East Park's Oktoberfest moved to Humber Street in 'major update'
Organisers of Hull's Oktoberfest have issued a 'major update' in the event.
Originally planned for East Park, the event will now be a single event at Social on Humber Street. It will take place between 19:00 and 23:30 on Friday, September 27.
Explaining the reasoning behind the move, organisers took to social media to issue an apology. The full statement reads:
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"We have tried our hardest to keep the event alive however due to low ticket sales and inflated prices we simply cannot make ends meet.
"As a local family run independent company we have already stacked over £12000 into this event before we have even started to build a site. Ticket sales have unfortunately been incredibly low and hardly cover much of the estimated £35k costs. Events are expensive to run having to provide a full event site with marquees, fencing, security, medical and licensing as just a few costs.
"Therefore, it is with a heavy heart and deep sadness that we cannot continue as this will not only jeopardise the event but also jeopardise our company and the staff who work for us. We spent £5000 on advertisement including using Hull Live, Hull What’s On, Facebook and handing out over 15000 flyers to local residents.
"Now for ticket holders who have tickets you don’t need to worry. We set aside all ticket sales money into a separate account and is there ready to refund. We will be processing refunds over the next 48 hours and we hope to have this back with you by the weekend. Anyone who paid by Bank transfer please email us at info@eventsandproductions.co.uk with your order ID, Postcode and bank details.
"There is a small light at the end of the tunnel though! We have secured contracts with our Oompah band that we cannot cancel therefore we have a live band full of happiness and oompah to bring to the great city of Hull. Our amazing friends over at Social have kindly offered us the space for the Friday Evening 27th to host 300 people to drink and dance to the amazing music of German Oompah. We know its not quite the same but it will be an amazing night and for only £10 a ticket it's much cheaper. Tickets can be found via the original payment link.
"We as a team, family and local Hull company we can only apologise and hope that we haven’t caused too much distress. We hope you can make it to the Friday event and support us and the amazing band."
EPICOMPANY Limited, the parent company of the organisers, added: "The council team behind the scene notably the Hull events team and HCAL parks teams have worked with us throughout to bring the event to East Park and we had all the licences granted. At all points they were very supportive and excellent in their roles.
"Sadly due to the lack of ticket sales we were unable to continue in its current form. We are a family based company having run in Hull since 2015 working alongside many of Hull's large events.
"We understand the difficulties people are facing in the current climate and have noticed a knock on effect across the industry as a whole. Events simply aren’t possible without either funding or sales of tickets and both of these factors are contributing to the hardship we face whether it be reductions in funding or less expendable money for ticket buyers.
"We have worked with our good friends at Social who have agreed to host the event in a much smaller scale as we have already secured a contract with the band who have cost us 3x more than ticket sales on this event could make alone.
"Sadly we will make a loss of around 10-12k however we will still host an amazing Oktoberfest with our amazing friends at Social. We will continue to work closely with our Hull contacts and the events the city hosts and we will revisit producing events in the future. I would like to personally thank everyone who bought a ticket in the first instance and even more so if they have purchased to come to the event on Friday.
"In regards to refunds, these are ongoing and we aim to complete these by the end of the week. Delays by our payment platform Stripe have caused a delay in these refunds processing however all funds are allocated and we are waiting for Stripe to make these payments."
The popular German festival Octoberfest centres around dancing, drinking beer and dressing up in traditional Bavarian costumes. Social said the Oompah band "will keep you partying and dancing all night long". It also said there will be a "range of drink options".
It added: "The band’s frontman ensures that the crowd is entertained all night. Expect lots of swaying, singing and dancing. Audience participation is not optional!
"Individually, the band members are all world-class musicians in their own right and regularly appear on TV and radio. They have also performed with artists including Embrace, Doves, Paloma Faith, Mel C, Lily Allen and Craig David.
Tickets are now live on the Social website. The event is for over 18s only.