The tickets for Giant Village 2006 — a New Year's Eve bash featuring the Black Eyed Peas, Death Cab for Cutie, the Crystal Method and the Flaming Lips performing on five stages in downtown Los Angeles— said the event would go on "rain or
shine." But Giant Village's organizers called the event off on the advice of the city's fire marshal — who said torrential rains presented a considerable hazard to the public — and several frustrated ticket holders aren't taking the cancellation lying down.
Claiming that Giant Village's washout ruined their nights (a man who'd flown in from London told the paper he intended to ask for his girlfriend's hand in marriage from the event's stage during the Flaming Lips' set), a number of ticket holders are considering a class-action lawsuit against the concert's organizers, the Los Angeles Times reports.
Many disgruntled fans allege that Giant Village was shelved because of feeble advance-ticket sales, not city officials' storm concerns. A spokesperson for the event, which was expected to attract more than 15,000 fans, dismissed those suspicions as unfounded.
Refunds have been offered to those who purchased tickets. At first, the concert's Web site pledged a makeup event somewhere down the road, but Giant Village organizer Dave Dean changed his tune on Tuesday, saying there would be no such show.
"In the exhaustion of the moment, it was considered," Dean told the Times. "The only makeup gig we could do is to do a better New Year's event next year."
The promise of a refund came as little consolation for Anaheim resident Dana Hayes, who will create a Web site for others who would like to add their names to the class-action proceedings.
"Refund or not, my New Year's was shot," she said. "It's not about money. It's about the point. The ticket said, 'rain or shine.' "
"Somebody canceled my and 10,000 other people's New Year," another irked ticket holder said. "Someone stood to make a lot of money from this."
Not so, Dean told the Times. The concert organizer said he's stuck paying for a seven-figure concert that "had no income." Many of the night's performers were paid in advance, Dean said, and have no intention of returning the money.
This report is from MTV News.
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