Back in September, a brand new music festival was set to be held in Lompoc, but many were surprised when we broke the news that the event had been canceled just days before it was set to take place.
Event organizer and longtime Lompoc resident Darrel Tullis says when he decided to postpone the city's inaugural music festival, he let ticket holders know that those who bought insurance would be refunded for their purchase.
He said people could also hang onto their tickets for the festival's tentative rescheduled date of March 11, but only three days before the concert's new date, Tullis tells KSBY the event will be postponed once again.
"We tentatively set it for this coming weekend, the 11th of March, and I have come to find out that it just wasn’t enough time to get the sponsors we need, starting over," he said.
Tullis says this is the first time he has attempted to put together this size of a community event, and just five days prior to the music festival's original date last fall, the security team he contracted said they couldn't do it.
"I was informed by the security company that they didn’t have the manpower to man the event," Tullis added.
In an effort to quickly reschedule a new date for the festival, Tullis notified ticket holders that the event would take place the following spring, even though the specific requirements needed for the concert had not been finalized.
"The fencing, the sound, the stage, all those different things that you need to make the concert work, some of those were already booked for March," he said.
On Wednesday afternoon, Tullis said the inaugural Lompoc Music Festival has been pushed back another seven months.
"Now, we are shooting for October 7th, and I know that is going to upset some people. But, unfortunately, that is what we have to do," Tullis said.
He says this time around, he will be starting over from scratch with a new group of sponsors and promoters, adding that his team will refrain from fully advertising the event until specific details have been confirmed.
"I think it would be amazing if that could happen, but I don’t really know if I see that happening realistically," said Lompoc resident and local musician Ben Ledoux. "But if they could, that would be really cool."
Following back-to-back postponements of his festival, Tullis says he understands people may be skeptical.
"My message is, please bear with us," Tullis said. "And hopefully, they will understand I am trying to do something decent for this community."
He says tickets purchased for last September's event will still be accepted for the festival's new date. If you are unable to attend the rescheduled concert, refunds are being handled on a case-by-case basis.
Tullis says refunds have already been issued to many people who said they wouldn't be able to make the original rescheduled date.
If you would like to reach out to him directly, emails can be sent to dtull13@hotmail.com
