Due to a payment bug, festival organizers lost thousands of dollars and are now asking for money back
After a bug in its payment system let hundreds of people in for free by mistake, a grilling festival on Quebec’s North Shore is asking people to be honest and pay up.
The festival, the Festi-grîles de la Côte-NordLast week, from Thursday to Sunday, there was a party in Sept-Îles with grilled meats, music, and craft beer.
The cost to get in was $25 per day or $65 for three days. People could pay online or at the gate.
Hugo Rossignol, the festival’s president, said in an interview that at first, the festival, which was in its fourth year, was going great. Rossignol said that the festival was meant to bring people together, and that’s what was happening: meat was flying off the grill, there was music, a DJ, and a fun atmosphere.
Then, on Saturday night, someone noticed something wasn’t right. No money was going into the account for the festival. Rossignol found out that there was a problem with the payment terminals at the entrance to the festival. The machines weren’t connected to the internet, so no payments were going through.
Rossignol said, “We found out that $22,000 didn’t get into our account.” “It blew us away. We were very upset, I won’t lie.”
Rossignol went on Facebook to ask anyone who paid at the gate to attend the festival to come back on Sunday and pay again, or if they couldn’t do that, to send an e-transfer or even a check, anything to help the festival make up for some of its losses.
He said that it was important for the festival to happen next year because Rossignol had said that some big sponsors had turned down the festival’s request for money this year.
He said that he and his coworkers were able to pull off the festival in the end, but that they spent many sleepless nights worrying that bad weather would keep people away.
So far, some people from Sept-Îles who went to Festi-griles have answered his call.
As of Tuesday, people who went to the festival had paid back between a quarter and a third of the money that was stolen.
Attendee: “It’s important to pay and be honest.
Pierre-Luc Vigneault, who lives in Sept-Îles and went to the festival on Thursday night, heard that the payment machine wasn’t working. He checked his bank account and saw that his payment hadn’t been processed.
He didn’t think twice about sending the money back.
“I think it’s important to pay and be honest because it matters for next year,” he said. “Everyone has a duty to do it if they are honest and paid by credit or debit card.”
The mayor of Sept-Îles, Steeve Beaupré, said that he gave $500 to the festival when he heard it was in trouble.
He said that he knows the people in charge of the festival and that his wife worked there over the weekend.
“I think that festival is great, and I want it to happen again next year,” he said.
So far, Beaupré said, he is proud of the people who came to the festival and paid back some of the money it lost.
“It shows that a lot of people here are honest,” he said. “I hope most of them will come back and pay what they should have paid to get in.”
Rossignol posted a new message on his website on Wednesday.social mediaPeople to spread the festival’s call for help to people who might not have seen it.
“We’re still a long way from our goal of more than $20,000,” he said.