Amidst the chaos that unfolded following the Matty Healy controversy with the Good Vibes Festival (GVF), the event organisers have issued a plea for assistance with the hashtag #SaveGVF.
While the refund submission period has commenced today until Sept 10, the organisers have reached out via a statement, asking ticket purchasers if they might consider sparing or deferring a portion of their refund.
The call for help comes in tandem with their hope to sustain GVF in the years to come.
Ticket holders will have several refund options to choose from: they can opt for a partial refund while contributing the remaining amount to #SaveGVF, support #SaveGVF by forgoing their refund and converting their #GVF2023 ticket to either #GVF2024 or #GVF2025.
They can also choose to entirely forfeit their refund without ticket conversion and contribute the full refund sum to #SaveGVF. If none are agreeable, they can proceed with a full refund for their #GVF2023 ticket.
However, their appeal has elicited a range of mixed reactions.
"This is 100 percent your fault for lack of research and your failure to comply with what we paid for. We are not obliged to save your festival. A full refund, please. This is our hard-earned money, there is no way we owe it to you to save you from your terrible decision-making skills,” wrote @raksshana33.
Meanwhile, @aidahamizan said: "I don't understand why so many people rant for a full refund when they only attended one day.
"The event was canceled by the government and was not under their management. Why don’t you all rant to the minister who canceled it last minute? I am deeply saddened to those who purchased the tickets but when you want to attend an event, you will need to understand the risk that might happen.”
In the statement, the organisers expressed their gratitude for the unwavering support from ticket holders over the past decade.
"We built the Good Vibes brand from scratch. It has not been an easy journey and we had to constantly prove ourselves in the beginning - trying to attract attendees and international acts to play a small festival in Southeast Asia that no one had even heard of at the time.
"We are deeply saddened by what happened and know it is important to present a refund mechanism to help offset the costs that many of you have faced.
"As you choose your refund option, please bear in mind that we want to be able to continue to put on this Malaysian festival that we love and are proud of and that we hope brings joy to you too; we want GVF to survive,” wrote the statement.
Last month, GVF was canceled after Matty Healy, the lead singer of The 1975 delivered a controversial speech against Malaysian LGBTQ+ laws, shared an on-stage kiss with bassist Ross MacDonald, used provocative language, and destroyed equipment.
In response to the incident, Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil expressed disapproval of the disrespectful act and ordered for the festival to be canceled.