It looks like our favourite annual science fiction convention, Sci-Fi Weekender (SFW), is no more. We were emailed a week ago to say that the company which organises it, Dark Watch, has ceased trading, and all its future events would not be taking place.
We’re a bit gutted, to be frank. The SFW community is mostly lovely, and we’ve had some great experiences there over the years. We’ve been to all the SFW events since SFW 9, back in 2018. That was in North Wales, with later events in Sheffield, and more recently Great Yarmouth. I wrote a bit more about these back in March 2024.
Cancellation and relocation
The last SFW that took place was SFW 16 in March last year. SFW 17 was supposed to be in March this year, but it ended up being cancelled. This was due to over-running construction work taking place at the Vauxhall Holiday Park, the host resort, in Great Yarmouth. Instead, Christine and I went to London for the weekend. So, our booking was transferred to March 2027, without us being out of pocket.
We then learned in the summer that SFW would make yet another move to a new site. This time, it would take place at Seal Bay in Selsey, near Chichester on the south coast. Whilst this would mean a longer drive, it’s a larger site and the indoor spaces have higher ceilings. This addresses a minor complaint from some attendees that the Vauxhall Holiday Park wasn’t suitable for bigger cosplay builds. However, last month, ownership of Seal Bay transferred to Haven, who operate the Hafan y Môr park that hosted SFW until 2018.
No refunds
And then last week, we found out that the organisers has ceased trading, and that there would be no refunds. The shenanigans over the venue this year can’t have helped, and I understand a number of people also cancelled their bookings. But more recently I’ve learned that Dark Watch had maybe been in trouble for some time. Several partners and entertainment acts involved with SFW have mentioned that they’ve had unpaid invoices.
Dark Watch and its predecessor companies (Chic Festivals, HRH Experiences… the fact that it has changed name is perhaps a clue that they weren’t doing so well) had a good business model. As well as SFW, they operated the various Hard Rock Hell festivals, and would essentially lease out a holiday park out of season. The park operators got more value out of their parks, and the events usually sold out in advance. However, the park operators themselves have got wise to this – Parkdean runs its own weekender events now at Vauxhall and some of its other resorts. They’re more mass-market than SFW was, but it also means that some resorts won’t be available out of season and that Dark Watch is no longer the only company with this business model.
Getting our money back
The email telling us that Dark Watch had ceased trading advised anyone who had booked to try and reclaim their money by other means:
- Chargeback, for any payments made by credit or debit card within 120 days. As we paid in March 2025, this wasn’t an option for us.
- Section 75. This is part of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 which makes credit card providers jointly liable with the retailer for any transaction that goes wrong (between the value of £100 and £30,000). I paid by credit card, so this is what I’m pursuing.
- Travel Insurance. I didn’t take out a travel insurance policy and don’t have an annual multi-trip policy, but even then, many policies don’t cover supplier failure. Furthermore, insurance companies may not pay out unless you’ve already tried getting your money back via chargeback or Section 75.
For SFW 17, we were planning to share a caravan as a group of six, and so the total we paid was around £860. I’ve submitted the paperwork for a Section 75 claim, which was literally on paper, as my credit card provider doesn’t allow you to contact them via their web site. Thankfully, as something of an email hoarder, I had the receipts and the various re-scheduling emails saved. There will no doubt be a future post about how I’ve got on.
I feel sorry for anyone who paid by debit card more than three months ago, or by cash, and who didn’t have travel insurance in place. This includes some of our friends, for whom hundreds of pounds of their money is now gone with no recourse.
There is a remote possibility that someone will buy the assets of Dark Watch and SFW could be resurrected in future. But it’s not guaranteed. I’d rather try my chances at a Section 75 claim, and pay our four friends back, than hope that a theoretical future owner will honour our booking. After we’ve paid back our friends for their contributions to the booking, there should be around £280 for Christine and I.
Silver linings?
As much as we enjoyed SFW, some of the logistics of getting there are a bit of a pain. In particular, we were not looking forward to the drive down to Chichester. From where we are in West Yorkshire, it would be a 5 hour drive with no breaks. However, with our electric car, this would require at least two 45 minute stops to charge, pushing the journey time closer to 7 hours. So even if we set off at 9am, it would be mid-to-late afternoon by the time we arrived, and the same in reverse. And Christine would be doing all the driving; as it stands, the earliest I can get my license back is September next year.
Childcare for the Thursday night has also been an issue. My parents are happy to look after our ten-year-old from Friday to Sunday, but not the Thursday night. So we usually have to scramble to find childcare on the Thursday night that would include school pick-up on Thursday, and drop-off on Friday morning. Not having to worry about that is a relief, I suppose.
What we might do instead
Christine and I still have the weekend booked off work, so we’ll see if we end up doing something else nearer the time. And it may be that another similar event comes along; there’s some chatter in the various Facebook groups that we’re members of. I’m hoping that these groups allow the SFW community to stay in touch, and maybe many of us will be able to meet up again somewhere in future.
But it would also be nice to have a weekend away somewhere, perhaps with our ten-year-old in tow this time.
There’s a bit more on this from MetalTalk, about the Hard Rock Hell side of things – and again, claims of unpaid invoices and appearance fees.
