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Wednesday 12 June 2019
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Awaiting payment: Red Hill Water Carriers’ Simon Sokolich says he is owed $20,000 by the committee of the Western Port Festival. Picture: Yanni
Fury over festival debt Stephen Taylor steve@mpnews.com.au UP to 15 small businesses may be owed as much as $70,000 in the wake of this year’s Western Port Festival, held at Hastings in February. The largest creditor, Simon Sokolich, of Red Hill Water Carriers, says he is $20,000 out of pocket after erecting and filling 1.5 kilometres of water barriers the night before the festival held over the 22-24 February weekend. He says he provided a similar, but smaller,
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service to the festival the previous year and was paid. Mr Sokolich said he had been assured before this year’s festival that he “would be paid upon completion of the festival and receipt of his invoices”. This did not happen and, by last Friday, he remained unpaid despite repeated requests. Organisers of the $170,000 festival acknowledge receiving his invoices, with event manager Yvens De Camargo casting doubt on their ability to pay in a letter dated Thursday 23 May: “Our funds come from applying for
local grants, sponsorship and donations. “Unfortunately, this year we had a number of issues in consolidating all our funds … and as a result there are a few invoices [that] cannot be paid. We are trying to get access to … funds but, at this stage, there is [no] foreseeable timeframe.” Mr De Camargo did not return calls from The News. “We worked all through the night to erect the barriers which I had to pay for as well as pay four staff and trucks – it was a big job,” Mr Sokolich, who bought the business 18 months ago,
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val’s finances, but was hoping to raise $200,000 through crowd funding and local businesses. Days later just $1600 had been raised – including $1000 from the Save Westernport Group. Former Western Port Festival committee president Jill Underwood said she had “nothing to do with the financials” over her 12-18 months on the volunteer committee. “I have no idea how many small businesses are owed money because I resigned from the committee mid-last year,” she said. Continued Page 10
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said. “I’m only 28 and I’ve chucked all my money into this business. This could shut us down. It’s a real kick in the guts.” Two weeks before the festival Mr De Camargo said the committee had knocked back potential sponsorship from power company AGL citing community concerns over its plans for a floating gas terminal at Crib Point (“Cash strapped festival says ‘no’ to AGL” The News 13/2/19). Mr De Camargo admitted at the time to being “up in the air” over the festi-
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