Pemberton Music Festival went bankrupt eight weeks before its gates opened

The Pemberton Music Festival, held near Whistler in British Columbia and produced for its final years by Huka Entertainment under Pemberton Music Festival LP, had lost money for three consecutive seasons, with shareholders and investors covering the cash losses with several million dollars of their own.

For 2017 the partnership budgeted $22 million in expenses against $8.2 million in collected ticket revenue — a projected cash shortfall of over $10 million, driven by weak ticket sales, rising operating losses and a Canadian dollar that had been sliding against the US dollar since 2015. On 18 May 2017, eight weeks before the 13–16 July dates, the partnership filed for bankruptcy; Ernst & Young was appointed trustee, and Huka said the cancellation decision was not its own.

Ticket holders got no automatic refunds — the entity had 'no ability to provide refunds' — and were told to file proofs of claim as unsecured creditors or pursue chargebacks through their card issuers. At the time of the cancellation, everything except the $369 general tickets had sold out, which had not been enough to close the gap.