What was being advertised as “the biggest music festival in Malta”, set to take place between today and Monday, will not happen, with ticket holders unsure whether they will be refunded.
The Heaven on Earth Music Festival was advertised as an open-air event set to be held at Ta’ Qali spread across six arenas, a fun park, a pool area and a camp site. Publicity material online mentioned a DJ line-up of over 40 foreign and local performers.
The event was being organised and advertised by One Dream Entertainment, run by a 23-year-old called Mark Mifsud Tommasi.
According to the website onedreamentertainment.com, one-day tickets were being sold at €30 (normal), €65 (VIP) and €100 (gold VIP). Early bird tickets could be obtained at €20 from Big Bon and Pull and Bear outlets and from Fashion House, in Mosta.
The website, which appears not to be updated, does not indicate that the festival has been cancelled and makes no mention of ticket refunds.
A 36-year-old woman, who does not wish to be named, told Times of Malta she had purchased a gold VIP ticket for €100.
“Recently, I received a Facebook notification that the event was cancelled. I immediately tried to access the Facebook page advertising the event but it had been deleted, along with the Facebook profile of the organiser.
“I immediately thought that something fishy was going on and the first thing that popped into my mind was that the organiser ran off with the money. I promptly filed a police report and they informed me I will be getting my money back.” She had not heard anything else from the police by Tuesday.
Times of Malta contacted Ronald Saliba, from Visage Sound Limited, which was being advertising as one of the festival’s main sponsors.
Mr Saliba said he was first approached by Mr Mifsud Tommasi last year, when the festival was being planned for August 15, 2013, to provide and set up the sound equipment on all six stages. However, apparently because many other parties were being held on the day, Mr Saliba said he was informed that the event was being postponed to this September.
“I am usually very wary and don’t trust anyone. I’ve come across too many cases where people posing as organisers try to create fake events. But he seemed like a genuinely nice person,” Mr Saliba said of Mr Mifsud Tommasi.
Mr Saliba said Mr Mifsud Tommasi contacted him again about three months ago about the festival. Subsequently, he tried to phone Mr Mifsud Tommasi numerous times but he never managed to get through, Mr Saliba said. “That’s when the alarm bells started ringing. Normally, organisers would let you know well in advance the type of equipment foreign DJs request. I assumed that the event wasn’t going to take place. In fact, I booked another client for the same period.”
I’ve come across too many cases where people posing as organisers try to create fake events. But he seemed like a genuinely nice person
Nathan Darmanin, a DJ who was being advertised on onedreamentertainment.com as forming part of the line-up of DJs, said he never met Mr Mifsud Tommasi face-to-face.
“I’ve always corresponded with him via Facebook. In February, he asked me to play a set and I agreed. However, we were meant to meet up and discuss things but we never did. Two weeks ago, he sent me a Facebook message, asking me to give him my ID card number for the permit.”
Mr Mifsud Tommasi’s Facebook profile subsequently disappeared from Facebook.
However, last week, Mr Darmanin said he received a Facebook message from “Ode Malta”, informing him that the event was cancelled because the permit was withdrawn and that the organiser/s planned to take legal action.
A saleswoman at Big Bon said tickets that had not been sold were collected by Mr Mifsud Tommasi about two weeks ago. He told them that all the other tickets were sold out and that he was aiming to sell those that remained.
A saleswoman at Pull and Bear said the tickets they had were also collected by Mr Mifsud Tommasi.
A saleswoman at Fashion House said she sold all the tickets they had.
The Malta Tourism Authority said they had not received any requests for a wines and spirits permit from One Dream Entertainment.
Attempts to reach Mr Mifsud Tommasi on his mobile phone were futile. However, the person running the Facebook profile Ode Malta did acknowledge this newspaper’s attempt to reach the organiser. Still, Ode Malta did not reply to Times of Malta’s questions regarding ticket refunds.
Questions sent to the police about whether they had received an application for the event and whether any reports had been received from ticket-holders were still unanswered at the time of writing.