Attendees of this year’s chaotic Electric Zoo are still waiting for information about promised refunds for Friday (which was cancelled hours before doors were scheduled to open) and Sunday (when the festival hit capacity at 6:30 PM and barred further ticketholders from entering). Ticketholders shared an email on Reddit that they received from the festival, which reads:
Dear Ezoo family,
The EZoo team would like to thank everyone for your patience and outreach with words of encouragement. This is an extremely difficult time for our team. Your trust and support mean everything to us.
For those who have reached out asking for an update regarding refunds for Friday and Sunday, we want to assure you that your satisfaction remains our top priority. We have been working tirelessly with our partners for the past week to reach the best solution for you. We’re not prepared to offer specifics on the refund process at this time but we ask for your patience as we navigate the process. We’ll be in touch with the specifics as soon as possible.
Thank you for all your do to support EZoo.
Rolling Stone reports that a class action lawsuit was filed against organizers by two attendees, Nicole Brockmole and Lauren Bair, in a New York district court on Wednesday (9/13). The suit seeks damages on “behalf of all affected patrons who paid for ticket(s) for access of entry to [Electric Zoo] were not granted access,” and calls this year’s edition “a nightmare endured by thousands of electronic music fans.” Electric Zoo did not respond to Rolling Stone‘s request for comment about the suit
Meanwhile, a festival insider told Page Six that Avant Garnder, who purchased Electric Zoo last year, was to blame for this year’s issues. “They bought the festival, and then fired everyone, who ran Electric Zoo, and then rehired everyone once they found out they really couldn’t put it on,” a source told Page Six, continuing that this year, they “made a decision to run [the fest] internally and let go all of the senior people [who] were running EZoo. They didn’t use an actual festival production company.”
A statement from Electric Zoo blamed “global supply chain disruptions” for day one’s cancellation; the main stage did not open until 4:50 PM on day 2, when doors were delayed at the last minute. The same insider told Page Six, “it was total bullshit,” continuing, “they started planning very late in the game and were not reserving trucks, equipment, inventory, putting stages together.”
The NYPD estimated that organizers oversold the festival by 7000 tickets on Sunday. NYC Mayor Eric Adams said the city “will be dealing with” organizers.
