Refunds offered for Rain concert

Unknown reasons 'postpone' Korean star Rain's concert

It's not a rain check, and promoters are unwilling to call it a cancellation. But ticketholders for Friday's "postponed" Rain concert at Aloha Stadium can start getting refunds.

At a Waikiki news conference yesterday, a group of concert promoters tried to explain why K-pop superstar Jung Ji-Hoon, known as "Rain," will not appear in Hawaii or other U.S. locations in a widely publicized concert tour this summer, and they don't know the reason.

REFUNDS Rain fans who bought tickets for the Honolulu concert can get refunds: » Directly from Ticketmaster or other online outlets if purchased there. » Tickets bought directly from local promoter Click Entertainment can get refunds beginning next Wednesday from the business office in Sam Sung Plaza, 655 Keeaumoku St. » For stadium and state box office sales, Click has yet to negotiate how refunds will be handled. Aloha Stadium manager Scott Chan said he imagined that patrons will have to return to the location where they purchased the ticket. Information: 941-8870.

"We have not heard an explanation from Star(M)," Rain's Korea-based managers, shrugged spokesman Dong Il Min of TFD Big Bang, one of a group of local companies caught up in the scuttled concert.

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A group of concert promoters and investors called a news conference yesterday to announce that they don't know anything.

"We don't want to make anything clear at this point," said investor Sung Up Park of Big Band of Korea. "But we're very sad about what has happened in Hawaii."

The matter at hand was a planned Friday concert at Aloha Stadium, starring Jung Ji-Hoon, a Korean pop star known there as Bi, or "Rain." Amid reports of concert cancellations coming from Star(M), Rain's Korean management agency, local promoters felt they had to scrap the Honolulu show when Star(M) refused to confirm whether Rain would shine.

All shows except one on Rain's U.S. tour have been canceled, although the Honolulu promoters prefer to use the phrase "postponed." Reasons given range from a pending trademark lawsuit, by a Beatles tribute band called Rain, to last-minute pullouts blamed on inadequate concert facilities. But the Honolulu promoters and investors could only offer speculation, as Rain and Star(M) would not respond to their questions.

Seung Su Lee, owner of Click Entertainment, the promoter primarily involved in the Honolulu show, flew to Korea over the weekend to get answers. He returned empty-handed, as did Toronto promoter Jay Lee, whose Rain concert was also canceled with no explanation.

Lee said he paid a $250,000 guarantee to Star(M), which refuses to return the money. Lee said he cannot refund tickets unless the deposit is returned. "They haven't given back even a penny," said Lee.

Production manager Mark Russo, hired by Click, was still wrestling with logistics until yesterday. "The boat with equipment is actually here already from San Diego, and we were beginning to construct the stage," Russo said. "All of Star(M)'s stage concerns were met, at Click's expense."

The group was unwilling to give out numbers, saying they needed to go over the books and add up sales figures and expenses, but confirmed that perhaps thousands of tickets have been sold at prices ranging up to $300.

Stadium manager Scott Chan said Click had paid a $30,000 deposit to ready the venue for the event, and that expensive work had already been performed to protect the artificial turf.

In 35 years of professional concert management, Russo said, he's never run into a situation like this.

Group spokesman Dong Il Min of TFD Big Bang, when asked about their personal reactions, paused and said, "Obviously, I'm a human being and I have feelings, but I cannot express them right now."