More Sziget Stalling

Although Sziget festival organisers allowed Romanian ticket company Bilet.ro another extension to pay the euro 40,000 it owes for 2008 sales, Tamás Hajas from the Hungarian event’s finance office said he doesn’t believe it will see any money outside of court.

Hajas said he has spent nearly six months chasing the money, only to be met with failed promises to pay and a string of excuses.

“He called me a couple of hours ago saying he made a transfer of euro 25,000. I am waiting for the bank proof of this,” Hajas told Pollstar April 21. He also said he had “little hope” that the money or the bank confirmation would arrive.

Weiner made a similar promise a week earlier, but the money didn’t turn up.

At press time he failed to say whether his Bucharest-based company is breaking Romanian bankruptcy law by trading while insolvent.

The word on the Romanian music industry grapevine is that Bilet.ro and parent company Interactive Entertainment are both in financial trouble.

“We have had small problems with late payments but nothing as big as Sziget is having,” said Valentin Avram, managing director of Studio Travel, which arranges event packages.

“We have these packages for concerts in Europe, which can be seen on our Web site, and Bilet.ro publishes our offers on their Web site for a commission,” he explained. “Travel Studio is not the organizer, nor is it a concert promoter; we are a travel agency specializing in events and experiences.

“That is the nature of the partnership with Bilet.ro, so we had no involvement in this scandal.”