On September 14, our ticketing provider, Lyte, suddenly ceased operations and reportedly went bust.
Before closing down, they diverted 100% of Lost Paradise ticket funds into their bank account, transferred them offshore and ceased contact with us. There is a strong indication of fraud.
In complete transparency, Lost Paradise has not received any ticket money despite selling almost all of our tickets for 2024. The amount missing totals in the millions.
Since finding out the news, our two priorities have been (in order):
1) To recover the funds and protect ticket holders
2) To find a way to deliver the festival
We have not yet been successful in recovering the missing funds (we are not giving up - more details in subsequent FAQs).
But with regard to the festival - and against incredible odds - the LP team are happy to announce that we have managed to find a way for Lost Paradise 2024 to happen as planned, from December 28 - January 1, 2025, with our lineup and full festival experience unchanged.
The last few weeks have been incredibly intense.
Lost Paradise is a 100% independently owned and operated festival and our small team at Finely Tuned is only eight people strong. There is no big company or major entity behind us to step in and weather a situation such as this. At every turn, for weeks on end, we flirted on the edge of collapse. But we remained determined, working around the clock to find a way to make our tenth-anniversary event a reality.
Thankfully, Lost Paradise means so much to so many people. We have received an overwhelming amount of encouragement and support from our artists, staff, suppliers, contractors and everyone involved in the event, and set out to source enough funding to enable us to operate the 2024 festival at a breakeven. Today, we are thrilled to announce we have pulled off exactly that. Our heartfelt thanks to everyone involved in helping our 2024 event to go ahead as planned.
The show must go on. We can’t wait to see you all this December for one hell of a NYE celebration!