Livescape Group wins US$500k lawsuit against production firm for allegedly not being paid

Malaysian events management company The Livescape Group has won a lawsuit battle worth US$500,000 against production company World Wonder Fest for an alleged breach of contract concerning the K-pop concert WKNDFEST Vol. 1 K-Pop Edition. The concert was scheduled to be held on 30 August 2019 but World Wonder Fest announced on 19 August that it will be postponed.

Livescape's spokesperson told A+M that it was not paid for the work it has completed as contractually stipulated. Nonetheless, it is thankful to the authorities who made the decision to support the company, as it is one that will protect the live events industry. "We hope this decision will encourage others to speak up for their rights as well as this industry is often overlooked," the spokesperson said.

Headquartered in Malaysia, it also has offices in Singapore and Indonesia. It has worked on events including Wonda Coffee Malaysia Meal Donations 2020, Ultra Abu Dhabi 2020, Tokopedia: Running Man Keep On Running 2019, and Viu: Keluargar Don Baha 2019, among others. Livescape Group is also responsible for It's The Ship, a musical festival at sea. Among the list of services it offers include 360 event management, AR, talent management and creative and design services.

WKNDFEST previously said in a Facebook statement on 19 August that it was "ill-advised, instructed and bullied into making decisions". "The main reason for this postponement would be due to the fact that we put so much trust in our partners, which left us very disappointed in the manner in which things were conducted. We are a new concert promoter, and we entrusted an experienced company to run the artist bookings and to get us the top line-up for our first festival," it said in the statement.

World Wonder Fest added that there were numerous delays, excuses and negligence on the business partner's end which it was unable to tolerate. It explained that issues such as approvals and permits for this festival were an ongoing concern that ought to have been resolved months ago. Following the postponement, many netizens have demanded for a refund via WKNDFEST's Facebook page, with many adding that their emails were met with radio silence. A+M has reached out to World Wonder Fest for comment.

Last year, there were allegations about the K-pop concert WKNDFEST Vol. 1 K-Pop Edition being a scam, which led to the concert's co-founder Khairul Anwar explaining that he tweeted unconfirmed details about the event on his personal Twitter account but fans interpreted the posts as official statements, the Malay Mail said. This was despite him stating that official statements would be made from the WKNDFEST account. He added that this was probably where the allegations of scam began.

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