The Stetson Events Ltd concert promoter is making a stand for his audiences.
After being caught up in the Ticket Rocket ticket sales debacle last year and the postponement of his show Yesterday: Once More due to Covid-19, he decided to honour tickets bought for the show, despite not seeing a cent from those bought through the failed ticketing company.
The tickets will now be valid for a new version of the show.
The new show — Yesterday: The Greatest Songs of the 70s — has all New Zealand talent, including high-quality principals such as Ali Harper and Matthew Pike.
Featuring songs such as Abba’s Dancing Queen, Kenny Rogers’ Ruby Don’t Take Your Love To Town Boney M’s Rivers Of Babylon, and Leo Sayer’s You Make Me Feel Like Dancing, the audience could expect to enjoy a two-hour show of non-stop hits, colourful choreography and informative and humorous banter, he said.
Stetson Events had originally planned to bring artists from the United States to perform the show last year, but because of Covid-19 it had been postponed.
"Subsequently, we moved it to this year and we still couldn’t get those people in, so we did some homework with the American producers and came up with a variation on the show, involving all New Zealand talent."
Seventy-four tickets for the Dunedin concert and nearly 150 for the Invercargill concert had been bought through Ticket Rocket, which went into liquidation last year.
Providing people still had those tickets, they would be granted access to the concerts at Dunedin’s Regent Theatre on March 28 and Invercargill’s Civic Theatre on March 29, he said.
It was important to honour the tickets in order to rebuild trust with concert-goers, he said.
"It’s important that we do that because we, regardless of the ticketing company, need to show faith with our audience."
Many people feared losing money on ticket sales at the moment because of the unpredictability of Covid-19 alert level changes.
"As far as our shows are concerned, you can buy with confidence because if, for any reason, a show is cancelled, you will get your money back."
