Lysten Festival, Ottawa, Sept 25-26

[Northern Wish]

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

Tonight it was only the beer and concession stands inside the concourse of the stadium- and only one of each operating. I suspect that the big tents were for vendors, food etc and either they didn't book any sponsors- or they packed up and cut their losses.

[rubberdinghy]

Around 730 drove by on the Queensway...It looked dead. They should have put up a big sign on the Queensway or something announce a festival.

I walked down Bank St. Saturday night hoping to see one poster about this show.

I can tell you this...I think Eugene Haslam will get more votes than concert goers at the festival.

Really too bad...Let's do it better next year!

[bouche]

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

linkypoo

ouch indeed. funny too.

[bouche]

So who's money was spent here? There's no way these organizers spent their own money.

To build off of this hype, I'd like to announce a music festival taking place tonight. I know it's last minute, but there are some very big accounts about to confirm. More info later in the day

[Northern Wish]

So who's money was spent here?

With an outrageous sum of $100,000 rumored to be spent- I'd say that government grant money definitely filled their coffers.

It certainly wasn't sponsors- as I couldn't identify a single one when I was there.

[color:purple]At least in the case of the 4 cops on site all weekend- the government cash is going directly back to those already on the take.

[bradm]

There's a topic on PunkOttawa about Lysten, in which someone reports seeing a text message from Die Mannequin on Saturday night that said they were playing to 10 people and getting paid $3000.

Aloha,

Brad

[Northern Wish]

I would guess that The Sadies got about $5000 last night.

Seems to be about their going festival rate.....

[bouche]

I was reading the thread on punk ottawa for more details. I'm just perplexed at how these guys were granted money with zero experience putting on any events.

This looks like a job for the Auditor General.

The attitude is appalling.

For Risdon, it all comes down to the music. "I know I probably won't make a dime on the festival, but I get to sit back and watch Paramedics and My Dad vs Yours play, and that's kind of the best part for me."

[Northern Wish]

A first time festival organizer that thinks he will even have 5 minutes to "sit back and watch" has clearly been drinking his own kool aid.

He won't make money, see one band or sleep well for 5 to 7 years!

I should also note that there have been some minor mentions of organizers with deep pockets- so who knows about grant money; maybe these guys just needed to spend some of their Lotto Max winnings or had an uncle named Vanderbilt.

If this dude just wanted to see those two bands play- he could have hired them and all of the sound, bought 100 kegs, hookers and blow and still saved $90,000.

[Booche]

Wait wait wait wait wait.

You decided to drive out to something on a whim to check it out for yourself even though you knew from all these reports/pics that this thing was an epic failure (for once, the proper use of that term). You didnt have 10 dollars between the two of you yet you hopped on the two free tickets even though you felt bad for the organizers?

Boom. There's the downfall of our society.

[AD]

I wonder where the capital came for this. Nobody here knows for sure yet. I'd like to think that if it came from any level of government there'd be strings attached wrt advertising, organization, a semblance of success etc. I can't see any of that so I'd be shocked if this was grant money. But you never know.

[Northern Wish]

Not like I have to explain myself to you but.....

I had no intentions of going in at all- lets call this my tapping my breaks to see the big crash on the 401 moment. When I realized there was no vantage point to even see how large a stage it was, the set up etc. and the kid offered us the tickets of course I said yes. What I'm going to stand there and say "no man we just drove over here to see if we could just hear The Sadies from a quarter mile away". Or even- "wait twenty minutes and I will run home and get my wallet and be back here for their final two songs."

But wait wait wait- its now up to me as a consumer to spend money on something that sucked just because I felt some sympathy for their obvious epic failure?

[color:purple]

My $10 surely would have made this event a success and put it firmly in the black....

I am also willing to guess that the kid with the stack of tickets at the gate was instructed to get whatever he could for the stubs and if people said no just to let them in.

AND FINALLY: there wasn't even a ticket taker dude- you could have gone down yourself, walked right in, thrown your $10 on the ground and watched The Sadies from your high horse.

[Northern Wish]

Booche. There's the downfall of our society.

[Booche]

We drove out there with the intention of trying to weasel our way in for free and possibly scam some beers from the artists.

Between the lines'd

[Northern Wish]

If you had seen me in my Buffalo Bills windbreaker, hat and jersey- and poor friggin Jodie standing there shivering in a Bills sweatshirt; you would have known without a doubt that we had no intentions of having anyone see us there or anywhere for that matter.

No one would do that to themselves intentionally my friend....but it was The Sadies so I made Jodie stay for a half hour. Thank god none of you fuckers showed up to take a picture of our sorry costumes!

[bouche]

I like the sleuthiness of the truthiness that sean pulled off.

[Hartamophone]

I agree with AD, that in order for grant money to have been attached to this there would have been evidence of oversight. Frankly this just seems perplexing to me. It's one thing to not promote a $5 cover bar show, but above all else I am confused as to how the promoters could sink a whole lot of somebody's money into this, do almost zero promotion and still expect it to fly. To me, this goes beyond the realm of a shitty job and is more along the lines of something not adding up.

[Northern Wish]

The statements from the organizers seem to place the blame on the booking agents of the bands they were attempting to sign and deal with.

Alot of mudslinging about bands asking for too much to play, while others sat on their hands and waited for some big names to be attached to it.

You would all be very surprised and saddened to know how little follow up there is with grant money. The proposal process is seemingly where all of the questions are asked- not following the event to determine any ROI or case for a return engagement. In many cases all they have to do is come up with one little tweak for next year to satisfy the tourism people.

Did you know that at this years Bonnaroo- the daily newspaper that is given out featured a half page ad for Ottawa Bluesfest? That event was on June 10-13 in Tennessee...... I wonder how many of those kids ended up travelling up here on advice of that ad only a month later? That was one of the things that I heard that Bluesfest did to secure some of its tourism grants- to cast a wider net with advertising.

[Hartamophone]

Did you know that at this years Bonnaroo- the daily newspaper that is given out featured a half page ad for Ottawa Bluesfest? That event was on June 10-13 in Tennessee...... I wonder how many of those kids ended up travelling up here on advice of that ad only a month later? That was one of the things that I heard that Bluesfest did to secure some of its tourism grants- to cast a wider net with advertising.

I think with a sustainable, long-term event like Bluesfest an ad in the Bonnaroo Beacon is more about brand building and getting the event on people's radar than an immediate spike in attendance. Do I think that one ad, in Tennessee, the month before the event will get people up to Bluesfest? Probably not. But there's no harm in getting the Bluesfest name out there and having it in the back of people's minds for years to come.

Point taken, though..

[bouche]

I thought there was some sort of contract setup when someone receives a grant which forces them to follow-through or risk having the pay back the grant.

[AD]

Where are these statements from the organizers?

There are many many many places that offer grants - I find it hard to believe that there is little to no auditing after the fact. I'm 100% sure there are plenty of people employed in Ottawa and Toronto to do just this, federally, provincially, locally, NCC-a-ly, as well as the tourism and arts groups. Of course some groups may be more strict than others, but not all are as lax as you seem to describe.

Perhaps they were rich dudes wanting to do something nice and didn't really know how to do things. We don't know this yet.

As for the Bonnaroo thing, lots of people travel from

Canada and upper USA, seems like a good place to advertise. Perfect demographic.

I don't mean to disagree with everything you wrote Sean, but it looks like there is more to be found out about this yet.

[Northern Wish]

Where are these statements from the organizers?

The article from the Citizen last Thursday:

"From the beginning, it was last minute and then all of a sudden, we started having bigger acts that wanted to participate. Logistically that became a nightmare. Our little tiny show suddenly was going to require better staging, better light, better logistics, and that led to a delay."

From an email from the organizer:

"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."

And from the festivals own website:

"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."

[Northern Wish]

While I am sure that there is accountability in the grant process- I have yet to see it in practice. Maybe this has to do with my limited experience in dealing with them- but I have seen waste of epic proportions at events that weren't living high on the hog.

As for the Bonnaroo thing- I just thought it was a waste of money to advertise Bluesfest at that time and in that locale. Point taken....

[Freak By Night]

The Bluesfest also had a full-page advertisement on the inside cover of Relix magazine earlier in the year. Didn't they have their best attendance ever this year? (Specious reasoning, I know)

As for Lysten, they had several things going against them:

The weather: Not sure what they were thinking holding an outdoor festival on a late September weekend in the 2nd coldest capital city on the planet. They might have gotten lucky with a warm weekend, but statistically, chilly, rainy weather was almost a certainty.

The location: I think this baseball park is very nice, but poorly located. Not easily accessible by public transit or by pedestrians.

The line-up: I've only ever seen the Sadies, and I think they're good, but really, there wasn't much in the line-up to appeal to the baby-boomer demographic - the people with disposable income.

It's easy to criticize (fun too!) but my heart goes out to the promoters behind the Lysten festival. If they decide to do this next year, they should think smaller. This festival would have had more attendance had it been held in a downtown bar.

[phorbesie]

I thought there was some sort of contract setup when someone receives a grant which forces them to follow-through or risk having the pay back the grant.

There are many many many places that offer grants - I find it hard to believe that there is little to no auditing after the fact. I'm 100% sure there are plenty of people employed in Ottawa and Toronto to do just this, federally, provincially, locally, NCC-a-ly, as well as the tourism and arts groups. Of course some groups may be more strict than others, but not all are as lax as you seem to describe.

indeed there are...this is my job (not in the arts though)

auditing is done on a small percentage of projects, you don't/can't audit every project. there are risk ratings associated with a project/client which will help determine whether an audit is done. others are randomly chosen (ie. even if little risk is perceived)

but yeah, businesses often have to pay back their grant money.