More than a dozen of zimbo festivalgoers believe they have fallen victim to a ticket scam or gimmick pulled by organisers of Zimfest, a festival famous amongst the Zimbabwean diaspora community in the U.K.
According to reports and communications forwarded to this publication some disgruntled festivals goers felt hard done by and cheated by the organisers of the festival.
The early bird tickets which were set to go on sale at 1pm, 28 of May 2021 at a cool price of £22 all of a sudden came at £44.
Disgruntled festival goers who had queued up online expressed disappointment and disaffection at how the organisers used the con trick of advertising early bird tickets and creating a hype and falsely present a situation where there was a huge demand for tickets then double the price within 5 minutes.
“I am disappointed by this tactic of creating a nonexistent high demand for tickets and doubling prices. The organisers could have just said the price of the tickets without having to make us register queue up on a waiting list for tickets that we thought were £22 only for them to double the price. I got my tickets at doubled the price, but I would appreciate more honesty next time” said a disgruntled festival goer who chose to remain anonymous.
Amongst those who contacted this publication many questioned whether these early bird tickets were genuine or just a scam or gimmick?
The questions that arose from the disgruntled festival goers, resulted in this publication seeking to establish the identity of the organisers of zimfest.
Our investigation into Zimfest revealed that it is actually not registered as a company in the U.K. a perusal and search for them on Company’s House yielded no results. They could be registered and operating under a different company name.
Zimfestlive.com as a business was last registered as a company and dissolved in November 2016.
This publication can reveal that from our findings Zimfestlive.com had one director, named as Joseph Hilton Mendelsohn.
Currently, Zimfestlive.com claims to be under Redcliff Management. This management firm is not on the UK register of companies.
Further inquiries to establish the zimfestlive.com website ownership also provided a blank as the ownership details are hidden.
It is suspected that the faces behind Zimfest may be tax evaders.
What is upsetting is that these faceless people are charging exorbitant prices to festival goers and to add insult to injury they are misleading people by such gimmicks as the early bird tickets scam.
The named sponsors are recognised businesses and they are perhaps the only alternative to revealing who is really behind Zimfestlive.com
Nyaradzo Assurance, Tann Law Solicitors, Express Links and myhippostore are all named sponsors.
This publication noted however, that the sponsors of the festival are authentic companies registered in the U.K.
Nonetheless by the time of going to print we still had not ascertained or established who the organisers of Zimfest were.
We offer them a right to respond and clarify the issues pertaining this early bird tickets scam or gimmick.
As it has become an issue of concern and somehow a cause of dissatisfaction and disgruntlement among those who felt deceived.
The people demand transparency.