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Lysten Festival, Ottawa, Sept 25-26


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And I wonder what prompted that?

I had sent an email to Casey last night asking about their participation and to see if they might be interested in joining the Drifters at Irenes later on in the evening. He emailed me back this morning at approx. 11am to let me know they won't be here in Ottawa.

16 minutes later that was tweeted......

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Did they turn down an offer from the festival? Did they decide to pull out after seeing it was a Mickey Mouse operation? I'm just curious, really, to know on what grounds the (non-promoting) promoters have this band listed as playing.

At the end of the day it's too bad this is being fumbled so badly, as it looks like it had some sort of potential.

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Did they turn down an offer from the festival? Did they decide to pull out after seeing it was a Mickey Mouse operation?

Its been my experience with certain personalities that acts get announced and posted on websites long before they are "confirmed".

Some people like to pull the trigger the second they think they have something good going on.

There was one specific event I worked, that management of an act demanded to be paid their 'going rate' once they knew the event had posted and publicized their involvement. The cost of booking the act nearly doubled as their management knew they had the promoter over a barrel.

I'm going to guess in this instance, the promoters sent in an offer- assumed it would be accepted and posted Brood on the lineup- but have been denied and now they'll sit on that listing as long as possible before swapping in local and more affordable talent.

Bait and switch'd.

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Hello,

I can tell you all with full authority and certainty that Elliott Brood and The Born Ruffians are 100% NOT participating in this festival. There was a lot of talk and discussion to try and make it work and ultimately contracts and logistics could not get worked out. It is unfortunate that the bands are still being listed despite our attempts to have it removed. We hope this hasn't caused any issues. As far as I know, the festival is still a go but I cannot speak on their behalf, for those going, have a great time. Both Elliott Brood and Born Ruffians will be back in Ottawa shortly.

I won't be checking this thread again but for any serious and urgent questions feel free to contact me at Himmelfarb@billions.com

Thanks,

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From Lysten:

Sean, thanks for your email.

We have been dealing with Elliot's agency for the last two months and they have made the decision to go in this direction at the eleventh hour.

Our lineup, which has always been very deep, will still have all the bands on the site attending, including The Sadies, Amos the Transparent, Die Mannequin and Hollerado, to name just a few.

Obviously we will need to 'tweak' the lineup in light of this.

Rest assured Sean, that Chris, the Lysten team and I are making sure this is a longtime event on the Ottawa Festival scene.

Unfortunate this occured, but they felt they needed to make this decision.

Hope you will still come out. Should be a great weekend.

Thanks again.

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And finally something on their site that caught my eye, and is full of interesting tidbits that really do impact the ability of a fest to get itself off of the ground......

So. I took in Osheaga on Saturday, in theory it was a working trip..but really..I went for The National, because well, they are IT. However, I did get to see this little band called Arcade Fire (freakin brilliant show). Saw Beach House (went on a half hour late, so I did miss the last bit, but they were everything I'd hoped for). Had my mind blown though by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. Had never even heard of them, but now I can't stop playing their disc.

Anyway, I digress. The point of this little write up is to share with you that we at Lysten have modified somewhat our festival plans (thank you Osheaga). Instead of three stages, we're going with two. Instead of three days, we want two (seems three IS NOT the magic number). Why? For you the fans. We don't want to offer you some diluted festival. We want to offer a quality event loaded with emerging talent.

With the offers we have out, and the acts we're still contacting, we're convinced you will want to be at the gates for 12 on the Saturday and stay until the very last encore on Sunday. I get that people want to know who's coming, and I promise you, I want to share..but this whole process has been a helluva learning experience.When you're the new kid on the block, not many people want to deal with you, those that do, kinda want to take advantage. Then there are those that want in, that you WANT in, but they want to wait and see who else is going to commit. Almost all of this is reasonable...but DAMN! There's also only so much money to go around, and trying to balance out value versus cost...ugh.

Anyways, those are my challenges, not yours. I'll be back here soon.

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Hollerado are confirmed.

Here's the updated Sunday schedule.

12:25-1:05 The Paramedics

1:15-1:55 Adam Saikaley

2:05-2:45 The Woody Allens

2:55-3:35 Songs From A Room

3:45-4:25 Amos the Transparent

4:35-5:15 My Dad Vs. Yours

5:30-6:45 The Sadies

7:00-8:05

8:20-9:25

9:45-11:00 Hollerado

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it's very bizarre that only yesterday the citizen ran this article listing the artists yet the official lineup on the site shows a completely different story.

How many people are going to show up expecting to see elliot brood and born ruffians on sunday? I suppose the sadies could buck up and do a monster set.

The other thing that article offers is very little faith in the organizers with phrases like

Steve Cooper and Chris Risdon, organizers of the Lysten Festival ... are still scrambling to get it organized, but hope that social media will help spread the word about the event.

Also referencing reggae fest seems like anti-promotion. I can't tell if this article helps the organizers cause, or hurts it. At least it got the word out with an inaccurate lineup.

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there was one other guy who was there to see the Weeds... had a nice chat. he used to work at CKCU with me back in the day.

felt like we won the Generic Beer Company Intimate Concert Experience contest

that photo had a duel purpose, looking for a New Balance sponsorship!

Sarah PC posted a pic from Dearly Beloved's set here: http://twitpic.com/2s02t0

i'd love to hangout with the Sadies and Hollerado today but have a few shows to tend to downtown

i have a little fest going on this week - everyone come see Murder By Death (Monday) and Villagers (Tuesday) both at Mavericks, Deerhoof/Xiu Xiu Thurs at the Capital, Liars Friday at Ritual, Holy Fuck Saturday at the Capital

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Shawn Scallen posted a pic to twitter showing him to be the only person there at 5pm today. Ouch

And I'm guessing he didn't have to pay for his ticket either. Double ouch.

actually...

lysten.jpg

tho i showed up with the barcode on my phone instead of printing a ticket and the volunteer ticket taker didn't have a scanner and wasn't sure what to do

Edited by Guest
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Despite the shortcomings I feel bad for the organizers here. That empty field could have been the death knell of the fest before it even got started.

I was looking forward to today but there is no way I am paying $30 to see The Sadies in this weather. Too bad about Brood and Ruffians because they would have put it over the top and I would have checked it out.

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Ha, ha, sorry Shawn! I just figured you'd be comped as part of the media.

All joking aside I feel bad for them too. In terms of my own interest, if they'd started advertising the festival during the summer it would have been on my radar screen and I'd be more likely to give it a shot. It was kind of last minute though and at $30, not very attractive to my impulse.

Just curious, were there food and beer vendors on site?

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Despite the shortcomings I feel bad for the organizers here. That empty field could have been the death knell of the fest before it even got started.

I was looking forward to today but there is no way I am paying $30 to see The Sadies in this weather. Too bad about Brood and Ruffians because they would have put it over the top and I would have checked it out.

agreed 100%

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I decided on a whim after supper tonight to take a drive down and see for myself what was going on. My girl and I arrived at about 8pm just as The Sadies started and there were 17 cars in the parking lot. If you didn't know something was taking place there you might have driven right past. The parking lot was dark as was the exterior of the stadium. A sign at the road said "Parking: $10". You have to be kidding me I thought- as there were about 1200 empty spaces! I pulled up just short of the parking attendant and hopped out with intentions of just getting a faraway glimpse of the field. The attendant came over and after about 30 seconds of small talk he offered me two tickets for $10. I told him I loved the Sadies but it was cold and I was more interested to see how the festival had fared- and honestly I might have just given the ten out of pity but I didn't bring a wallet or anything it was supposed to be a quick drive by. He told me that for most of the weekend there were more police and volunteers on site than patrons; that he had heard that organizers had spent $100,000!- and told me to wait for a second. He came back with two tickets for Jodie and I and told us to go ahead.

From the main walkway at the stadium the whole concert looked very professional. Two large tents on either side of the field were kind of confusing as there was nothing in either one except for the soundboard. Most of the field was fenced off- but who needed the space. There were 43 total people on the field including 4 photogs, 3 sound people and us.

The Sadies sounded awesome- this was a full stage and sound system. They rocked Introduction, Tell Her What I Said, Another Year Again after which Dallas commented that the stadium was a great place for a festival and that every one in attendance should bring a few friends next year. He added that he had heard the stadium was reserved for bands like Nickelback- and introduced the next song Cut Corners as "a Nickelback song- the one about the lollipop..."

After that they started taking requests and responded to Higher Power, Milk and Scissors and Big River.

Great band, great setup, shite turnout.

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Constructive criticism in case the organizers look here - Synchronize your web-presence. I was kind of regretting missing the Sadies after dinner tonight (they were scheduled from 5:30-6:45 on their Facebook event page), but their webpage lists them as playing from 8:10-9:25. Simple mistake on my part, simple mistake on the festival's part too.

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