On March 29, Circus Music Festival brought together local musicians for a performance at Pasig’s Bridgetown Concert Grounds.
The festival attracted significant attention with a lineup featuring renowned Filipino bands such as Parokya ni Edgar, Kamikazee, Rivermaya, and December Avenue. Platinum tickets were sold at an eye-catching price of just ₱1,999.
While this undoubtedly succeeded in attracting many concertgoers, actor Chuckie Dreyfus later revealed that the platinum tickets his son and daughter purchased did not meet the expected standard.
Dreyfus wrote, “My son paid for Platinum tickets for himself and his sister, expecting the premium experience you heavily advertised. What they got was a total disaster.”
Dreyfus pointed out each occurrence that made him question the worth of the supposedly beneficial ticket, to the reality in which his kids experienced during the actual event. He stated:
“No separation between Platinum and Gold sections. No VIP section, no barriers, no added perks. So what exactly did the extra payment go to? Ah yes—maybe the merch? Well… brace yourself. No merch either. Despite buying their Platinum tickets during the October–January period (which you said would be eligible), they got absolutely nothing. Zero. And now you’re blaming “supplier issues”? That’s unacceptable. Ticket buyers fulfilled their end of the deal. If you can’t deliver, you refund. Worst of all? You disabled comments on your Facebook page seemingly to silence ticket holders who feel just as scammed. That’s not just unprofessional—that’s cowardly.”
Last March 28, Circus Music Festival took to their official Facebook page and announced that due to “unexpected supply issues” from their suppliers, they would not be able to distribute a full set of freebies as they originally planned.
By March 29, they made a new post reinstating that only ticket buyers from October to January would receive merchandise, specifying the materials being a t-shirt or bucket hat and tote bag.
The event organizers’ page had their comments disabled, but many users have shared that the announcement was “unprofessional” and lacked accountability.
While Dreyfus voiced his frustrations for his kids, he additionally spoke for other customers, writing, “You owe your paying customers more than a PR statement. You owe them transparency, accountability—and frankly, their money back.”
Moments after Dreyfus’s post went viral, he updated his statement writing that Circus Manila Festival “had untagged themselves from this post—faster than they handed out merch (which let’s be honest…they didn’t).”
He also went on to add that the event had off-putting conditions that were not mentioned in any of their promotions or ticketing pages, with one of them being that attendees had a “strict no reentry policy,” highlighting that once you stepped outside their concert grounds for food, air, or even an emergency, that you would not be permitted back inside.
It didn’t take long for Dreyfus to update his post after learning from the subcontractors involved in producing the merchandise that the organizers still had an unsettled balance of ₱1.6 million. He also noted that a significant portion of the materials remained unclaimed. The subcontractors claimed they had reached out to the organizers, but no action had been taken.
On March 31, Circus Manila Festival came out with an official statement. While they apologized for the unintended shortcomings to their concertgoers, they alleged that the subcontractors had been “making false claims” and had no direct contact with them, attaching screenshots of their conversations for “transparency.”
They pressed that they delayed their announcement as they had been sorting a securement in attaining the rest of the unclaimed merch, and voiced that they “choose not to pay the remaining amount as they could no longer fulfill their deliveries.”
Within an hour of their statement being posted, social media users flooded the comments, pointing out gaps in their explanation regarding the merchandise issue and noting that they had yet to address the concerns of Platinum and Gold ticket holders about their disappointing experience.
They quickly left a response on the post and disabled the comment section, yet again.
“Re to the Platinum and Gold sections. Less than 800 buyers bought the gold that’s why we decided to join them together in one area. This is also for the Platinum to be able to move freely in the area so that they can roam around. The floor area for Platinum was 90meters X 60meters. (The same with the techbooth) if you multiply this to 4 person per Sqm 21,600 will fit here. It only became tight because many people laid sheets on the floor and we didn’t stop them anymore since the area was more spacious.”
While the retort was seemingly their final post on the issue for the time being, the subcontractors of the merch had just announced minutes after Circus Music Festival’s post that they were set to have an interview with Senator and media personality, Raffy Tulfo on April 1, to further investigate the occurrences on both parties and ticket holders who were left disappointed and “scammed.”
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