Sacred Rose Festival Concertgoers Report Thousands in Fraudulent Charges
Many music fans who attended the Chicagoland area's inaugural Sacred Rose Festival this past weekend subsequently reported thousands of dollars in fraudulent charges.
According to numerous concertgoer accounts on Reddit and across social media — not to mention a report from Chicago's CBS 2 — the bogus charges appeared on the customers' payment cards after they visited a merchant on the festival grounds.
Watch the video down toward the bottom of this page.
The illegitimate charges weren't small. Various Redditors reported that they each received separate charges amounting to $1,190; $1,300; $1,500; $1,700; $3,200 and more. One phony charge of nearly $5,000 was reportedly declined by a customer's bank.
Sacred Rose Fest, the Americana and jam band event that took place at SeatGeek Stadium in Bridgeview, Illinois, Aug. 26–28, responded with a statement saying a glitch in venue payment processing resulted in the charges, and that they were being reversed.
In a festival statement made in an Instagram reply and captured by the Facebook page The Festive Owl, Sacred Rose Fest blamed the venue for the fraud issue. However, as of Tuesday (Aug. 30), Loudwire was unable to locate the original comment.
"Hi everyone, we've been in communication with the venue about this issue. Here is their statement: 'You may have accidentally been charged a large amount from F&B at SeatGeek Stadium when using a credit card. Our payment processing is secure but had a configuration error. There was no exposure and/or fraud; we are PCI compliant. We are reversing all of these charges and you should see the amount credited to your card in 3-5 business days.'"
Regardless, a statement from the village of Bridgeview itself delivered the same message, assuring customers charged the large amounts that they will be refunded. According to CBS 2, Bridgeview village spokesperson Ray Hanania said:
There was a technical glitch with the point of sales system regarding the tips inaccurately processed. SeatGeek and Bridgeview have identified the problem and all the overcharges are being corrected and refunded as we speak. They will see a corrected amount on their credit card statements. The Village and SeatGeek don't know the precise number of customers impacted, but they will make sure every overcharge is corrected and refunded to the proper amount.
Customers who experienced fraudulent charges were encouraged to contact SeatGeek through their contact form at seatgeekstadium.com if the charges weren't reversed.
Sacred Rose was plagued by bad weather and cut its final day on Sunday short. Advertised headliners included Wilco's Jeff Tweedy and Grateful Dead's Phil Lesh.