THE organisers of the I Am Music Festival have released a statement to ticket holders still waitinf for refunds - one year after the event was meant to take place.

In the four-page document they state the event has left them in £169,000 of debt.

They have also revealed their insurer is refusing to pay out and has been reported to the financial ombudsman.

Read the full story, including reaction, in today's Gazette.

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The full statement, taken from the community organisation's website:

"As some of you may be aware, the I AM MUSIC Festival (“the event”) that was due to take place on 26th July 2014, did not go ahead due to circumstances beyond our control. We were unable to make any public statement until now because our main concern and focus were to recover monies, particularly our insurance claim, where possible and pay our creditors (ticket buyers, stall holders, etc) who deserve to get their money back. After one year of our continued dedication and efforts to do so without success, we feel our tickets buyers, other creditors and members of our Community deserve to know what happened, the action we took and the outcome.

As many of you would most probably know, I Am Music Community Group (IAMCG) was a charitable Group set up, led and run by young volunteers aged 16-30, who were either in full-time education or employment. Our IAMCG’s objective was to promote local talents among youths, encourage community cohesion and empower young people through training to acquire knowledge and skills in mentoring, coaching, leadership, performing arts and networking, as part of its contribution to the Community. The Group was run using personal funds raised by its leaders from their salaries and personal loans.

Since the formation of the Group in 2012, the team organised a number of successful events and donated a percentage of its income from events held to its nominated charities including DanceAid, and BeatBullying. It was also working with Only Cowards Carry before the planned event was prevented from going ahead.

What Happened (Pre-event): June 1, 2013 – July 24, 2014 We were very grateful that Colchester Borough Council (CBC) gave us an opportunity in September 2013, to stage a musical event following our application in June of the same year. We also very grateful to Essex Police, members of CBC Safety Advisory Group (SAG), our Safety Officer and all others involved for their support. Given such an opportunity, the Group intended to make it a yearly event and did all it possibly could to ensure that it complied with all CBC required with a view to establishing a good relationship with CBC in anticipation of being able to stage future events.

IAMCG worked diligently with CBC’s recommended Safety Officer, CBC’s Safety Advisory Group (SAG), Essex Police and others to ensure that all CBC’s requirements were met and the event was a success. The Safety Officer provided the necessary guidance and was responsible for preparing and delivering the required Event Plan on behalf of IAMCG.

That same September 2013, CBC issued IAMCG with an Implementation Timetable (CBC’s Requirements Compliance document), outlining the requirements that we needed to meet and the timescales for delivering them, in order for the event to go ahead. We complied with all requirements contained in this document and within the timescales that CBC had specified.

Between July 2nd and July 24th 2014, the following new requirements (not included in the Implementation Timetable) emerged in succession:  On July 2nd, CBC advised that a footpath closure was required,  On July 9th, CBC advised that Police presence would possibly be required at the event and the associated cost would be payable after the event.

To avoid, Police involvement and the associated cost, we needed to provide among other things, coaches (park and ride facility - capacity not given), Amnesty bins for any dangerous weapons/knives and drugs seized from attendees, and barcode scanners to avoid the use of fake tickets. Despite the short notice, we complied with all these additional requirements, except for obtaining Amnesty bins, which IAMCG was not qualified to do. We were advised to obtain them through Only Cowards Carry (one of the I Am Music Community Group Lodge House Lodge Lane Langham CO4 5NE I AM MUSIC Community Group 2 charities we working with). Unfortunately, Only Cowards Carry could not help us due to short timescale. They advised us to provide alternatives (“wheelie bins”) that were acceptable to the Police, and we complied.

On the 18th July 2014 during a scheduled meeting with SAG and Essex Police, we were told that the Police involvement was no longer an optional requirement but now a mandatory requirement for the event to proceed, and we needed to pay £10,778.44p for the service by 22nd July 2014 (Police cost was no longer payable after the event as previously said). Similarly, the provision of coaches, Amnesty bins, and barcode scanners were equally compulsory requirements. We complied.

On 21st July 2014, IAMCG met with the Police (at IAMCG’s request) to ask the Police for more time to raise monies to pay their costs which were due the following day, we asked for an extension until the 24th July 2014, but we were unsuccessful. Essex Police explained that the reason for their mandatory presence at the event was that the Event Safety Plan that our CBC’s recommended Event Safety Officer had prepared on our behalf, was “not up to scratch”, and that the responsibility for getting it right was ours, not the Event Safety Officer’s.

CBC and Essex Police explained that they could not wait until the 24th July 2014 for payment because it would be too late to cancel the event if we failed to make payment on that date. They said it would become a Health and Safety issue due to a limited time to alert the public and other parties that the event could not go ahead.

We were told that should payment not be made on 22nd July 2014 by 5.00 pm the event would not go ahead. On the morning of 22nd July 2014, the Police informed us via a telephone call that the cut-off time for payment was no longer 5.00 pm but 3.00 pm to allow the funds to clear on time. The amount needed to be paid in cash and neither a credit card payment nor deposit payment was permitted. We complied.

On the morning of the 23rd July 2014, CBC informed IAMCG that the two16-seater mini buses that it had ordered (to meet CBC’s park and ride mandatory requirement) were not big enough. CBC advised us to order another two mini buses of the same size to increase the capacity to at least 64, and they made it clear that if we did not complete this requirement and send written confirmation of completion “no later than 10.00 am" on the 23rd July 2014 to CBC, the event would not proceed. We complied.

On the same 23rd July 2014, IAMCG signed the event venue hire agreement with CBC in the presence of Essex Police.

In the afternoon of 24th July 2014, CBC and Essex Police asked the lead event organisers to attend an impromptu meeting at Colchester Police Station, at about 3.00 pm. We had no idea what the meeting was about and we were not asked to bring any document or procurement invoices/receipts with us. We arrived on time, but the meeting did not start until about 5.10 pm.

During the meeting, we were told that the event would not go ahead unless we were able to produce receipts/invoices within next 15 minutes for toilets, emergency lighting, safety barriers/fencing. We were told that only receipts/invoices from suppliers would be acceptable and other evidence such as: procurement confirmations, evidence of payments, and delivery dates/schedules, on our electronic devices would not be accepted. As it was now after business hours, our suppliers had closed for the day and we were unable to make contact in order to ask them to fax or email receipts/invoices directly to CBC.

We were also told at this meeting that CBC had information, which indicated that our security services provider had withdrawn from the event. This is despite the fact that we had a valid contract with them, and paid 50% of the fee with the remaining 50% to be paid after the event as per our contract agreement. Also, the security services provider had sent us a “thank you” message on 18th July 2014 for the 50% payment and stated I AM MUSIC Community Group 3 that they looked forward to working with us. We had not been contacted by the supplier to say that they were withdrawing services.

We never understood how and why a statement that “we had no security supplier” came about.

With regards to toilets, emergency lighting, safety barriers/fencing which were items highlighted specifically by CBC at the meeting, we had arranged for delivery of these items to the venue on the morning of the 25th July 2014. Therefore invoices/receipts were to be given to us on the morning of delivery. As we were unaware that CBC would require them prior to the event and at the meeting on the 24th July, we did not ask suppliers to give these to us prior delivery. CBC alleged that we did not have contracts in place for these services and therefore deemed us to be non-compliant.

On the basis of the alleged 4 “non-compliances” stated by CBC at the meeting, (no receipts/invoices for toilets, emergency lighting, safety barriers/fencing and withdrawal of security services provider), CBC withdrew the licence to the event venue. This meant the event could not proceed. Essex Police supported this decision.

About a week after the cancellation of the event, we received a letter from CBC stating that there were 13 “non-compliances”, which had led to their decision. These were not made known to us at the meeting.

While we remain grateful to CBC for an opportunity to hold the event, we do not know why all CBC’s requirements were not included in the Implementation Timetable, given their importance and critical nature to CBC’s decision to either allow or disallow the event to proceed. We do not know why CBC did not make new requirements known to us before 24th July 2014, given that we worked with them for a 13-month period, and had meetings with them even as late as the 18th, 21st and 23rd July 2014. We do not know why CBC could not wait until the morning of Friday, 25th July 2014 (scheduled delivery date) when receipts/invoices were arriving with the delivery of toilets, emergency lighting, and safety barriers/fencing.

Our Spend/Debt To Date Our total expenditure for the event was about £174,000. As on 24th July 2014, we had paid suppliers in excess of £114,000. The balance of about £60,000 was to be paid to suppliers after the event.

Of the £114,000 that we paid out, approximately £37,000 came from ticket sales and stall holders, the remaining £77,000 came from personal loans that senior members of IAMCG had taken out to support the event.

We have been unable to recover any money from the £114,000 that we had paid out to artists, suppliers and the Police prior to the event.

We now owe a total debt of £169,785 of which £60,000 is owed to suppliers, £77,000 to lenders and £32,785 to ticket buyers/stall holders. To date, we have been able to refund £4,215 only to ticket buyers from cash that was in hand.

Actions We Took (Post Event Cancellation): July 25, 2014 – July 24, 2015 Following CBC’s decision not to allow the event to go ahead, we have been actively exploring all avenues available to recover monies lost in order to refund our ticket buyers and other creditors. Our key focus was to make claim to our insurers and to ask the Police to refund the monies paid to them just 2 days prior to the cancellation. Below is a brief summary of what we have done in this regard over the last 12 months.

As a priority, on 29th July 2014, we began refunding monies to ticket buyers using the very limited amount (£4,215) that was left in our account. On the same day, we contacted our insurers for a claim form and on the 15th August 2014, sent in our claim. Our insurers responded on 14th October 2014, saying it was unlikely we would have a successful I AM MUSIC Community Group 4 claim because CBC’s letter has alleged that we did not comply with 13 of its requirements. This then triggered a series of communication (one to two per month) between our insurers and us. We have had to send them all sorts of additional evidence and explanations that they have requested. Despite this, our insurers have continued to show unwillingness to pay. On 14th July 2015, we issued a formal complaint against our insurers. Financial Ombudsman is now dealing with the matter, and we await the outcome of their findings.

On 18th August 2014, we contacted Essex Police and requested a refund of the £10,778.40 paid to them to provide additional security at the event. On 30th September 2014, Essex Police responded and said they would not refund us the amount “due to late cancellation of the event”, and because additional Police resources were be needed on 26th July 2014 to manage issues at the event and park and ride sites.

On 27th October 2014, we sought the help of our local MP to recover the money paid to the Police. Our MP met with us on 1st December 2014 and advised that we should first meet with CBC and the Police, and thereafter come back to him depending on our meeting outcome.

On 10th November 2014, we contacted CBC and Essex Police and requested a meeting with them, to offer CBC an explanation (with supporting evidence) of how we complied with their requirements, and for CBC to assist us in recovering the £10,778.40 from the Police. We were granted the request and the meeting took place on 4th February 2015. On 3rd March 2015, CBC informed us they were unable to assist us in recovering the £10,778.40 from Essex Police. On the 17th March 2015, we wrote back to CBC giving reasons why we needed their support to recover the money. CBC acknowledged our letter on the 10th April 2015, but never came back to us. Meanwhile, our local MP was too busy and could not see us again (as he directed during our meeting with him on 1st December 2014) because of the local election campaigns.

Conclusion We do hope that you can see that we took all the necessary steps to ensure that the event went ahead. Ultimately, the decision that CBC took in agreement with the Police to disallow the event from going ahead was completely outside of our control. As a voluntary Youth Community Group, it is a huge shame that all our efforts, good intentions and commitment over the years, to contribute to the development of our local community, has led to an outcome such as this.

The Police are unwilling to refund us the £10,778.40 paid to them, our insurers are unwilling to honour our claim and pay us because of CBC’s letter alleging that we did not comply with its requirements, and none of the suppliers whom we paid (from artists, coaches, hotels, security firms, etc) has agreed to refund us anything.

We never wanted it to turn out this way, where existing relationships between our customers and us, and between their businesses and customers, have been severely damaged, and where the efforts, hard work and commitment that children and youngsters had put in over the year to showcase their talents and contribute to their community have not been recognised and rewarded.

We now await the outcome of our complaint lodged with Financial Ombudsman. We will update you when this is known. We sincerely thank you all for your understanding and co-operation.

For further details relating to this statement, our full list of “thank yous” and the summarised chronological order of events from June 2013 up until end of July 2015, please visit our website at www.iamusic.org Kind Regards I AM MUSIC Community Group