Can’t Stand the Heat? Promoter to Offer Refunds If Temps Hit 90° at Iowa Festival
An Iowa festival promoter has a new twist on a refund proposition for attendees this year: if the temperature tips above 90 degrees during any day of his event, fans can receive a refund instead of attending.
Hinterland Festival founder Sam Summers is making this offer knowing the temperature could likely go above 90 degrees in early August, when more than 20,000 fans flock to his festival site near Des Moines for a three-day outing will be headlined this year by Tyler the Creator, Kacey Musgraves and Lana Del Rey.
“We just want people to feel comfortable knowing what they’re buying,” said Summers, who first launched the festival a decade ago. Knowing that fans have limited discretionary dollars, this year Summers launched several new refund offerings aimed at derisking the festival experience for fans on the fence. One policy, aimed at VIP camping ticket holders, offers refunds covering their first hour at the festival — if they’re not feeling the vibe after 60 minutes, they can contact guest services and arrange to leave and have their money refunded back to their account.
Summers is also launching a first-of-its-kind weather-refund policy, which he hopes will start a larger conversation about global warming and its impact on the outdoor concert industry.
The policy is based on the weather forecast three days prior to the Friday, Aug. 1 opening of the festival. Summers and his team will check the weather forecast on Tuesday, July 29, and if the true temperature forecast is over 90 degrees for any of the three days the festival takes place, fans can return their ticket that day for a refund. Fans must submit their return request between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. on Tuesday, July 29 via a link on the festival’s website.
“If you have a three-day pass, we’re also allowing you to return your ticket for any day that is above 90 degrees,” said Summers, noting that fans receive an actual return of their money and not a credit.
Promoters have long been loathe to offer fans weather-related refunds, giving rise to the phrase “rain or shine” and the policy that once a consumer bought a ticket, they were committed to attending a performance no matter what happened with the weather. The policy was created to protect promoters, many of whom pay an artist in advance, and can’t afford to cover a last-minute flurry of refund requests from fans.
“Thankfully, when the festival is already sold out, there’s not a lot of refund requests,” Summers said, noting he’s able to run the refund program thanks to the festival’s waiting list of fans willing to buy refunded tickets.
“Historically, average temperatures for August is low 80s, but I do anticipate it continuing to get warmer,” Summers said. The 90-degree Fahrenheit temperature benchmark was created to deal with days that were “10 degrees hotter than the average temperature — that’s when you really start to notice it,” he said, adding that the refund policy was created for “people that have a heat-related illness or just don’t want to be in the heat.”
Last year, U.S. climate scientists announced that 2024 was the planet’s warmest year on record, breaking the record set the previous year. For some patrons, the rise in temperatures has made festival attendance difficult.
“There are times where it may be too hot for certain folks to come out, regardless of what’s on site,” he said. “I think it opens a conversation. And my hope would be that we can continue to build out things that get us ready for higher temperatures over time. Because, like I have said many times before, I plan on doing this festival forever.”
GA tickets start at $300, while VIP tickets are priced at $720 each and ultra-high end Saints tickets sell for $1,920. Tickets for all three pricing levels are currently on sale at HinterlandIowa.com.
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