24 Jul 2026
St Albans’ planned Sound Bites festival has now been cancelled, but some customers could face a battle for ticket refunds.
After Tom Kerridge’s popular Pub in the Park hosted its final event in Verulamium Park last September, organisers promised a new festival would be taking its place – Sound Bites, billed as “where flavour, music and friends come together”.
It was said to offer “bold eats, flowing drinks and DJs and bands chosen to lift the energy and keep people connected”, and was expected to take place in St Albans from September 4-6.
Early bird tickets were sold immediately after Pub in the Park, but following enquiries by the St Albans Times in May, Verulamium Park owners SADC confirmed they had not been approached about using the site, with the allocation of event days for the park already allocated.
At the time, Sound Bites’ organisers insisted the St Albans event was still taking place, but did not explain where it would be happening.
A statement sent to the St Albans Times said: “Please be assured that Sound Bites St Albans is still going ahead. We are busy finalising our launch line-up, which we are excited to announce in the next couple of weeks.
“We will notify our existing ticket holders and newsletter subscribers first, so keep watching your inbox for updates very soon.”
But then events scheduled for elsewhere in the country – including Tunbridge Wells and Reigate – were subsequently cancelled, with customers and traders complaining on social media that they had not received any refunds and Sound Bites were not responding to emails.
Now FIXR, the Sound Bites ticketing platform, has confirmed that St Albans will also not be happening, but they will not be refunding customers for their tickets.
In an email to a customer seen by the St Albans Times, FIXR said: “We can confirm that the event has unfortunately been cancelled.
“Regarding your refund, we’d like to clarify the current situation.
“FIXR is the ticketing platform acting as an agent on behalf of the event organiser, Sound Bites. Under our agreement, Sound Bites is responsible for refunding ticket buyers and is required to place FIXR in funds so that we can process these payments back to you. Our terms and conditions make clear that, in the event of cancellation, Sound Bites is the party liable for refunds to ticket buyers.
“FIXR has complied with its contractual obligations by paying the ticket sale proceeds to Sound Bites. However, despite our repeated requests, and in breach of its contractual obligations to FIXR, Sound Bites has failed to return the funds required for us to process refunds and has advised that they are currently unable to do so.
“We appreciate that this is frustrating and want to assure you that we are continuing to work towards a resolution. We will provide further updates as soon as we have more information.”
Customers who purchased tickets using a credit card should be able to claim a refund, but the situation is less certain if they paid using other means.
The St Albans Times has contacted FIXR to determine whether they are legally responsible for providing refunds as it was their organisation which had the contract with customers.
The correspondence address given for Sound Bites Festival on Companies House is Clockhouse, Station Approach, Marlow, Buckinghamshire, SL7 1NT.
