LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Las Vegas Food and Wine Festival has been canceled this year due to an accidental double-booking with the venue, Resorts World Las Vegas.
Channel 13 confirmed the cancellation with event organizers on Monday.
"We had everything lined up and they [Resorts World] wrote me an email saying that somebody made a mistake and that date is double booked, so I went back. I asked them for additional dates. I asked them for different locations. I even asked them for a date for 2025 and nothing has happened since," said Alan Semsar, who oversees Partnerships & Media for the festival.
"So at this point, we’re kind of shutting down, there’s nothing else to do... all the equipment that we had purchased for this year‘s event is now sitting in a storage that’s costing us money although which has to come out of a charity."
Semsar told us that they invest a lot of money into each festival every year to build up the next one — but now, all that money is lost with this year's cancellation. He said it takes nine months leading up to the festival to pay staff and put everything together.
"It’s like paying for two years but only getting one year's worth of revenue out of it for the staffing, and all the overhead costs makes it difficult to be able to reopen when you have to skip a year," Samsar said.
The annual festival, celebrated for its extravagant culinary experiences, celebrity chef appearances, and exclusive wine tastings, was scheduled to take place from October 2nd through the 6th at Resorts World Las Vegas.
Samsar said they refunded those who bought tickets to this year's event as soon as they were told they couldn't have the event at Resorts World.
Their website states all proceeds from the event are donated to a kids' cancer charity, but with the cancellation, this is no longer happening. That charity is Critical Care Comics, an organization that brings superheroes and comic books to children in the hospital.
