Chelyabinsk Ice Show Refunds Stalled After Cancellation

In Chelyabinsk, the New Year«s show »Nutcracker on Ice with Symphony Orchestra« (6+), which was to take place at the Yunost Sports Palace on December 17, has been postponed for a year, and the organizers are in no hurry to refund tickets. Disappointed spectators have already started filing complaints with the Prosecutor General»s Office, because performances were canceled across the country, and it seems that federal supervisory authorities should indeed investigate.

«Took the Money, But Didn»t Take the Children Anywhere«

Several Chelyabinsk residents reached out to 74.RU. Ekaterina, for instance, bought tickets for an entire elementary school class.

«I bought 21 tickets for 18,900 rubles ($210). We wanted to give the children a holiday together with other parents. The day before the show, we saw it was canceled, and I didn»t even immediately realize it had been postponed to next year – they told me when I started contacting the organizers,« she said. »I immediately filed a refund request, it was accepted, and they said to expect a response in 2 to 10 days, but neither payment nor a reply came. Only the Ticketscloud website responded, they wrote: «Wait. When the organizer replenishes the balance, they»ll transfer the money to you.« On the organizer»s website, they initially wrote that refunds would start on December 20, then January 20, and now there«s complete silence.»

The situation is complicated by a lack of understanding from some parents.

«They write to me: »You took the money, but didn«t take the children anywhere and aren»t returning the money.« I try to explain that it»s not my fault, but you can«t explain to everyone. It would be one thing if I had bought just two tickets for myself and my child, but these are other people»s money,« Ekaterina noted.

At the end of January, Ekaterina sent an appeal to the Prosecutor General«s Office of Russia, but has not yet received a reply. Another Chelyabinsk resident, Elena, also appealed there; she and her husband bought two tickets for 7,000 rubles ($78). When they received the notification about the postponement, they didn»t even realize they would have to wait a whole year. The new date was December 18, and on that day the couple came to the sports palace, along with some other spectators, and only then understood the absurdity of the situation.

«We weren»t the only ones who came; there were people from the region, schoolchildren,« Elena fumed.

The same day, the couple submitted a refund request through Yandex Afisha; the next day they received a letter saying it was being processed, and this continues to this day.

Show Cancellations Across the Country

In the New Year«s tour, the organizers promised the participation of legendary figure skaters, for example, in previous seasons it featured Alexei Yagudin, Adeliya Petrosyan, Evgenia Medvedeva, and others. Tickets for the show cost from 500 to 3,500 rubles ($6 to $39). The shows were planned in 32 cities across the country.

Performances were canceled not only in Chelyabinsk. In Magnitogorsk, two shows were supposed to take place at the Metallurg Arena on December 25, but they did not happen; the concert venue 74.RU confirmed this information. On December 13, the show was scheduled in Kemerovo, December 18 in Tolyatti, December 19 in Omsk, December 19 and 20 in Samara, December 23 in Yekaterinburg, January 3 in Perm, but a few days before, spectators in these cities also received notifications of new dates in 2026 and faced difficulties with refunds.

The event organizer is Ice Seasons LLC based in Moscow. We sent a request to the company«s email and asked whether the organizer plans to issue refunds and when. A response came from the press service:

«Of course, it plans to, but a bit later. I can»t give exact dates, they are working on it.«

According to the Kontur.Focus service, Ice Seasons LLC was registered in Moscow in 2020. The staff consists of one person. Official revenue for 2024 amounted to 41.8 million rubles ($464,400), net profit – 2.1 million rubles ($23,300). The founder and director is Stanislav Zylev, who is also the chairman of the public organization «Our Peoples» and director of Apelsin-Kontsert LLC.

The cancellations and refund problems are actively commented on by the Telegram channel «Dove of Peace by Yana Rudkovskaya» (producer and wife of figure skater Evgeni Plushenko). The author calls Ice Seasons head Stanislav Zylev a dishonest person; according to her, in 2007 he did not pay Evgeni Plushenko a fee for the Olympic tour across 25 cities, about 25 million rubles ($277,800). After that, Zylev still had projects, in particular, in 2023 he organized the «Nutcracker on Ice with Symphony Orchestra» tour, and in 2025, Bolshoi Theatre ballerina Anastasia Smirnova stated that she and other participants were not paid for participating in the show.

What Should Disappointed Spectators Do?

One resident of Samara managed to get a refund for the tickets, but not through the organizers or the ticket sales service, but through a chargeback at the bank. Not all financial institutions offer this service. Therefore, most will have to take the standard route for such cases.

«You need to file a pre-trial claim, sending it to the legal address of the organization that received the money, demanding the return of the funds. If the claim is not considered or the response is negative, you will have to file a lawsuit in court,» explained lawyer Nikolai Popov. «You can go to court at your place of residence. According to the law »On Protection of Consumer Rights«, not only compensation for the paid amount is provided, but also penalties and fines for refusing to voluntarily satisfy the consumer»s demands.«

In Yekaterinburg, incidentally, the situation has been taken under control by Rospotrebnadzor (the Federal Service for Supervision of Consumer Rights Protection); the agency has offered affected people to join a class-action lawsuit by March 2. But residents of other regions cannot join this lawsuit. In theory, residents of Chelyabinsk Oblast can contact the regional Rospotrebnadzor office for help in protecting their rights.

Furthermore, according to the lawyer, victims can file police reports to initiate criminal proceedings.

«For this, it is best to contact the police department at the location of the event,» Nikolai Popov advised. «The statement regarding alleged fraud can be signed collectively, since there are indeed many victims, and the organization is taking no measures to return the money, which may indicate intent to commit theft.»