‘Illegal use of trademarks’ behind festival cancellation
The alleged reasons behind the cancellation of the colour festival this weekend.
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THE Colour Festival Durban eagerly anticipated at Harlequins on Saturday, 5 April was cancelled today, amid speculation of illegal use of trademarks.
URGENT NOTICE: Colour Festival cancelled
Both the organisers of the Bluff-based colour fest and Unity Colour Festival have published statements on their respective Facebook pages about the cancellation of the event. Unity claims they had “not granted consent for the use of the registered trademark for the promotion of Colour Festival Durban” to the organisers of the Bluff event and had sought legal action against them.
On the converse, the ‘Colour Festival Durban’ Facebook page claims this was an internal dispute between partners, with legal letters scaring away suppliers and talent. “…in the last few days we have experienced a negative social media avalanche caused by our partners from last year. Obviously they are not happy to have not been engaged in our 2014 leg, as well as we are not willing to accept that they claim that its their brand, their event. But this should have been solved internally…A storm of emails hit our infrastructure and strategic partners as well as artists. They received warnings and lawyers’ letters to get fined or be held liable for participating in an ‘illegal use of the brand colour festival’…important suppliers withdrew today, two days prior to event day. So we cannot guarantee a 110% event anymore.”
The organisers have urged people who have already bought tickets to contact ticket sellers, Quicket or email the organisers at info@colourfestival.co.za for refund enquiries.
More updates to follow.