Disappointed Beachdown festival-goers are still waiting anxiously to find out whether they would get their ticket money back.

While online agents Ticketline and Seetickets were both working through a refund process, anyone who had paid in cash at record shops in Brighton remained in the dark.

The festival, which had been due to be held this weekend at Devil's Dyke farm, near Brighton, was cancelled abruptly on Wednesday when organisers said they did not have money to pay key suppliers.

Yesterday staff at Brighton outlets, including Resident and Rounder Records, said they had been forced to turn away dozens of unhappy customers who had bought £97 tickets from them.

Natasha Youngs, the manager of Resident, in Kensington Gardens, said: "The problem is we don't know any more than they do. We've tried to contact the organisers on all the numbers we have for them, we've been to the office, but we can't find anyone to speak to.

"We sold a lot of tickets and paid Beachdown in full. We can't take the hit of paying people back out of our own pockets. If we could we would have done."

Staff at Rounder Records, in Brighton Square, said they were in the same position.

One worker said: "People were quite reasonable yesterday but today they have been a bit more tense and it will probably get worse as it goes on – and who can blame them. It's frustrating for us because we want to help but we just don't know what is happening."

Concorde 2, in Madeira Drive, has been giving refunds but is believed to have sold fewer tickets than other outlets.

It has been making strenuous efforts to make amends for the collapse of the festival, which it had allowed to use its name for the Brighton bands stage.

The club will now host a free mini-festival on Saturday and Sunday featuring most of the local acts who had been due at Beachdown.

Its management yesterday said they were working to try to get some of the bigger name artists to appear as well.

Frustrated revellers were also trying to work out how to spend the weekend, with rumours still circulating of plans for unofficial parties at the site, at the beach, or elsewhere.

Sussex Police said it would have officers at the site and warned people not to try to gather there.

Neil Cranston, the Beachdown production manager, was supervising the dtaking down of the festival set-up yesterday.

He said: "It's a very sad state of affairs up here. We had spent 12 days setting things up, a lot of people had put a lot of time and effort into it and now we're taking it down without anyone ever getting here."

He promised there would be no disruption to the site's neighbours.

Mr Cranston said: "I want to give my word to villagers in Fulking and elsewhere nearby that I will be here on site the whole time and will not leave until every piece of equipment and every last bit of litter is cleared."

The Argus would like to clarify that Neil Cranston is not a director of Beachdown's organisers Future Festivals, as previously reported.