Rapper Example slams Welsh festival promoter for ‘not paying his full fee’ and bemoans ‘zero communication’ over performance set-up – before organisers announce they are cancelling the event due to weather woes

• The rapper was due to perform as a headliner on Sunday at Gwen Gwen Festival 
• But he pulled out after claiming that he and his team hadn’t been paid their fee
• This came just hours before organisers announced the event had been cancelled

Example has slammed the promoter of a Welsh festival for not paying him his full fee before the event was cancelled due to challenges with the weather. 

The rapper, also known as Elliot John Gleave, was due to perform as a headliner at 9pm on Sunday at the Gwen Gwen Festival in Kidwelly in south Wales. 

But the 41-year-old revealed that he was pulling out of the event after the festival’s promoter gave ‘zero communication’ about how the event would be set up and claimed that him and his team hadn’t been paid their full fee. 

This came hours before the festival organisers announced that they had cancelled the festival altogether after ‘extremely challenging circumstances with weather’ made it difficult to build the site. 

Tickets for the Gwen Gwen Festival cost up to £165 and it was due to get underway on Saturday, with the first acts set to perform at 10am and 12am. 

Example (pictured) has slammed the promoter of a Welsh festival for not paying him his full fee before the event was cancelled due to challenges with the weather

Tickets for the Gwen Gwen Festival (pictured last year) cost up to £165 and it was due to get underway on Saturday, with the first acts set to perfom at 10am and 12am

In a statement posted on Instagram on Friday to his 550,000 followers, Gleave said: ‘Dear people of Kidwelly. This Sunday I was meant to be – and very much looking forward to – headlining Gwen Gwen festival in your lovely town. 

‘It is with great regret that my team and I have had to make the difficult decision to pull out of this event. 

‘The promoter of this event has breached a number of points in the contract. We have had zero communication regarding the stage, technical and backstage setup. 

‘Something we cannot just turn up to unprepared and essentially would be going into the show blind. 

‘Of greater concern is the fact the promoter hasn’t paid us our full fee. 

‘This rarely happens in my experience but for obvious reasons it now makes it impossible for us to honour this agreement and perform. Elliot x’ 

Just hours later, the festival organisers posted on the event’s Facebook page, informing attendees that the festival had been cancelled. 

They said: ‘We are truly devastated to announce that Gwên Gwen Festival 2023 has been cancelled.

‘The team have worked tirelessly over the past 9 months, especially this week under extremely challenging circumstances with weather making the site build difficult and as a result of these challenges and the associated added extra costs, we have made the very difficult decision to cancel the event.

Gleave posted a statement posted on Instagram to his 550,000 followers saying he had pulled out of the event

Just hours later, the festival (pictured last year) organisers posted on the event’s Facebook page, informing attendees that the festival had been cancelled

‘This is not a decision we have taken lightly and sincerely apologise for the disappointment this will cause.

‘We want to thank all the ticket holders, volunteers, artists, traders, contractors, security and everyone who has helped under extremely difficult circumstances and gone above and beyond to make this work.

‘All refunds are currently being processed and an email will be sent to all ticket holders, these will all be processed with immediate effect, please allow 5-7 working days for the money return to your account.

‘Again, we apologise for this disappointment, we will release a further statement on Monday.’ 

Individual day tickets to the Gwen Gwen Festival started from £50, while weekend tickets cost upwards of £72 and family tickets started at £150, according to a flyer for the event. 

Camping facilities were also expected to be made available, with campsites set to open at 3pm on Friday. It is unclear whether anyone had arrived at the site before the organisers announced that the event had been cancelled. 

The organisers posted on the festival Facebook page last Saturday that construction work to build one of the event’s three stages was already underway. 

They said: ‘The big build started today – if you thought last years stage was big… you’re in for a treat. 

‘This year, the stage is bigger and better – we cannot wait for this years line-up to grace our stage. Construction continues tomorrow, with a bit of sunshine we hope.’

Artists including Example, Gentleman’s Dub Club, Sigiriya and Cities were all due to perform over the weekend along with a host of stand up comics. 

MailOnline has contacted the promoter of Gwen Gwen Festival for comment. 

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