Ambitious Kiwi festival New Years Twice cancelled over Covid restrictions

Party poopers: New Years Twice says ticket-holders will be refunded in full. Photo / Matty Adame, Unsplash

It had been dubbed 'New Zealand's Fyre Festival' however, but New Years Twice has decided to do " the responsible thing".

The ambitious music festival involving luxury accommodation and international travel across the international date line, was set to launch this year.

With accommodation and entertainment in Auckland and Honolulu linked by a charter plane, New Years Twice was charging guests over $8000 a ticket for the ambitious package festival.

The concept of using the 24 hour window afforded by the boundary to celebrate with New Year's Eve for a second time in Hawaii.

However with international guests locked out of the country, requirements to vaccinate or quarantine on arrival, Ton Rimbau said that they were running out of time.

"Keeping this in mind and prioritising everyone's safety we have made the decision to postpone the first edition of New Year's Twice to December 31st, 2022," he wrote to ticket holders.

New Years Twice festival organizer Ton Rimbau said he got the idea crossing the Portuguese border. Photo / Supplied

"We wanted to make the decision and announcement with enough time for everyone to find alternative plans," he said.

Rimbau did not say how many tickets had been sold. However, he says the decision was made due to the inability of international guests to enter New Zealand without quarantine.

Refunds will be given to ticket holders in the next 30 days.

However, ticket holders could lose between $150 and $590 in booking fees.

Having announced the cancellation via email ticketing partners' website and social media is yet to be updated.

"We tried our best to make it happen this year, but the responsible thing to do at this point is postpone," said Rimbau.

Having announced the festival in March Rimbau resented comparison to the Fyre Festival scam - in which Billy McFarland duped 5000 partygoers.

Rimbau understood the skepticism of the event's high promises.

"The Big difference with Fyre is in culture," he told the Herald back in March.

"We are acknowledging from the beginning that the world is in an extremely difficult situation."

Fyre festival attendees launched a $100m class action lawsuit against organizers. Photo / Supplied, Netflix

Earlier this year Spaniard Rimbaud told the Herald he had come up with the festival while crossing the border with Portugal, which has a time difference.

Fyre Festival - which sold tickets to gullible partygoers was successfully sued in a $100 million in a class action lawsuit in 2017. Two documentaries were made about the event which failed to tell ticket holders that the festival would not go ahead.

New Years Twice said it was the "responsible thing" to do to postpone for now.

They intend to go back to the future in 2022, twice.