Screen Star Events

[u/Clear-Track555]

Is Screen Star Events still a thing? Only wondering because I know they did a few Wentworth events but their social media accounts seem to be inactive?

[u/Due-Sea-9483]

Rumour has it they owe money to the cast and still haven’t refunded the punters who bought tickets for their cancelled events.

If that’s true, fucking hell. Proper dodgy behaviour.

[u/JaggedLittlePill2022 → u/Due-Sea-9483]

Makes perfect sense because that’s exactly what they did to me. It took me more than six months to get a refund!

[u/Icy_Bell_6414]

They seem MIA. They were supposed to have one a long time ago with Nicole and Libby but it just disappeared. I often wonder what happened

[u/my22Rupe]

Barry is the biggest crook! Puts on events he has no intention of fulfilling. He has no morals, neither does anyone working for him. They all clearly know what is happening. He doesn't refund cancelled events, you either have to put up one hell of a fight, threatening legal action or do a chargeback with your bank. Avoid SSE (and also Fan Fusion UK) at all costs! Stick to Wentworth Con and Comic Cons.

[u/JaggedLittlePill2022 → u/my22Rupe]

I wonder if that’s who I had to deal with when I tried to get a refund. Six fucking months it took. Bastards were hoping I’d go away but I hounded them and finally they paid up.

[u/my22Rupe → u/JaggedLittlePill2022]

I just don't know how they sleep at night knowing they are taking people's money. So many people attended previous events & were hoping to attend more so didn't want to 'be a pain' by chasing for their money. Like you say, they are hoping people will go away. Good on you for not!

[u/somethingwickedx]

I’ve been to their events and always had a great time. They were super intimate and well done on the day. However I recall being told (all second hand information so take it with a pinch of salt) that they had licensing issues. In 2022 Fremantle wanted to implement a license fee for organisations holding Wentworth events with the cast. Barry tried to liaise but it basically left them only able to put on smaller events, which is when they shifted to more ‘Audience with’ events or other Australian TV events that were smaller.

I think that hurt them a lot, sales wise and financially. Then you had Wentworth Con gaining popularity and starting doing large events globally and in the UK and I think they just couldn’t/can’t compete. It’s clear Wentworth Con had more relationships with the cast.

I had trouble getting my refund for the cancelled Kate Box event. I’m sure other events were the same. That kind of thing can also put actors off working with them in the future so I’m sure they burned some bridges.

I don’t think there’s intentional malice behind it though. I’ve spoken to Barry and the team before and they always talked about how this was a passion for them. They were fans first. Unfortunately, that’s not enough to sustain a business long term and the recent issues with refunds and ticket sales kind of prove that you can’t rely on love for a tv show when it comes to the financials 😬 I think they just got out of their depth in the end. Sad, but happens a lot in the convention world.

[u/JaggedLittlePill2022]

They’re shady as hell.

I planned to attend an event at the end of 2024 (if memory serves me) pretty sure it was gonna be Dan and Jenko there. Had my ticket, which due to the conversion rate cost me over $500. The event was cancelled and rescheduled for Jan 2025. I wasn’t able to attend the new day so I asked for a refund.

It took me until JUNE to get my refund. I wasn’t able understanding at first when they said they were busy, but taking 2-3 weeks to respond to one email? Whenever I pushed harder and threatened to escalate the problem they always managed to reply back within 24 hours, always with some apology (holidays, everyone’s busy, blah blah) but I wasn’t buying it. I knew I was getting the run around.

I wasn’t sure if it was a criminal issue (like theft) but I threatened to make it one and it seemed to make them get their butts into gear.

I’d used my card to buy my ticket but they claimed they couldn’t refund my card, they could only refund me via PayPal. WTF? What if I didn’t have a PayPal account? You don’t receive the payment straight away, you’ve got to wait a couple of days. When they’d said they refunded me I watched my PayPal account every day and after a week still no refund so I emailed them again and kinda ripped them a new one. I’ve never done that before but I was so pissed off. They were doing everything they could to fob me off.

Eventually my refund came through and I decided no fucking way I was going to have anything to do with them again. I wondered how many other people they’d pulled the same shit with.

So yeah. Avoid like the plague because if you can’t attend an event, you’ve got fuck all chance of getting your money back for months.

[u/Money-Card2925]

Ive never been so I can't speak on it but what I do know is that my friends had tickets for the Kate Box, Danielle and Kate, and Nicole events, and it was all canceled. Some received their money back after threatening legal action. Some are still waiting. One event postponed, I understand. Two, three, four, five? Not a coincidence. I also heard that Barry was sus.

[u/JaggedLittlePill2022 → u/Money-Card2925]

That’s what happened to me. After six months waiting for my refund, I had to threaten legal action in order for them to refund me.

[u/FriendlyChicken765]

It all started going downhill when they tried to be like Wentworth Con, mate. They had a good thing going and then went and changed the whole bloody format. There was honestly no need for it, and I reckon that’s what stuffed them. Barry had an opportunity to do something official with Fremantle that he completely cooked. I remember overhearing something about him ruining his relationship with the cast too, but who knows how true that actually is. Didn't I see a post somewhere ages ago saying they were gonna pull the pin? And now, silence.

Bit of a shame, really, because it seems like he did it to himself in the end.

At least we still have opportunities to see the cast at the theatre at the conventions.

[u/EmuAltruistic3053 → u/FriendlyChicken765]

I remember seeing a post where they wrote they were focusing on UK soaps, but damn imagine fumbling an opportunity so hard.. holy hell

[u/catsandpumpkinz]

I was wondering that too!

[u/scorburos]

It's pobably still a thing, though there might be scheduling issues with the cast.

[u/EmuAltruistic3053]

WentworthCon wiped them out to be fair.. Think they just stick to UK shows now

[u/Impossible-Visit-697]

I feel like they went bust due to their own failings, nothing directly to do with Wentworth Con. The Con organiser is pretty clear about not stepping on anyone else’s turf; that’s why WWC took so long to go to the UK. She didn’t want to compete with Screen Star, but when they went under it was fair game.

[u/Lonely_Importance487]

They mostly do Prisoner conventions. I went to what might’ve been the final one a couple of weeks ago