Amid growing complaints from ticket buyers about a lack of information on the upcoming event, a concert series scheduled to take place alongside The Masters in April was called off last week. The XPR Augusta Concert Series was billed as a “VIP-style series of legendary concerts from the biggest acts in the world” by C4 Live, and had planned performances from Blake Shelton, Nelly, Jimmy Buffett, and Tim McGraw before it was called off.
Event organizers said that the cancellation is due to the venue – Lake Olmstead Stadium – being unready to open due to issues in its renovation.
“Due to the unforeseen circumstances on the grounds of Lake Olmstead Stadium, we regret to announce that the XPR Augusta has been cancelled for 2022,” reads a statement posted at the event website credited to C4 Live Managing Partners Michael Perry and Greg Costello.
“Over the last several weeks, we encountered a series of issues on the grounds at Lake Olmstead Stadium that caused concern about the overall stability of the grounds. It became clear that these issues were significant, requiring us to immediately pause production and seek additional technical expertise to better understand the impact on our upcoming XPR AUGUSTA event. Geotechnical engineers were hired to conduct additional studies of the infield and outfield,” the statement continued.
“Unfortunately, we cannot move forward safely at this time. Although we are heartbroken to make this announcement amid so much excitement for XPR AUGUSTA, there is simply nothing more important to us than the safety of everyone involved.”
Consumers who had purchased tickets had been growing increasingly worried about their purchase in recent weeks, as C4 Live initially paused production plans, and then halted ticket sales in March over the safety issues discovered. But despite those issues, the event operators waited until less than two weeks out from the event to formally cancel.
“My frustration is that this is two weeks away and a lot of travel sites, a lot of airlines, a lot of rental cars, that two week window is really imperative in being able to get your money back,” says Philadelphia resident Marissa Coyne, who had planned to attend the event but expressed frustration about the uncertainty when interviewed by WJBF last week while the event was still up in the air.
“It puts people in such a precarious situation. Not a lot of people have almost $1,000 just to say okay keep the money. The concert is cancelled keep my money,” she said. “All I wanted for my birthday was to see Jimmy Buffett on my birthday. I didn’t want a party, I didn’t want a fuss, I just wanted my husband and I to go to this concert.
C4 Live says refunds for tickets sold through the website, https://xpraugusta.com/, will be automatically processed to the debit or credit card charged within the next fourteen days. For tickets purchased through a third-party companies, they should contact their point of purchase to determine their options for a refund or credit good towards future purchase.
Lake Olmstead Stadium is the former home of the Augusta GreenJackets baseball team from 1995 to 2017, and its renovations are reportedly coming at a cost of over $2 million.
“We remain fully committed to the community of Augusta and the revitalization of Lake Olmstead Stadium,” the statement from c4 live says. “We continue to work with the technical experts to resolve these issues and we are already making plans for 2023.”
