Cancellation and Refund Policies

Errors Made when Registering Online

Many of you are aware that Zimfest is produced largely by volunteer energy. It is an ongoing challenge to appropriately allocate the much appreciated volunteer resources wisely. As a result, we have limited resources for tasks such as processing refunds once a participant has registered and paid for housing, meals, concert tickets and/or registrations. We have made sure that the registration form gives links to the relevant web page above each payment section, and therefore ask that you read the website pages which explain policies regarding all festival costs before you register. If a registration refund is requested due to failure to look up the relevant policy, Zimfest will be unable to process any refund. For example, if you purchase concert tickets for a performer and then read the statement that performers are eligible to claim free admission to one evening concert, we will not refund the cost of your ticket.

In the Event of an Emergency

If you are forced to cancel your paid participation in Zimfest due to a legitimate emergency before the festival takes place, you may be able to receive a refund. We will consider requests for refunds for all fees paid for housing, dining, registration and/or workshops only when cancellation is due to reasons such as medical emergencies, death in the family, etc. Please write to to request a refund as soon as you know you will have to cancel.

All refund requests must be received no later than one week before the start of the festival in order to be considered, and will incur a 5% administrative fee. Zimfest reserves the right to withhold more than the 5% fee based on the policies and penalties of the host institution. Emergency refunds requested after July 26, 2023 will not be allowed and you will forfeit any payment made.

Workshop Refund Policy

You may apply for a workshop refund if you have credit due for a workshop that was cancelled or if you chose to drop a workshop that was changed by Zimfest. We cannot refund money paid for Zimfest workshops that you did not attend for any other reason (in addition to the emergency festival cancellation described above).

Please see the Workshop Cancellation Policy on the About Workshops page for a full explanation of policies concerning cancellation of workshops.

Workshop refund request forms will be available in the Zimfest registration area, and can be handed in there or mailed. We will not accept workshop credit refund requests postmarked after August 25, 2023.