After delays, Van Gogh exhibit in Raleigh finally opens. How to get tickets, refunds.
The long-awaited Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience exhibit opened in Raleigh Friday after over a month of delays.
The debut of the multimedia art show — and the revealing of its location — were both postponed in March due to pandemic-related shipping delays. The exhibit opened at 6420 Glenwood Ave. in the Pleasant Valley Promenade shopping center.
But it wasn’t known until Friday afternoon that Friday was the actual opening date. Ticket-holders were told earlier this week that the opening continued to be pushed back due to production delays, according to Fever, the entertainment company organizing the event.
“The experience is not yet open as we’re currently adding finishing touches and awaiting final permitting inspections,” Madi Boring, a public relations spokeswoman working with Fever, told The News & Observer earlier Friday.
An email was sent to ticket-holders later Friday announcing that the show was open. A website to buy tickets indicates that this weekend is sold out.
Tickets can be bought at the door, and tickets previously purchased for Friday can be refunded and exchanged due to the last-minute change, according to a spokeswoman.
Tickets are available online at Fever’s website with limited availability for the remaining days of April.
Its northwest Raleigh location was revealed only a few weeks ago, on March 31.
A photo included in an email to people who purchased tickets shows the blue painted exterior of the space housing the exhibit. The artwork painted includes the clouds from Van Gogh’s iconic piece “Starry Night.”
The location for the Van Gogh exhibit in Raleigh had been billed as a “surprise” since tickets went on sale as a way to create buzz around the popular pop-up exhibit.
The work of the Dutch painter will be streamed by projectors across many surfaces within the 30,000-square-foot space that formerly housed a Fitness Connection gym.
Prior to the location being announced, several people contacted the N&O concerned about the event’s legitimacy since the location was unknown for months.
Refunds and exchanges
Refunds can secured by contacting Fever through the Fever smartphone app or through hello@feverup.com. But refunds are only available for people who purchased tickets for dates prior to April 22.
Refunds for tickets for remaining dates won’t be offered “as their date of purchase has not been affected by the postponement,” according to a spokeswoman.
Because of the delays, ticket-holders received exchange vouchers good for two months, allowing them to reschedule, which can only be done through Fever’s app.
Users will not be charged for rescheduling if they select a new ticket of equal value, a spokeswoman 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.”
Bryan Weaver, who bought four tickets for himself, his wife and friends, told the N&O he’s given up on the show and would seek a refund.
“All four of us, we’re just tired of fooling with them,” Weaver said in a phone interview. “They keep jerking people around and we’ve got better things to do with our time than to stay in limbo over something. I hope it works out for the people who do get to get to go, I was just tired of it.”
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.
This story was originally published April 23, 2022 at 9:25 AM.
