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Bloc company goes into administration

By | Published on Wednesday 11 July 2012

Bloc Weekend

The company that promotes the Bloc Festival has gone into administration after last weekend’s crowd-management problems led to the event being shutdown on its first night.

With most artists paid 50% of their fees upfront, and many of the event’s operational costs having already been met, it seems unlikely the Bloc company – an independent festival firm – will be able to refund all of its ticket-buyers. As tickets were bought directly from Bloc company Baselogic, there is no ticket agency between customer and promoter (CrowdSurge just provided the ticket sale infrastructure), meaning ticket-buyers will likely rely on their credit card companies for compensation.

In a statement posted on the festival’s website this morning, the promoters said: “It is with great sadness that we announce Baselogic Productions (who you all know as Bloc) has been placed into administration following the events of Friday evening. The team are working hard with the administrators to investigate the issues that led to the closure of the event and people will be updated as and when we have new information. We ask that you allow the administrators time to conduct a thorough investigation so we can establish the facts. Once again we would like to apologise for all of the frustration and disappointment this situation has caused and thank everyone who has supported the team over the years, your continued support means so much to us”.

Meanwhile administrator Parker Andrews said in a statement: “On 11 July 2012, Baselogic Productions Ltd trading as Bloc voluntarily entered administration. The appointed administrator is Jamie Playford of Parker Andrews Insolvency Practitioners. An investigation into the facts leading to Baselogic Productions and the administration will be conducted immediately by Parker Andrews and a further statement will be issued in due course”.

Playford added: “It is important that we understand the full facts including what funds will be available to creditors and ticketholders and to ensure the information we provide about the next stages of administration is clear and concise”.

Although many ticket-buyers remain angry about last weekend’s debacle, and have expressed that anger online, there is still some support for the Bloc promoters, especially within the industry. Some agents in particular feel they are watching a good brand and good event going under due to considerable misfortune. Though all will be watching to see if the actions or decisions of any specific individuals or organisations directly caused last Friday’s problems.

Read CMU’s coverage of Friday’s events here, of the investigation to work out what went wrong here, and the response of ticketing service provider CrowdSurge here.



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