Aussie rising star Tash Sultana has lashed out at Jetstar for misplacing thousands of dollars worth of crucial gear on the eve of her sold-out European tour.
Fresh from wowing crowds at this year’s BIGSOUND conference in Brisbane, the Melbourne muso was scheduled to play to a full house at Berlin’s Badehaus tonight, but the show may be derailed by the loss of her one-of-a-kind rig.
“So I’ve been in transit for 32 hours and I have finally arrived in Berlin! However, Swiss International Air Lines and Jetstar Australia seem to have lost both of my guitars and both of my pedal boards and also broken my suitcase during a connecting flight,” Sultana has posted on Facebook, alongside a photo of her depleted guitarsenal.
And in response to a fan who asked if she could make do with borrowing gear, Sultana replied that it “can’t fix the issue”.
“I wish it could but unfortunately I designed my rig for this specific performance and I can’t duplicate it,” she said. “I’m still remaining calm, I have good faith. And if I can’t play the show I’m just going to postpone it and release more tickets through a bigger venue to compensate for my fans. I’m here for them and now it’s jeopardised.”
Sultana soon solved the mystery of her missing gear — not through liaising with Jetstar, whom she’d apparently been trying to get answers from for 14 hours with “zero help” — but through a fan, who sent her a snap of her guitar and pedalboard, lying on the ground in a Singapore airport.
“One of your staff didn’t tag my equipment through to Berlin and now it’s on the floor in Singapore airport where anyone can steal it,” Sultana wrote on Facebook, tagging Jetstar.
“We have reported our missing luggage and tried to contact all of your offices with zero help/ being put on hold/ hung up on.
“Please contact me for the 164839300403 time. This is beyond unacceptable now.”
A Jetstar spokesperson has since responded to Sultana’s most recent Facebook post, saying:
“We apologise for how frustrating this is. Our system shows that your baggage was tagged correctly for the entire transit through to Berlin, but it missed the onwards connection from Singapore onto another airline. We’re working with local teams in Singapore to get your baggage onto the next available flight, so we’ll keep in touch with you directly. Once again, we’re very sorry about this situation.”
So hopefully the story will have a happy ending and Tash will get her rig back safe and sound, just in time to blow the roof off Berlin.
We’ll keep you posted. In the meantime, check out all of Tash’s updates below.
