CASE receives 7 complaints against Yuewen Music Festival from attendees who want refund

The Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) has received seven complaints against the Yuewen Music Festival at Sentosa which was held on Dec. 28, 29 and 31, 2024.

The complaints were from consumers seeking refunds due to an unsatisfactory experience.

The three-day festival became mired in controversy following allegations of poor crowd control, long advertisements, and other issues.

Rainy and thundery weather which persisted throughout all three days of the festival led to cancelled performances and allegedly messy evacuations of the concert venue.

Lightning warnings and messy evacuations

Chaos and confusion struck the Yuewen Music Festival on Dec. 28 after a lightning alert was issued midway through the performances, leading to attendees needing to be evacuated.

Some attendees alleged that they were unable to find proper shelter outside the concert venue despite the evacuation.

While the event organisers had informed general ticket holders to head to the Sapphire Pavilion located outside the concert venue for shelter, some attendees said they were forced out of the pavilion and made to seek shelter elsewhere.

One attendee said that not everyone was made to evacuate the concert venue either.

Festival carried on while people were still queueing up

Concertgoers were also apparently confused about how to get back into the venue, with many alleging poor crowd control and unclear instructions from the event organisers.

Moreover, the music festival carried on with the performances even though a large portion of the crowd was made to leave the venue, leading to many missing out on key acts at the festival.

There were no clear signs or instructions on where to queue up, or how to get back to the venue, either.

Many concertgoers took to the festival's official Instagram page to call for refunds, with some calling it the "worst" music festival they have been to:

Aggressive security checks

One TikTok user, @russellkotorin, raised issues with the security checks for the festival.

The user noted that it was the first time he had ever failed a security check for a concert and had allegedly been pulled aside due to a light stick he brought for the concert, as well as his medication.

Other attendees have also raised concerns about overly aggressive security checks, with one user on X alleging that security had insisted on her removing her hijab:

can I just say the security teamfrom yesterday Yuewen was so rude, I was clearly hijabi and I told her I wasn’t able to remove my outerwear as my inner was a sleveless top. Aunty insisted on it and I had to insist back that I wasn’t able to…. lagi sikit mau gaduh dengan dia

— lalah ⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ ࣪ (@lalahcoreee) December 29, 2024

Long advertisements

Some took to the comments to also complain about advertisements being played between the music acts for over 30 minutes.

Attendees felt that the advertisements cut into the time available for the performances:

Cancelled performances, messy queues and inadequate shelters

Day two and three of the festival saw their fair share of troubles as well.

The rainy weather that hit the festival on day one persisted on the second and third day, leading to cancellations of performances and more rounds of evacuations from the concert venue.

Messiness while queueing up

The rain began at about 2:15pm on Dec. 29, affecting concertgoers queueing up to enter the venue.

According to one attendee, surnamed Tan, the staff at the concert handed out ponchos amongst themselves and sought shelter at a pavilion while some attendees were made to stand in the rain without umbrellas or ponchos for a while.

Tan was only let into the shelter after 20 to 25 minutes of getting drenched in the rain.

The entrance to the concert venue had also been postponed due to an extension of the lightning warning:

No Wonder so many people were scolding Yuewen on all the different socmed platform... Postponing the entrance timing when it's about to rain... So now everyone in the queue is totally unsheltered because we can't actually go into the sheltered area🙄#YuewenMusicFestival pic.twitter.com/E0DfhBDL1l

— 🪐🌻🐍🐯nnn_yupg💙💜 (@nnn_yupg) December 29, 2024

Inadequate shelters

Some users also alleged that the shelters that were provided around the concert venue were inadequate to fit all the standard ticket holders:

look at this pathetic shelter that they prepared for the Standard ticketholders. it can barely fit half of the ticketholders, the rest were seeking shelter elsewhere. what kind of wet weather plan is this?#YuewenMusicFestival pic.twitter.com/EUJh5B5Vyw

— ₊˚⊹♡ vita𝒘𝒊𝒏 ૮꒰ ˶• ༝ •˶꒱ྀིა (@21februarys) December 29, 2024

Cancellations of performances not properly communicated

According to a post made by the Yuewen Music Festival's official Instagram page, Thai singers Win and Nanon had cancelled their performance on Dec. 29 due to the bad weather. 

K-pop group Pentagon members Kino and Wooseok, however, had also cancelled their performance on Dec. 29, CNA reported, though fans apparently were not informed of the changes in advance by the festival organisers.

As of Jan. 1, 2025, no Instagram post has been made regarding the cancellation of Pentagon's performance.

Either way, many were disgruntled at the way the cancellations were communicated, with many commenting on the festival's Instagram page or taking to social media to ask for refunds:

How to seek help from CASE?

President of CASE Melvin Yong said that it is assisting the affected consumers.

Consumers who encounter disputes may approach CASE for assistance via its hotline, 6277 5100, or website.

Top photo courtesy of Tan.