Shakedown cancellation land owner dispute

[zero]

Saw this over on the 'hug it all sounds legit. Seems the promoter Hal Abramson got into bed with something of a sketchbag in the person of one Lowell McGregor (though the info is posted on some guy named Frank Zurbano's blog and appears to be on this guy McGregor's 'stationary' although it is supposedly written by Abramson - can't make sense of what that's about). Otherwise it seems to be a case of he said he said although the story Abramson tells sounds plausible and not too surprising - he seems to have basically given total control over to this landowner, the guy became the event producer effectively and beyond his fees was entitled to something like 87.5% of food and 82.5% of beer. I can't see anyone in their right mind giving away this much control and revenues to a land owner but they seemed to be in a real pickle.

Shakedown Cancellation

[bouche]

Hal also seems to have written a how-to book on concert promotions.

It sounds like he's unfortunately out of that world now. However, if he did get screwed, and all of the people that were involved, you'd think that this would be a case for a 'real' lawsuit.

If this is the story, that is just so terrible to have happened. Hal had contacted me through the summer in regards to his festival and banners. He was in no way a sketchy promoter, and clearly top-notch.

It's guys like this that should come to Canada and take advantage of all our wonderful open lands and happy people

[Large Marge]

It's all over the Shakedown site as well...

Shakedown Land Rental Agreement (pdf)

Was anyone here supposed to be at this fest?

[headygouda]

The blurb on Frank Zurbano's blog is taken directly from the shakedown festival's site. Seeing the numbers shows that baseline ticketing was the biggest point of ticket sales and they had this to say:

SCI Ticketing statement:

SHAKEDOWN FESTIVAL REFUNDS Regarding the Shakedown Camping & Music Festival, now that the weekend has passed, and we have had time to fully evaluate the situation, we want to let you know that we are going to be refunding every single customer who purchased tickets through us to the festival. We do not know how long it will take for us to get this money back from the promoter, and as a small grassroots company we can ill afford to absorb this loss, but you, our customers, should not have to wait. It may take up to a week to fully complete the refund process, but we are starting it immediately, so that the refunds should hit your credit card accounts within ten days or less. Taking good care of music fans like you is the whole reason we do this, we will always protect you in the very rare instance when something goes wrong.

[bouche]

so...what does this contract show? who broke what agreements?

Stonemtn??

http://www.shakedownfest.com/