The everlasting mystery of the Rufus Du Sol Wollongong Beach concert that wasn't

The question: Is Rufus Du Sol, the Sydney alternative dance group that won a Grammy in 2022, performing a concert at Wollongong Beach on July 13?

I am listening to Innerbloom as I arrive at the Wollongong Beach address provided to me (via email cos@illawarramercury.com.au if you're interested).

A lovely engineer is more than happy to answer my questions. Thing is though he's even further in the dark than I am about why his address is listed as the concert location for the ARIA Award winners gig in the Gong.

My search continues.

The Wollongong City Council has no knowledge of the event, and the Facebook page spruiking the show has been deleted, leaving unanswered questions everywhere.

Rufus Du Sol is currently in the City of Sin, Las Vegas on a residency, but has a curious gap in their schedule from July 5, to July 20, the perfect time to fly home for a few gigs.

Or is this just an opportunity for pranksters to cause mischief?

Silvana Macri was considering flying from Western Australia to see the show but noticed inconsistencies when she was looking for the tickets.

"I went to Ticketmaster and couldn't find any tickets, so we held off doing anything on Facebook because it looked a bit dodgy," she said.

"Our worry is that people will be crazily buying tickets and it's a scam.

"They played in Wollongong in 2019 and it was a hit. Scammers have seen that and think they can make some easy money."

With no clear path forward I turned to the band's website and entered a nightmarish void with no information except a button labelled "store".

Some minutes, $55 later and wearing a new shirt, I check the group's Facebook page, there are no posts mentioning any shows in Australia this year but apparently someone named Cassian has gone missing, another story for another time.

Then, from out of the blue, an email from Rufus Du Sol's management, the event was a fake listing created by an account pretending to be the band.

So it's official, Rufus Du Sol will not be performing in Wollongong on July 13. Hopefully most people followed Ms Macri's example and double-checked before handing over their hard-earned money.