'Crushed': Grateful Dead-themed music fest canceled with no refunds 10 days before event

Not only will you not be able to sing the lyrics to your favorite Grateful Dead songs alongside fellow Deadheads at the Skull & Roses festival, but you also probably won’t get a refund, either. 

Chris Mitrovich, founder of the annual Grateful Dead-themed music festival, said Tuesday that “SKULL & ROSES 6” was canceled, citing “financial devastation from the 2023 show.” The four-day festival was set to kick off on April 19 in Ventura, a city on the California coast just northwest of Los Angeles.

Mitrovich says the loss from last year’s festival, which has been held annually since 2017, “made it impossible to sustain the weight of the new production.” 

“We have maintained hope and exhausted every imaginable possibility, right up to this very moment," he said. "It has now become clear, however, that we have reached the end of the line. All the cards are down and there’s nothing left to see."

Here’s what we know. 

No refunds available, additional details will be shared later

Skull & Roses organizers noted that while they “sincerely wished” they could refund fans for all available purchases, they do not have the ability to do so. 

Tickets and hotels are not included in the “available purchases” they wish they could refund since they were “non-refundable.” 

“Additional information will be provided just as soon as it becomes available and will be posted through our socials and at www.SKULLANDROSES.com,” according to the post. 

Single-day tickets began at $60 for general admission and $600 for VIP passes. Concert and hotel packages were going for upwards of $2,000, according to reporting by the San Francisco Chronicle,

This isn’t the first time the Skull & Roses music festival has been canceled. That happened in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. But that time, organizers made a concerted effort to ensure refunds were available for all ticket holders, according to reporting by SF Gate. 

Deadheads express anger online, saying it was ‘Fyre Festival' all over again

Fans expressed their frustration with organizers in a Grateful Dead subreddit, saying that the cancellation would result in a number of lawsuits. 

“They just screwed over a lot of peoples time 10 days out of an event," @RowdydidWrong wrote. "All those bands that were booked, made travel arrangements, all the fans. The future doesn't hold anything if this is how that goes down. Who would ever book with these folks again?”

Another user, @dravenstone, wrote that they were absolutely “crushed” by the cancelation, writing: “We have house sitters locked down, time off of work set, a road trip planned, a hotel booked, the works - not to mention a long weekend of amazing music that is now, apparently much like the money we spent for the passes … Gone.” 

Another user wrote: “Credit card chargebacks, folks!” 

Other Deadheads confirmed that they got the same email, with @iam_santa, writing: “Was hoping it was some kind of scam, but it seems it's not. Really frickin' lame that we were notified 10 day before the show. The no refunds (expletive) is the real kicker.” 

A couple other users compared the situation to Fyre Festival, writing that “the world of festival promotion continues to get shadier and shadier. Everyone watched the Fyre Fest documentary and was like ‘Wait, it’s that easy?’"