Sunset Junction Refunds: Some Progress

Music fan Kenneth Scalir is sometimes known online as  “KROQ Ken.”

He was bummed that the Sunset Junction Street Fair was cancelled, but managed to catch a few shows, including Art Brut at .

At 12:07 p.m. Tuesday, he wrote wrote this comment on our site:

I want a refund for my SJ tickets! Will the Sunset Junction Neighborhood Alliance be at the Silver Lake Farmers Market today at 3700 Sunset Blvd.?

And, technically, the answer is probably “yes”: the market is a program of the non-profit Alliance. The Street Fair, of course, is another.

Ticket Buyer Shows Up at Silver Lake Farmer's Market

So Scalir showed up at the market, around 6:30 in the evening. He said he’d taken three buses from the Valley.

He wanted a refund for two tickets he bought in early August at Echo Park's for $20 each plus a $2 service fee.

Scalir said he’d tried to get refund from the folks at Origami--without luck. He said someone said he should go to the Allliance, as “they already had the money.”

Farmer’s Market Manager Edwin Gomez told Echo Park Patch that as far as he knew, yes, Origami had written a check for the $830 in $15 tickets and the $1,110 dollars in $20 tickets that they had sold.

They’d even asked the Alliance to come pick it up. But, according to Gomez, the Alliance is only in a position to refund the discounted $10 tickets they sold-- at the Farmers’ Market and at 4121 Santa Monica Boulevard.

Gomez says that in part true because Fair tickets don’t have prices printed on them. They were $15 before Aug. 1 and $20 afterwards, plus service fees.

Fair Maintains Ticket Vendors Best Suited to Do Refunds

Gomez says Origami knows best what people paid for the tickets--each one has a serial number on it allowing for tracking.

He says the Alliance has not picked up the check from Origami.

Echo Park Patch has reached out to Origami's Neil Schields for his take, who says he is "waiting on a call from the Alliance" before he comments.

Gomez, who also handled all the vendor contracts at the Fair, said the non-profit has worked out refunds with its online ticket vendor. 

And, according to Gomez,  anyone who bought at discounted ticket at the Farmers Market can stop by go by there on Tuesday or Saturday for a refund.

About A Dozen Discounted Tickets Refunded at Market So Far

Jimy Morales, assistant manager of the Farmers’ Market says about a dozen have been refunded so far.

Meantime, check the Patch's "shout out" panel on the right side of our home page: Scalir did get his refund back.  Gomez gave him everything he paid back—except $4  for the service fee Origami charged.

Gomez said he made the one-time refund after talking to Alliance head and Fair organizer Michael McKinley.