A festival-fan has vowed never to return to a County Durham event after waiting months for a refund.

Elise Reilly, 49, and husband Phil booked tickets in April to go to the Northern Kin festival at Thornley Hall Farm near Wheatley Hill, Durham.

The event was due to take place over June 14-16, but was cancelled less than two weeks after they bought their tickets due to wet ground conditions.

It was moved to the second weekend of August, with ticketholders given the option to keep their tickets for either the new date, the 2025 festival, or receive a refund.

The Reillys, from Shropshire, paid £270 for a weekend camping ticket and were already booked to go on holiday over the new dates so opted for a refund.

Elise, a child health practitioner in a school nurse team, thought the refund would land quickly, but is still waiting for her money back.

In a statement on Facebook on June 28 the festival said it hoped “everyone who has requested a refund to have this back to them before the end of July at the very latest”.

Mrs Reilly told The Northern Echo: “They announced it was going to be put back to a date that we couldn’t make so we filled the form out to request a refund.

Northern Kin Festival.Northern Kin Festival. (Image: Adam Kennedy)

“I filled it in in June and have been waiting for my money ever since.

“They’ve given us several dates they said we’d have the refund by.

“A week before it was due to run they said they’d have to wait until that event had taken place to have the money to process the refunds.

“They’re saying they refunded me on August 21 but I have had nothing at all – my bank say they can’t see anything.”

The festival says all refunds have been issued and that Elise’s issue lies with her bank, but she says her bank has received nothing back from ticketing site CM.com, where she bought her tickets.

“We have been to Northern Kin before, it was a lovely little family organised festival,” Elise added.

“I would never go again after this. I’d be worried in case something went wrong.”

A Northern Kin spokesperson said: “I can confirm every customer who held tickets for Northern Kin Festival and requested a refund has received a full refund.

“The specific transaction relating to Ms Reilly’s refund, which was issued over a month ago, were provided to her both by ourselves and by ticketing agent CM.com, with whom Ms Reilly’s transaction took place).

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“Ms Reilly opted to place a chargeback via her bank, and therefore needs to liaise with her bank if there are any issues with this process.

“We have issued all refunds at our end, but obviously can’t duplicate a chargeback process once it’s initiated, since the issuing bank holds those funds and they don’t remain with us to issue.

“It’s disappointing that this decision has caused her further issues when we have been able to refund all other customers satisfactorily by the standard means, but we hope she resolves this swiftly with her bank who are responsible for chargeback claims.”