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Sail4th Premiere ticket buyers told no refunds after paying $200-plus for canceled viewing
By
Ryan Kost
Published Jul 21, 2026
Modified Jul 21, 2026
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ANGELA WEISS / AFP via Getty Images
By
Ryan Kost
Published Jul 21, 2026
Modified Jul 21, 2026
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Sara Louise Petty and her son were on their way out the door at 6 a.m. on July 4 when she noticed the email. The Premier Access viewing area on Governors Island, where she'd paid $450 for two tickets to watch the tall ships and a Royal Air Force flyover, had been canceled due to storm damage from the night before.
“We are working to confirm refund details for Premier Access ticketholders and will provide an update as soon as possible,” the email read.
But Petty was more concerned about where she and her son would watch the festivities.
“I grew up in the UK and used to see the Red Arrows all the time as a child, so now I wanted to take my 12-year-old to see them over New York City,” she said. “It was a very special thing for us.”
Eventually, they made their way from Westchester to Battery Park. It was cramped and blazing hot, a bit of a “tough morning,” Petty said, but they caught the show.
What she hasn't gotten is her money back.
More than a week later, Petty received another email from Sail4th 250, the event’s organizer. A storm had passed through the night of July 3, causing “substantial structural damage to our outdoor venue that made it unsafe to proceed,” the email explained.
As for the refunds, they would not be happening.
“Like many organizations — and especially other nonprofits operating on tight budgets — our event terms of service do not provide for cash refunds in the event of weather-related cancellations,” the new email said.
The email noted that “everything else your support made possible came to fruition,” including a parade watched by “nearly 12 million people” on NBC and millions more along the Hudson River waterfront.
Sail4th spokesperson William Armstrong couldn’t say how many people were affected by the cancellations, though he said “hundreds” would be “a fair characterization.” Premier tickets started at $200 a piece.
A group of ticketholders, at least 17 according to organizers, have found one another through a Facebook group where they discuss strategies for recouping the money they lost. Others, like Petty, have taken to posting on Reddit.
Part of the sting, Petty and others said, comes from the fact that the overall event was not canceled. The tall ships still sailed up the Hudson, and Sail4th’s higher-priced tier, VIP Access, still went ahead on Governors Island.
“It seemed to me that we funded the VIPs' event in the end,” Petty said.
Robert Alexander spent $670 on three Premier Access tickets. He’d flown to New York from Virginia with his wife and son for the July 4 weekend.
“This was the centerpiece,” he said. Both he and his son are into photography and were hoping to get shots of the boats sailing with the Statue of Liberty in the background.
The morning of the event, he made everybody get up at 6 a.m. before he noticed the cancellation message, though he’s not sure he’d call it a cancellation.
“It wasn't canceled,” he said. “They decided to exclude the lowest-level tickets, and they still held their event.”
Alexander figured a refund was on the way, so he booked a nearly $900 fireworks cruise for later that night, hoping to salvage the trip.
In the weeks since, Alexander has reached out to Sail4th over email, Facebook and LinkedIn about a refund, but hasn’t received any response.
“I don't think that anybody would think that was fair,” he said. “And then, you know, complete radio silence.”
Armstrong maintains that at no point did Sail4th ever say there would be a refund.
“Somebody put out a note early that there might be consideration of that, but there was never a direct communication to anybody saying there would be a refund,” he said.
Armstrong stressed to Gothamist that Sail4th was a small nonprofit and could not refund the ticketholders. He said any insurance the group had might have covered damaged facilities on Governors Island, not refunds.
Armstrong described the refund policy as standard.
“We're very grateful to everybody who wanted to participate with us and who contributed to the success of our effort,” he said. “All the funds that we raised as a small startup nonprofit were given to supporting the event, to the tall ship participants and to the creation of the event itself.”
When asked about families who bought multiple tickets, costing more than $1,000 altogether, Armstrong replied: “That's very generous and very enthusiastic.”
”It's no consolation to them that NBC did a fabulous job for three hours on live TV … to produce what by all accounts is going to become a record-breaking number of viewers for any NBC program this year, including the Olympics,” he added.
Alexander isn’t swayed by the small, nonprofit framing.
“I think that's BS,” he said. “I just don't buy it.” He noted the event has a long list of corporate and media sponsors.
Petty said she’s filed a complaint with the state attorney general alleging the sale amounted to fraud. Alexander said he also went to the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection, the mayor's office, and the Governors Island Trust. In a response shared with Gothamist, the Trust’s chief of staff said she would look into the issue. When reached by phone, she referred any questions to Sail4th.
The Department of Consumer and Worker Protection confirmed it had received three complains and encouraged those affected to file complaints of their own. A message to the attorney general’s office Tuesday hadn't yet been returned.
For Petty, who moved to the U.S. from the U.K. 30 years ago and became a citizen in 2022, the whole situation seems to go against the meaning of the event.
“It’s my chosen home,” she said. “It's where I've had my children. I love this country, and wanting to celebrate it, but then getting scammed at the same time — or what I perceive as a scam — just doesn't seem American.”
This story has been updated with more information.
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new york city
Ryan Kost
Ryan Kost is a reporter on the day-of news desk, where he covers breaking news and writes enterprise stories about jails, courts, prosecutors and government accountability. His work focuses on the public institutions that shape life in New York. Before joining the newsroom, he lead a multi-part investigation with Columbia Journalism Investigations and New York Focus into how New York prosecutors handle wrongful conviction claims. He's also been a staff writer at The San Francisco Chronicle, The Associated Press and The Oregonian. Got a tip? Signal: ryankost.20
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