Olivia R. February 25, 2019
Exciting Events has gone into liquidation after Epic Games filed a lawsuit in the wake of the company’s Norwich Fortnite Live festival.
Without authorization from Epic to use the company’s intellectual properties, Exciting Events hosted a Fortnite-themed event that quickly became infamous after hundreds of attendees demanded refunds.
“These proceedings by Epic Games has had a catastrophic impact on the company’s ability to trade, which has forced Exciting Events Limited to cease all trading activities immediately and the director of Exciting Events will now seek to limit the losses to third parties as far as possible,” said Shaun Lord, owner of Exciting Events.
Exciting Events announced that the company’s assets will be turned into cash and the funds will be distributed among the creditors. All Fortnite Live Spalding and Newark ticket holders were confirmed to be automatically included on the creditor list.
The company’s liquidation confirms that there will be no Fortnite Live festivals in the future, and that may be for the best.
An estimated 2,800 people showed up for the original two-day event. After waiting in line for hours to enter the site, attendees were dismayed to see underwhelming and poorly composed activities, thrown together without concern for Fortnite’s gameplay, theme, or characters.
Many families reportedly traveled for hours and reserved hotels for the festival, which was largely comprised of a single climbing wall and four go-karts.
One parent, Oliver Phillips, called the attractions “rubbish,” comparing it to a school fair, and described an advertised Cave Experience as “a trailer, no bigger than a car, with a tunnel through it.”
Even though Fortnite is a free-to-play title, children had to pay an extra fee to use the festival’s collection of PCs on top of the $15-25 entry fee. The lines for the 72 PCs were two hours long.
Organizer Shaun Lord blamed the long lines on half of his staff not showing up that Saturday, but noted that many people had told him they’d had a “fantastic time.” According to Lord, they had drafted in more staff for Sunday, making that day run a lot more smoothly with less queuing.
Unfortunately, it was a little too late. Despite offering refunds to attendees, most of which spent hours in queues, the festival had already caused a public outcry.