Buffy The Vampire Slayer

It has come from the organisers of Sector 14 (www.sector14.co.uk) for their upcoming Valhalla event in Manchester this month.

Guests confirmed:- DB Woodside (Principal Wood), Mark Metcalf (The Master), Carlos Bernard (Tony Almeida in "24") and Penny Johnson Jerald (Sherry Palmer in "24").

"This is not an easy e-mail to write, because what I have to say is one of the hardest things I have had to in several years of running events. At this point, Valhalla is looking very much like it will be unable to run. The ticket sales for the event are very low, and as things stand to run would simply cost more money than we can afford. We are prepared to lose money to keep the event running (indeed, we will lose thousands of pounds anyway if we don’t run), but given the current level of ticket sales, if we run, the amount we will lose is just too great.

I have never had to cancel an event before, and I don’t want to now. The reason I have not been on the list the last couple of days is that I have been trying to discuss options with the actors to see if we can salvage the situation. But at the moment, the only chance the event has to run as advertised is if we see a massive upturn in sales - if we can sell another sixty tickets by the event, then we’d still lose money, but we’d be able to run. However we’d need to see that things were looking better on that front in the next few days, because one way or another, the final decision has to be made before Friday morning. If you know people who are planning to book, but have been leaving doing so for any reason, tell them they need to book now or there will be no event.

I’m aware that telling people of the situation will probably have the opposite effect, and stop them booking. My first priority has to be the people who have booked though - anyone who hasn’t already booked travel or hotel rooms would be advised to hold off doing so until we know what is happening. Those who have booked the hotel through the event block booking need not worry on that front; if it becomes necessary to cancel your rooms, you should not be charged by them, so long as you cancel before the 23rd. If we do have to postpone or cancel, then every ticket holder will be entitled to and get a full refund for their tickets, as fast as we can physically post them out.

The worst thing about this is that the people we will be letting down the most if we have to cancel are the very people who bought tickets and put their faith in us. Sadly, there simply haven’t been enough of you.

I know that if we have to cancel there are going to be people very upset. I know how I would feel in their shoes, I know how I feel at the prospect of letting down those people. However, if anyone is going to be angry and lose their temper at anyone, please don’t do it over the phone line to Jola. It’s not her fault, or at the end of the day, her decision (and there is just a chance you might be tying up the line when someone is trying to book, and thus keep the event running). If anyone is going to lose their temper, do it to me.

Stuart"