Immersive Van Gogh in Raleigh postponed. What ticket-holders need to know.
“Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience” was expected to open by the end of March but has been postponed, a spokesman for the event confirmed to The News & Observer.
Thursday, organizers said it will be held in a vacant retail space at 6240 Glenwood Ave., in the Pleasant Valley Promenade shopping center.
The earliest tickets were available for Friday, April 1, for the popular interactive exhibit based on the famous paintings of Vincent van Gogh. But its “secret” location in Raleigh has never been announced.
A new opening date will be no later than April 21, said Oliver Davies, a spokesman for Fever, an entertainment and live event startup in charge of the Raleigh show. But the company hopes to open the exhibit sooner than that date.
“Despite our best efforts to keep in time with the scheduled opening, we unfortunately have to postpone this due to unexpected production delays,” reads an update by Fever.
A public relations contact for Fever provided The N&O with the update that was sent to ticket-holders.
Several ticket-holders reached out by email to The N&O complaining that a location had not yet been announced so close to the intended opening date. Tickets originally went on sale Dec. 10.
Davies told The N&O that the company did not plan to reveal the location until it was closer to the opening date to promote the event. The delay of the opening is due to production and shipment issues related to the pandemic, he said.
The Raleigh exhibit includes a virtual reality experience called “A Day in the Life of the Artist in Arles,” that provides a visual journey into some of Van Gogh’s most known works, such as “Vincent’s Bedroom in Arles,” “Starry Night,” “Wheatfield With Crows,” and “Starry Night Over The Rhone River.”
A similar immersive Van Gogh exhibit in Charlotte, which closed out in December after six months, sold over 300,000 tickets and brought over $400,000 in revenue to local artists, The Charlotte Observer reported. It was operated by a different production company than the one operating Raleigh’s event.
Rescheduling, refunds for Van Gogh tickets in Raleigh
People who bought tickets for the exhibit have been given exchange vouchers good for two months allowing ticket-holders to reschedule, only through the Fever smartphone app.
Users will not be charged for rescheduling if they select a new ticket of equal value, a spokeswoman said in an email.
But ticket-holders who want a refund can use the Fever app to talk to a customer service team 24 hours a day to assist with requests, Davies said.
Bryan Weaver, 70, who bought four tickets earlier this year, said he remains concerned about the lack of communication from the company.
“The whole thing has been a little sketchy, so to speak, as far being able to get information, upgrading tickets and various other things,” Weaver told The N&O in a phone interview. “I haven’t been extremely happy with it so far.”
He said he has not yet received an email or text to inform him the event is postponed, and a customer service representative he talked to last week didn’t mention it.
“For a production this size, apparently which they have done numerous cities all over the world, I don’t understand you would think they would have their process down pat a little bit better than they apparently do,” Weaver said.
An online business profile on the Better Business Bureau for Fever, which is not BBB accredited, indicates a “pattern of complaints” against the business’s “fulfillment of services, refund processing, and customer service practices.”
The complaints from consumers come from “experiences with Fever after making an online purchase to events, most commonly noted as artist showcases, themed immersive experiences, and boat cruises,” the website says.
This story was originally published March 30, 2022 at 2:40 PM.
