Sunday, May 15, 2011

ZepFest Cancelled



Update, and bumped:

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Some good information and excellent source material in an article by Ally Schweitzer of the Washington City Paper in the ZepFest cancellation:

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/artsdesk/music/2011/05/16/the-disintegration-of-zep-fest/

Meanwhile, Paul Hammond from Get the Led Out reports that they too have not been officially notified of the cancellation. Possibly more disturbing, neither has MissionTix, who are telling customers it may take up wait 48 hours before requesting refunds.

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ZepFest 2011, only two weekends away and set to be staged in Washington DC, has been cancelled:

screen-shot-2011-05-15-at-93922-pm


Rumours began circulating about ten days ago, when Led Zepagain publicly announced they would be dropping out due a lack of upfront money as contractually committed by ZepFest. That came on the heels of Richard Cole dropping out. The response from ZepFest when I enquired about Richard Cole was "couldn't work out travel."



screen-shot-2011-05-15-at-94741-pmToday, Dread Zeppelin dropped out, and looking into it, I heard word that less known acts, Fosterchild and Craving Strange had either dropped out or been dropped. It was becoming clear ZepFest was in trouble. Enquiries to the organizer resulted in an email sent at 5:57 this evening:



EVENT IS CANCELLED
refunds at place of purchase

[someone will be in touch with you]

One act is now publicly wondering whether a fraud was committed, and certainty the acts involved will lose revenue from not playing that weekend. As well, people who booked a flight will also be out their money.

Ramble On will keep this story up to date as new information becomes available.


10 comments:

freesoft said...

Thank you..really informative!!

Rambler said...

this is really bad news coming so near to the date of the event...ya gotta wonder what the real story is here...please share as you find out more! Hope everyone (including this commenter) gets their money back!

Insider28 said...

I know so much; this is and was a major debacle from day one. Lies and deceit, fantasy and fools gold, with penny stock hype. Boggles my mind how many people believed him when he was so in over his head; it was a facebook /twitter game.

Rob L. said...

Mark Boudreau is probably trying to cross into Canada. I'm sure Zep Fest, LLC filed bankruptcy prior to the announcement; their ticket stipulations clears them of legally having to refund money even if event is canceled. All of those people won't see a dime back, mark my word.

Amy said...

Do you think the folks (many of whom I know that have purchased international plan tickets) have any recourse? Can they sue? Anything? So freaking outrageous.

iambriandammit said...

Amy

I don't have an answer for you. My guess is no, you cannot sue for plane tickets, however, I cannot say so for sure.

Chas McDevitt said...

Dealing with Mark Boudreau for about a month. Always assured that the dates would be on and no need to worry. Postponed taking dates in UK now feel completely let down. I should have been aware of the bad omens and the amateurish dealings, especially when he kept refering to me in a fawning way as "MR" McDevitt. I wonder if the Wahoo Skiffle Crazies (who were supposed to back me) were taken in as well?

Frank - Wahoo Skiffle Crazies said...

Chas! I'm in the Wahoo Skiffle Crazies and was really looking froward to meeting and playing with you. I knew something fishy was up with all this. For the last few months all my emails to Mark were completely ignored. I really wanted to get in touch with you to get our act together. Mark was never exactly clear how it was going down.

Bill said...

As a huge Led Zeppelin fan of over 30 years, I was looking VERY forward to Zepfest 2011. I've seen Get The Led Out about 12 times over the past 4 years, and you can't imagine how incredible they are unless you've heard them for yourself. This would have been such a great opportunity to see plenty of Zeppelin Tribute bands, to compare and enjoy great music. It sounds like we're the victims of unrealistic goals and very poor planning on the part of the promoters. I'm not promoting myself as an expert, but you need capital, very careful and meticulous planning, effective communication with everyone involved - bands, managers, etc. and a great marketing/promotional strategy, to name a few things. The rest of you can think of plenty more, I'm sure. I feel really bad for the many disappointed fans, but even more for the bands, who missed a fantastic (maybe once-in-a-lifetime) opportunity to reach thousands of new fans in a single weekend. My somewhat educated guess here is that the promoter's lackluster game plan produced insufficient ticket revenue, which left him unable to pay the bands, let alone pay them months in advance per their agreement! He also apparently failed to "man up" - explain what happened (or didn't),
apologize, and compensate accordingly. Worst case - a flat out scam. Best case - a giant clusterf***! So much for a successful Zepfest anytime soon, at least under that name.

Insider28 said...

fawning..funny Chas, in my dealings with him, he rammed his head up my ass, never trusted him. I went with my gut, and ran away from him