Nutcracker performance in Daytona Beach oversold, canceled at last minute

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. - People are disappointed and upset after last-minute cancelations of their holiday plans in Daytona Beach. 

Bill Wells is one of them. He had hoped to bring his wife to see a Candlelight Nutcracker performance at the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Art. It turns out that representatives of the museum are upset, too. 

The show was hosted by a group called Fever, which rented out the space.  

Wells had been holding on to his wife's Christmas surprise for a long time. The show was on December 17; he bought the tickets on September 14. The night of the performance, he says he got there early, as directed in an email he got with the confirmation of his ticket purchase. 

"When we got there, they said, ‘No, we don't have the spot for you,’" said Wells. 

They turned him away. He later found an email from the event organizer, Fever, in his Spam folder that had been sent 3 days prior. It said the show was postponed. Fever told FOX 35 News they ran into a mistake with the venue’s capacity.

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"It was an internal error," a representative with Fever told FOX 35. "More capacity was set live, and we sold out the first dates really fast. We tried working with the venue for them to provide a bigger space so we could accommodate more people, but unfortunately, it wasn’t possible."

The Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum of Arts, the venue that Fever rented out for its three candlelight performances in Daytona, told FOX 35, "We have not received a response from Fever explaining how the overbooking happened, despite contractual agreements, or what they will be doing to make it right for their customers."

Wells is not the only one this has happened to. Fever canceled Alana Leach’s tickets for a candlelight show she was supposed to see back in October. Just as they had with Wells, they sent an email three days before the show. But Leach’s said her ticket had been canceled, rather than the show postponed. 

"I really just thought I was scammed," said Leach.

Leach has been to the Brown museum before several times, and has always enjoyed her experiences there. She thought a show there would be reputable. 

"They’ve been around, I can’t even tell you how many decades, and I’ve never heard of anyone having an experience like that."

She didn’t realize the museum was only being rented out and wasn’t responsible for hosting the event. Workers at the museum told FOX 35 that it was a common issue and that they had lots of angry customers calling about an experience the museum had nothing to do with. 

"I was just completely baffled," said Leach.

And here’s the kicker: Leach and Wells aren’t getting their money back.

"I'm not looking to profit on any of this, although the aggravation was such that I would hope they would do something above and beyond," said Wells.

Instead, people whose tickets were canceled got a store credit. But Bill says there aren’t any other shows he’s interested in, and Alana says she doesn’t trust Fever to follow through on those shows.

"We invested the money, and we were excited about something, and then we were let down," said Wells. "So, would I like something extra? Sure. Who wouldn't? But I would just like my money back at the very least."

When FOX 35 asked Fever why it isn’t issuing refunds, the company responded,

"We can, of course, look into refunds, but as a first action, we usually like to encourage our users to find an alternative date."

The Museum said in a statement, "We have made it clear to Fever that we will no longer rent our Museum to the company because of the issues we've witnessed and how poorly they manage their own events. We are frustrated with Fever's bad dealings, so we understand why their customers are frustrated, too. Hopefully, your coverage of the issue will inspire correction."

There is already a waitlist for future Candlelight concerts that Fever plans to put on. Of course, those won’t be held at the Cici and Hyatt Brown Museum. 

Instead, Fever says it’s launching a new venue in Daytona Beach soon.