Dear Friends,

It is with great regret and disappointment that we wish to inform you of the cancellation of the Mafia Dance Festival. We hereby wish to present to you the reasons for which, despite all our continuous efforts, this event has been cancelled through no fault of our own and for reasons beyond our control.

During the initial stages of liaising with the responsible authorities of Tanzania with respect to organizing the Mafia Dance Festival, the concept and the realization of the event was received with great enthusiasm and was perceived as an excellent means to improve and develop the greater area, and financially strengthen the local community. The local company RUAZA LTD, which was responsible for the entire organization of the Festival, liaised with the local authorities as our collaborator/ facilitator on site. The national and local authorities assured RUAZA LTD of straight forward proceedings, and furthermore guaranteed that all the required actions had been taken in order to obtain all requisite permits for the Festival. All necessary documents were signed and all essential actions had been taken to ensure the proper licensing of the Festival.

However, to our grave disappointment, certain ill-willed groups sought to undermine and accuse the invited artists, the organizing committee and even the attendees of the Festival, aiming at presenting to the authorities a false and completely misleading image of the Festival as a decadent and corrupted event.

We are well aware of the identity of the above mentioned groups and the motivation behind their actions therefore, we assure you that we will proceed to take all necessary legal measures against them, should they decide not to compensate us for this unjustified cancellation. Unfortunately, as a result of the ill-intended efforts of the aforementioned groups, extreme racism and xenophobia have been created, and the relevant authorities of Tanzania and particularly the National Art Council (Basata) decided to revoke our local license that had been issued for the Mafia Dance Festival. Following Basata's decision, the Festival was therefore cancelled due to force majeure and despite all our continuous efforts to the contrary. Basata's unreasonable and unjust decision, which we publicly denounce has no legal or justifiable basis whatsoever.

At this point, it is important to note that Basata's unfair and inappropriate decision to cancel the Festival was communicated to us only a few days prior to the commencement of the Festival, a fact that confirms its objectionable behavior and establishes the total lack of respect towards the organizing committee, the artists but most importantly and foremost towards all of you, disrespecting each and everyone of you having made a personal and financial commitment to attend the Festival and visit Tanzania's beautiful nature and civilization.

We stand before you obliged and with a strong feeling of responsibility towards you, as we can only be thankful for the loyalty you have demonstrated towards our company, the trust you have shown in our projects, and the support of our vision during all these years. Sticking to our principles in honoring our relationship, you can rest assured that we are working towards achieving a fast and satisfactory resolution of this unfortunate situation.

With respect to refunds of prepaid festival tickets a relevant statement will be announced very soon.

Prepaid festival tickets of the 3rd Period are refunded as we speak from the relevant Ambassadors (only face value of the ticket, booking fees will be retained from the Ambassadors).

We are in talks with other festivals that we feel you will be interested in, as Mafia Dance festival goers, about the possibility of swapping your ticket for another festival at a discounted rate or for free. We will be in touch for this as soon as possible.

Customers who have liaised with the Pangea International Tours agent will receive refund as soon as possible, following an official announcement in the next few days and with communication with them (only face value of the services, booking fees will be retained as an admin fee by Pangea)

Customers renting Safari Tents on Mafia Island will be refunded at once.

Customers renting rooms at Butiama Lodge on Mafia Island can keep their booking and visit the lodge if they decide to (please contact Pangea International Tours to confirm your status).

The organizing committee is currently investigating the best way to refund the festival ticket holders. Based on the terms and conditions of the tickets, the Ambassadors are not liable and hold no responsibility with respect to refunds or any further transactions. For further information and ticket terms and conditions, please follow the link:

http://www.mafiadancefestival.com/terms

We are deeply sorry for the unforeseen circumstances which, beyond our control, and through no fault of our company, forced the festival to be cancelled and we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused to you.

Also there is a facebook group created for those of you still going to Tanzania even after Mafia cancelled... which is a fair few of you. For alternatives... and we a re also trying to plan a party on Zanzibar in lieu of this all... stay tuned.

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=407238051572&comments#!/group.php?gid=114466605268247&ref=mf

Note from Access All Areas

The above press release is exactly as we received it .

Contrary to the festival refund policy Access all areas will be abiding by our own terms and conditon which state that refunds will be made to ticket
holders minus our booking fee and any postage. Ticket Holders will be shortly contacted