Nope, it’s back. Party on as planned!

Torture Garden New Years Ball is back-on either at Mass or an alternative
venue:

Following the closure of Mass yesterday, the venue is going to court tomorrow morning to appeal the decision. The legal team and the police and council are very supportive of TG and positive about our chances, and it currently seems 80% + that Torture Garden will go ahead as planned at Mass on New Years Eve. We will confirm this 100% mid-day Wednesday 30th. All 1100 advance tickets therefore remain valid, and new tickets will again be available for sale for TG at Mass.

However, if the event cannot happen at Mass we now have a very good 3 room alternative venue for 800 people also in Brixton. But due to the lower capacity this alternative event will only be for existing ticket holders. We expect ticket prices to be a little cheaper and so existing ticket holders will receive a £6 refund. Those who do not wish to attend the alternative event will be offered a full refund.

Please check with our announcements at mid-day tomorrow for a final decision. But a TG NYE will happen!

This came in a couple of hours ago and has been confirmed as legit:

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT

Mass Venue Closed Down – Torture Garden New Year’s Eve Ball at Mass is almost 99% Cancelled!

We regrettably have to report that we were informed this morning that Mass, our regular venue of the last 10 years and our location for the Torture Garden New Years Eve event, was served last night with a 28 day closure notice, this is due to information received by police regarding a threat made involving an attack planned on the venue’s security following an incident at another venue last week.

This threat or the closure of the venue had nothing at all to do with Torture Garden events at Mass, or with the company that is used for security at our events at Mass, and we don’t expect it to have any effect on future parties at Mass or elsewhere, but it is an unfortunate knock on effect of a situation that has nothing to do with our parties and was beyond our control. But it seems that at this very late stage we will no longer be able to use Mass for NY Eve.

There is a very unlikely possibility that Mass may be able to appeal and change the decision in time for us to open, but this seems a very long shot.

There was also of course the possibility of us switching despite this late stage to a different venue. However, there are only around 5 venues in London of the scale required to hold a Torture Garden event, and of course they are almost all already booked for NYE events. We have found the Coronet in Elephant & Castle, which was not booked for NYE, but it seems that despite our best efforts today the management do not feel they can organise staff to be able to run a safe and organised event.

We will make final checks in the morning of Tuesday 29th about whether Mass can change the decision or we can relocate to the Coronet, but it seems an unlikely possibility.

Therefore we must warn you that Torture Garden’s NYE Ball is very likely to not happen and if you can cancel hotels or travel plans or book an alternative event at this late stage we have to recommend that you do.

We are very sorry for the inconvenience, and we understand how important your NYE party is, as it was for our friends and ourselves, and also that many of you are travelling long distances or even from abroad. But we hope that you appreciate that this was completely beyond our control, and totally unexpected at a venue we have used for over 10 years. In fact we haven’t lost a venue for a TG event since around 1993, and never for such an important date as NYE.

To conclude, please make a final check with us at mid-day Tuesday 28th for any last minute rescue plan, but otherwise TG’s NYE Ball is off. We will refund anyone who has purchased an advance ticket asap.

Regarding refund procedure, please give us a few hours tomorrow to release a statement regarding how to go about receiving refunds.

Again, as you can imagine, we are very sorry to let you all down and we hope you can make alternative plans for NYE.

Our next event will be at SeOne on 13th February 2010 and that event will not be affected in any way by the problems at Mass.

David, Allen & Charlotte @ TG Productions

Sad news, indeed!

Still, if it were me and I had tickets and hotel in London, I’d still make plans to go. Why not spend New Years Eve someplace else?

Readers, which parties in London would you recommend if TG is unable to go as planned?