kingston fest apology

Toronto's Kingston Music Festival offers apology and major surprise for ticket holders

A final resolution has just come in concerning the ongoing Kingston Music Fest drama.

After countless critiques and media stories covering the mess that ensued at Sunday's show including no water, no crowd control and lack of security, ticket holders will be pleasantly surprised to know they've been offered an official apology.

In a recent Instagram post from the festival, promoters gave a "sincere apology to everyone" who attended the fest and provided some fans a huge freebie.

All VIP attendees will now get free entry (with proof of purchase), and all general admissions will get 50 per cent off, for the festival's "Reconciliation Concert" on Nov. 11.

This comes after organizers first offered all ticketholders 50 per cent off their next event, but not everyone was happy with that. Now, VIP peeps can get in for free.

Immediately following Sunday's disappointment at Downsview Park, fans widely called for a full refund instead.

Just yesterday event promoter Dwayne Hines had an exclusive one-on-one interview with respected journalist Brandon Gonez, where he basically blamed the crowd surge for the festival's demise.

"When we deliver the calibre of this event here in Toronto and we see the turnout, we say to ourselves 'wow, how did this happen when we put everything in place. Was the crowd too excited, did we need to change the venues?'" said Hines.

He goes on to explain that it's not always easy to secure certain venues in the city because some are reluctant to book.

"It's hard to convince these venues that our culture deserve these venues and it's weird when I say this but it's true because we tried."

Hines listed his extensive 15-year producing and promoting history with shows at Budweiser Stage and even one in 2019 at Downsview Park that he says went off without a hitch.

The team intentionally did not release a set time for the festival's 13 acts because they didn't want fans to skip the opening performances, all of which were Canadian, according to Hines.

He also denied there was a lack of water and in fact stated the event had hundreds of cases of water bottles.

Following that interview, main headliner Popcaan (who bashed the show while on stage), said the festival did not cover his costs to Toronto and continued to air his thoughts on social media thereafter.

The venue for the new concert has yet to be publicly released. Here we go Kingston Festival 2.0!

Lead photo by

@sherrytheCOACH


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