By Michael Luce
Unfortunately for those looking forward to a new festival experience this fall, Love Letters Fest, the “Love Letter to Salt Lake,” has been cancelled. The announcement was shared on the festival’s social media accounts yesterday morning. Love Letters Fest, put on by Kilby Block Party organizers S&S Presents, hoped to bring a new experience to Salt Lake City with a lineup that leaned more into indie-pop and R&B than other large-scale events in the state.
As of now, there isn’t a clear reason as to why the festival has been cancelled, but many fans and critics online have speculated ticket sales were a leading factor. The event was scheduled for the same weekend as FanX, the Salt Lake comic and pop culture convention commonly compared to ComicCon. Many fans have suggested the two events happening in close proximity on the same days may have affected pre-sale numbers.
Others have pointed to the target demographic for the festival being younger as a potential cause for low sales, as those most excited to attend (fans in their late teens to early twenties) are also those with the lowest disposable income.
The cancellation has left many prospective attendees disappointed, with several criticizing the move to cancel so close to the planned festival date and many others expressing frustration over how refunds are being handled. While Love Letters Fest has announced that refunds will be processed, the 24tix.com page for the event reads, “Note that, per the Terms agreed to during checkout, refunds do not include complete service fees.” This revelation that fans will not be receiving a full refund has left many feeling exasperation on top of disappointment from the festival’s cancellation.
Update 8/7/24: Love Letters Fest has added the following comment to their Instagram post, indicating that they are working towards full refunds for all: “We have heard your concerns and have taken steps with 24tix to ensure that all customers will receive a full, 100% refund including all service and processing fees.”
Love Letters Fest did not respond to request for comment.