Consumers’ association warns young people about paying for festival tickets in instalments “Risks concealed in the terms and conditions”

Large summer musical festivals such as Dour and Pukkelpop offer festival-goers aged 18 and above the chance to pay for their festival tickets in instalments. Those opting to pay in instalments pay a deposit when they reserve their tickets and then pay a set amount during each of the following months until their debt has been cleared.

Earlier this week the spokesman for the Pukkelpop music festival Frederik Luyten told the daily ‘Het Nieuwsblad’ that this year is the third year that the festival has offered those wishing to attend the option of paying in installments he added that this is very much appreciated by festivalgoers.

Those that opt to pay in installments pay the same amount for their festival tickets as those that pay for everything all in one go. However, Testaankoop warns those that might be considering paying for their tickets in installments to be on their guard. "There are penalty charges if you miss one of the payments”.

Pukkelpop refunds the previous payment to those that are unable to continue paying. However, 15% of the total ticket price is docked from the refund. In the case of a “Combi Ticket” this amounts to 42 euro.

The Dour festival refunds nothing even if you have already paid more than half the value of the ticket. 

Testaankoop’s Laura Clays says that "A lot of money is charged if you are unable to make the payments. The risks are concealed in the terms and conditions that most people don’t read in full”. "These should be much more clearly stated when you opt to pay in installments. This is really a huge risk for financially vulnerable people".