People of El Dorado,
We are devastated to announce that El Dorado will no longer be taking place this year and will return on 30th June - 3rd July 2022.
We have been doing everything in our power to avoid this heartbreaking decision, working closely with our amazing suppliers and partners to delay our timelines and defer payments for as long as possible. However, as a completely independent festival, with less than six weeks until we need to start building the site and with no Government backed COVID-19 insurance in place, the financial risk is just too high. To proceed as normal and then be forced to make a last minute cancellation would destroy the festival and we can’t let that happen.
When the Government roadmap was announced earlier this year, it provided us with confidence to be able to proceed with planning. Your support was astonishing, resulting in a sell-out within a matter of days. It was truly humbling and we cannot thank you enough.
We welcome the Government's public positivity in meeting their COVID-19 roadmap and we remain hopeful this is the case. Elsewhere in Europe the festival industry has received Government backed insurance, but unfortunately no such scheme has been announced within the UK. Without COVID-19 specific cancellation insurance for events and a clear enough plan of what conditions are required in order to safely operate, we would risk losing the festival forever.
Putting on festivals and events like El Dorado is our passion and livelihood. We would love nothing more than for the festival to go ahead and have explored every possible avenue and waited for as long as we possibly could. We are truly devastated.
Now, more than ever, we are asking you to stand by El Dorado once again and transfer your ticket to the 2022 festival. The support shown last summer from every person who kept their ticket allowed us to continue operating.
Everyone who purchased a ticket for 2021 will have their ticket automatically transferred to 2022. No further action is required to rollover your ticket. If, however, you can’t join us in 2022 then you are of course entitled to a refund. The ticket provider that you bought your ticket from will email you directly with their specific refund instructions. Please keep an eye on the email inbox from which you purchased your ticket from.
We’d like to thank our ticket buyers, families, friends, artists, partners, suppliers and everyone who has supported us from day one and especially over the past two years.
We can’t wait to welcome you back to the golden fields in 2022.
With love from all the team at El Dorado x
Postponement Info
El Dorado 2021
Due to the uncertainty surrounding COVID-19 we are unable to go ahead this summer. Please read the full statement here.
Yes, El Dorado will return to Eastnor Castle Deer Park on 30th June - 3rd July 2022.
For any large event, cancellation insurance is essential to protect the festival against factors out of our control such as extreme weather, war and other acts of god. Elsewhere in Europe the festival industry has received Government backed insurance, but unfortunately no such scheme has been announced within the UK. Without COVID-19 specific cancellation insurance for events and a clear enough plan of what conditions are required in order to safely operate, we would risk losing the festival forever.
We have been doing everything we can to avoid this heartbreaking decision and have worked hard with our suppliers, artists and partners to delay our timelines and defer payments for as long as possible.
However, we are 6 weeks away from beginning the build on the festival site and this is the longest we are able to hold out until we need to pay the significant costs required to produce El Dorado. Without any Government backed COVID-19 cancellation insurance, the financial risk is just too high. To proceed as normal and then be forced to cancel at the last minute would destroy the festival, and we can not let that happen.
We were very thankful to have received a grant from Arts Council England in October 2020. This grant provided an essential lifeline to ensure planning for the 2021 festival was able to proceed following the postponement of the 2020 event. Unfortunately, this grant represents a fraction of the costs required to fully produce El Dorado and the festival would only be able to proceed with Government backed COVID-19 insurance.
More information on tickets for the 2022 festival will be released in the coming months. All our announcements will be made via our Website, Facebook and Instagram pages. To receive the information first, sign up here.
Ticket Rollover
Yes. All tickets, extras, travel, boutique and spa packages for the 2021 festival have been automatically transferred to the 2022 dates.
If you purchased your ticket from Tixel your transaction will be automatically reversed and your payment refunded.
Yes. All boutique camping packages for the 2021 festival have been automatically transferred to the 2022 dates.
Yes. All extras for the 2021 festival have been automatically transferred to the 2022 dates.
Yes. This will be rolled over to 2022 and will be valid to protect you for next year's event.
No. This is done automatically and there are no further actions to take.
Refunds
The ticket provider that you bought your ticket from will email you directly with their specific refund instructions. Please keep an eye on the email inbox from which you purchased your ticket from.
If you purchased your ticket through Tixel then you will be automatically refunded with no action required.
The deadline to apply for a refund is at 6pm on Friday 28th May 2021. Any requests after this date will not be accepted.
Please check your junk mail first. If you have still not received a refund message from the ticket provider you purchased from please contact them directly. The contact details for each provider is as follows:
- Festicket - contact here
- Ticket Arena - support@ticketarena.co.uk
- Pollen - support@pollen.co
- Skiddle - custcare@skiddle.com
- Tixel - contact here
The Boutique provider that you booked with will be contacting all bookers directly over the coming weeks. Each provider has their own terms, conditions and process for obtaining a refund. Standby for contact from them.
Yes, this is possible. You will be asked how many tickets you would like to refund on the application form.
The exact date you will receive your refund will vary depending on your ticket outlet:
- Festicket - Will land in all accounts by 25th June.
- Ticket Arena - Will land in all accounts by 25th June.
- Pollen - Will land in all accounts by 25th June.
- Skiddle - Will take 3-5 working days to process after opting for a refund.
- Tixel - Will take 7-10 working days from the date of postponement announcement.
Yes, your extras can also be refunded.
Please note:
- If you purchased your festival ticket from a different outlet but purchased your added extras from Festicket (through our website), you will need to apply for separate refunds on the two different outlets.
- If you made separate orders for different tickets and extras you will need to complete a separate refund form for each order number.
- Coach tickets bought directly from our website via Festicket can be refunded through the Festicket refund application (you will receive an email directly from Festicket with instructions).
- If you bought your coach ticket directly from Big Green Coach please see below on how to claim.
Your coach ticket will be automatically rolled over to 2022. However if you can’t make it to El Dorado 2022 you can claim this back in the following ways:
- If you bought your coach ticket for El Dorado 2020 then you can claim a full refund.
- If you bought your coach ticket for El Dorado 2021 then you can claim this as credit to be used on any other future Big Green Coach trip. If you added a Flexi Ticket to the coach booking, this means that your coach seat is 100% refundable.
Big Green Coach will contact all their coach customers directly by email. If you do not receive this email by 17th May 2021 please check your spam folder and if not there please contact customerservice@biggreencoach.co.uk
As per the ticketing terms and conditions this payment is non-refundable. Please read here.
As outlined in our initial COVID-19 refund policy the booking fee is non-refundable. This is a fixed cost from the ticketing provider.
Payment Plan Ticket Holders
All remaining unfulfilled payment plan orders are now paused indefinitely. We will notify all unfulfilled payment plan ticket holders of when their final payments are due later in the year. In the meantime your ticket will be held for you unless you opt for a refund before the 28th May 2021 deadline.
You will receive an email directly from Festicket with instructions on how to apply for a refund. Please note that each separate payment will be refunded separately. So if for example you made 5 separate payments in your payment plan you will receive 5 separate refund entries in your bank account totaling the value of your order. Please note, that if you changed cards during your payment plan, then you will receive each payment back to the card that you used for that payment.
No, this will not be possible as your ticket is already cancelled. Details on the terms and conditions of our payment plan tickets can be found here.
Resale Tickets
Tixel will reverse all transactions on the Tixel marketplace immediately and refunds will be processed within 7-10 working days from 13th May 2021. No further action is required to receive your refund.
Unfortunately given the nature of how the resale marketplace functions peer to peer, it is not possible to roll your ticket over and you will instead automatically receive a refund. Anyone who purchased a ticket from Tixel will be automatically added to the priority ticket list and will receive the first option on tickets when 2022 tickets go on sale later in the year.
As Tixel will be reversing all transactions, you will retain your ticket. You can either roll it over for 2022 or if you would prefer to get a refund, you will receive an email from the original ticketing outlet that you bought your ticket from with instructions on how to claim your refund.
You will need to contact the source you purchased your ticket from directly. Unfortunately, as this was an unauthorised transaction, there is no way we can ensure this money is returned to you by the seller.
MISC.
You will receive a direct email from your ticketing agent announcing the cancellation and explaining their refund process.
All ambassador rewards will be rolled over to 2022. However, if any of your ticket buyers do decide to claim a refund, then this sale will be removed from your overall count and could therefore decrease your rewards. So we ask you to please encourage as many of them as possible to keep their ticket for the new 2022 dates.
All Pollen rewards will be rolled over to 2022. However, if any of your ticket buyers do decide to claim a refund, then this sale will be removed from your overall points and could therefore decrease your rewards. So we ask you to please encourage as many of your ticket buyers as possible to keep their ticket for the new 2022 dates.
Yes, all official complimentary and competition tickets will be automatically rolled over to 2022.
This pledge will be honoured. We are committed to planting 12,000 trees despite the postponement.
