Thursday, March 28, 2024

8 months later: Beyond Van Gogh announces new opening date in Victoria

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Here we go again. 

Beyond Van Gogh has had Victorians on the edges of their seats for the better part of a year now, wondering if they will ever manage to open their exhibit that has become controversial over the last eight months. 

After several cancellations, rescheduling, refunds and incurring the wrath of many angry Vancouver Islanders, the exhibit announced that it will be opening in Bayview Place on June 22nd, just shy of a month from now. 

The parent company of the Beyond Van Gogh Experience, Paquin Entertainment has finally managed to secure a permit from the City of Victoria for Bayview Place in Vic West, which was one of their initial setbacks.

They began advertising for the exhibit and selling tickets for a show they had not yet secured the right permissions for and continued to falsely advertise the show being open throughout the winter months, all the whale advertising on their social media channels as if the show was indeed going on.

The company also floundered to provide refunds for several upset customers who in some cases showed up to the venue to find an empty lot with no communication from Paquin Entertainment or Beyond Van Gogh.

The road to get to opening day has been long and arduous, but it would appear as if the company has finally gotten all its ducks in a row and they should be able to do what they intended to do last October next month. 

Beyond Van Gogh Victoria timeline:

  • February 2022 
    • Beyond Van Gogh announces that it will be coming to Victoria with no specific dates yet.
  • June 2022 
    • Beyond Van Gogh announces that their exhibit will be taking place at Bayview Place in Vic West, beginning on October 14th, 2022, with tickets going on sale in late June. 
  • October 14th, 2022 
    • Some confused customers arrive at Bayview Place to see the show they’ve been anticipating for months to an empty lot and no Beyond Van Gogh
    • No word of delay had been sent to these customers and customers struggled to find anyone who knew what was going on with the show
    • Beyond Van Gogh’s website and social media all falsely indicate at this point that the show is on and nothing is out of sorts
  • November 9th, 2022 
    • Initially, the exhibit had been delayed 28 days with a postponed opening date of November 11th
    • As that that date drew closer, Victoria Buzz reached out to the public relations firm representing Beyond Van Gogh who said that the show would be pushed to November 25th
    • At this point, the exhibit’s website and social media al still show that the show is happening, but the comments section is filled with disgruntled customers all looking for a response as to when they’ll receive a refund
    • Tickets were still being sold for a show that had been delayed over 40 days 
  • November 18th, 2022
    • The show is officially postponed a third time, this time indefinitely
    • Beyond Van Gogh’s parent company, Paquin Entertainment Group, hire a crisis public relations company to represent them to members of the media
    • Ticket sales are disabled on their website
    • Information from the City of Victoria revealed that Beyond Van Gogh had not yet applied for a Temporary Use Permit (TUP) to use the space at Bayview Place — this is the first step of many to attain a permit for city land use
    • Beyond Van Gogh’s social media continues to indicate the show is on
  • January 5th, 2023
    • City of Victoria Staff inform Victoria Buzz that Beyond Van Gogh filed for a TUP for the Bayview Place venue on November 21st 
    • Bus shelter ads and a massive billboard on the Pat Bay Highway can be seen advertising the exhibit that never was
  • May 24th, 2023
    • The City of Victoria confirms that Beyond Van Gogh has secured their TUP for Bayview Place beginning on June 20th
    • Paquin Entertainment releases that they are opening and tickets go on sale 

All of these events bring us up to the present in which many Victorians are hopeful they won’t be let down by Paquin Entertainment yet again, or they have decided they won’t even bother trying to go this time around.


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Curtis Blandy
curtis@victoriabuzz.com

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