The organizers of Canada's WayHome Music & Arts Festival are offering fans of the just-canceled Pemberton Music Festival in British Columbia, as well as the shambolic Fyre Festival in the Bahamas, one free 2017 full weekend general admission ticket (July 28-30) for each ticket bought to those ill-fated events.
Republic Live's WayHome -- a Canadian Coachella created in 2015 complete with a ferris wheel, art installations, international food vendors and on-site camping -- is held at Burl's Creek Event Grounds in Oro-Medonte, Ontario and has seen such acts as Neil Young, Kendrick Lamar, Sam Smith, LCD Soundsystem and Arcade Fire. This year features Flume, Imagine Dragons, Frank Ocean and more.
The festival was recently awarded major festival of the year at the Live Music Industry Awards during Canadian Music Week and won the New Kid on the Block (Best New Festival) award at the same event in 2016.
"We understand the difficulties that go into the planning and execution of a large-scale festival event," Eva Dunford, Republic Live Partner, said in a statement. "First and foremost, we are music fans, and as such belong to an international community that share in our mutual successes and disappointments. It's saddening to hear of the struggles Pemberton Music Festival organizers are dealing with, and therefore want to help by honouring all purchased ticket holders with a free pass to WayHome this summer."
Pemberton, slated to run July 13-16, was abruptly canceled on Thursday (May 18) after filing for bankruptcy. The action was taken without a plan in place to provide refunds to ticket holders.
This is not the first time that Republic Live has stepped in with an offer to fans of another music festival. In 2012, when Ottawa's Capital Hoedown was canceled, ticket-holders were offered a ticket to Boots and Hearts Festival, Canada's largest country music festival now in its 6th year.
Instructions on how to redeem WayHome tickets can be found here.
