Playground Weekender does the dodgy on local bands and contractors?

Playground Weekender organisers have allegedly failed to pay many local bands who performed at this year's event, as advertising begins for the February 2010 festival.

This year's four-day festival at Del Rio Riverside Resort, Wisemans Ferry, boasted six stages of live music, an outdoor cinema and festival oddities such as a cocktail bar and yoga stall.

Eight months later, the Brisbane Times reports that "for many of the support acts, contractors and ancillary staff, Playground Weekender has proven anything but relaxing."

Ben Chamie of the band Peabody, who are still owed $600, said, "It's not a lot of money - it's more about the fact that he's advertising next year's festival when he hasn't paid people from previous years."

Nickie Haylen, owner of Arctic Cleaning, told the Times, "We did 300 hours of cleaning at that event and he still owes us $4200. Whenever I speak to him he says he couldn't find my invoice or his email is down or that his money was being held in trust by someone else."

Another band manager allegedly spent six months "screaming down the phone" chasing $6000, which he apparently had to pick up in cash from a Chinese restaurant in Cabramatta.

Sounds dodgy to me ...

30 Oct 2009