Malaysia’s Good Vibes Festival organisers ask concertgoers to forfeit refunds to help save the music event

Almost a month after the Good Vibes Festival (GVF) in Malaysia was abruptly cancelled following UK band The 1975’s lead singer's onstage actions, organisers have taken to social media to appeal to ticketholders to forfeit their refunds to help save the local music event.

The three-day homegrown music festival that was supposed to run from Jul 21 to 23 was cancelled after the first day when The 1975 singer Matty Healy criticised Malaysia’s anti-LGBTQ laws during the band’s performance, then proceeded to kiss his male bandmate onstage.

On Wednesday (Aug 16), GVF organisers Future Sound Asia, uploaded a social media post on the festival’s Instagram page. In the statement, they highlighted several refund options for ticketholders affected by the cancellation.

These include forgoing the refunds fully or using the refunds for tickets to the 2024 or 2025 event, which will also include RM100 drinks vouchers.

Affected patrons can also opt for full or partial refunds.

“As you choose your refund option, please bear in mind that we want to be able to continue to put on this Malaysian festival that we love and are proud of and that we hope brings joy to you too; we want GVF to survive.

“If you can spare or defer any amount of your refund, it would be greatly appreciated and goes a long way towards helping to #SaveGVF,” the organisers wrote in the statement.

The post also highlighted the people involved in putting together the festival who would benefit from the contribution, including food vendors, the onsite working crew, the security provider and the stage crew.

The organisers added in the post: "We are deeply saddened by what happened and know it is important to present a refund mechanism to help offset the costs that many of you have faced. The mechanism is not perfect, and it may not satisfy everyone fully, but we hope you understand that we are trying to fairly compensate ticket holders as best we can.”

Future Sound Asia is pursuing legal action against the band.