On October 21, 2019 the Otago Daily Times published an article titled "Cannabis festival debt of $70,000".
In the article, Joe Nicolson claimed much of the debt was the responsibility of the event manager, Steve Akurangi.
Mr Nicolson also claimed he was never privy to any of the musicians’ contracts and that they had been made promises of which he was not aware.
The newspaper made repeated attempts to contact Mr Akurangi for comment but these were unsuccessful.
Since the publication of the article Mr Akurangi has provided information to the Otago Daily Times concerning his involvement in the festival. Based on the statements made by him it is accepted that the information given to the newspaper was not correct.
On this basis the newspaper apologises to Mr Akurangi.
