event don't see how much if any sales is going to happen.
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So, I finally got an email from the show promoter. Turns out they accepted all prior participants and were sorry this wasn't more apparent in the paperwork they email in April. However, the cover letter with the application stated that everyone would be juried this year (wasn't the case in the past due to their prior participation rules). So in my mind, and the minds of 2 other artists I spoke to, we were all assuming we would be notified with either an acceptance or rejection. So now the show is asking if we can still particpate.
This just doens't "feel" right. I get the feeling we're not the only ones backing out.
Go with your gut.
Normal type of application including the updated show info based on location. They were supposed to be publishing an artist's newsletter, that still hasn't arrived. The lack of marketing is going to be a huge problem, I think, due to the change of location.