IMMOKALEE, Fla. — Alan Samples wanted to surprise his wife for her birthday to see Def Leppard, one of their favorite bands, at Harvest Nights Music Festival in Immokalee.
Sadly, he had to find her a new gift.
"It's been a learning experience," Samples said
He lost $275 when the Immokalee festival was abruptly canceled in January.
The Charity Pros, a local non-profit that gives money from their events to local organizations, originally scheduled the festival for November, with performances from Brad Paisley, Def Leppard and Train at the Seminole Casino's John Jimmie rodeo grounds.
Find out why The Charity Pros say they canceled the festival in Immokalee Community Correspondent Ella Rhoades' report below:
They pushed the festival back to Jan. 10 after Hurricane Milton and Helene.
However, four days before the festival, The Charity Pros canceled "due to unforeseen circumstances entirely beyond the organizer's control."
Since then, several ticket holders shared their reaction with Fox 4.
Some of them got refunds, but not Samples.
"I'm still waiting. Every day that goes by I kind of, I just want to be done with this you know. Just put it in the past and move on with my life," he said.
On Thursday, The Charity Pros released this three page statement below.
In the above press release, they accused the Seminole Tribe of dragging their feet with finalizing a lease agreement.
The Charity Pros also accused the Seminole Tribe of charging them an additional $270,000 at the last minute.
They also say the Seminole Tribe took, "a position that there was no lease."
Rhoades reached out to the Seminole Tribe to hear what they had to say about the festival.
"The Seminole Tribe will not be pressured into agreeing to multi-million dollar demands tied to threats of negative publicity based on inaccurate and misleading information," a spokesperson said. "The Tribe had no part in the decision to cancel."
Samples said he is afraid he'll never know what really happened.
"There's two sides to every story, and you know you kind of got to take those two sides with a grain of salt," he said.
He's holding out hope that he'll get his money back and see Def Leppard again, someday.
