[A]ttendees of a botched music festival in Irasburg now have another way to recoup money they spent on tickets.
The Attorney General’s Office announced Friday that it has required organizers of Shrinedom 2017 — a festival held last fall to benefit Montpelier’s Mount Sinai Shriners — to provide up to $10,000 in reimbursement for ticket holders.
Last September, hundreds of people traveled to Irasburg for the two-day ‘80s rock extravaganza. Midway through a song by one of the opening bands, the power was cut. Concert-goers and bands were initially told a faulty generator was to blame, but low ticket sales had prompted bands to leave because they had not been paid, according to court documents.
All bands departed except the Nashville Country Band and the locally based Raized on Radio and MindTrap, leaving festival goers with a significantly pared down lineup than what they had expected.
Following complaints from ticket holders, the Attorney General’s Office began an investigation into allegations that festival organizers had committed “unfair and deceptive acts” by holding a music festival without most of the advertised bands going on stage. PayPal already provided around $10,000 in reimbursements to festival goers who had purchased tickets online, but at least $25,000 worth of tickets were sold overall, according to court documents.
Although held as a benefit for the Mount Sinai Shriners, two Irasburg men — Adam Johnson and Marcus Clay — had planned the festival. The Shriners provided Johnson, through his nonprofit Kingdom Cares, with $95,000 to organize the event— though he had limited experience fundraising and had never put on a music festival before.
Johnson contracted with Clay, who runs the events company Crossova Concepts, to hire bands and a production company, according to court documents. Ticket sales and other money for the event went through Kingdom Cares.
In late August of 2017, a consultant told the organizers that not enough tickets had been sold to put on the festival in a month, according to court documents. His advice went unheeded. Organizers needed to sell 4,000 to 6,000 tickets to pay for the festival, but had only sold between 500 and 1,000 by the day of the show.
“A more experienced event organizer would have recognized this and canceled or postponed the event,” wrote lawyers for the AG’s office in the settlement.
The Mount Sinai Shriners had to pay $10,000 to reimburse ticket holders because neither Johnson nor Clay has sufficient income or assets to contribute to the ticket reimbursement fund. Mount Sinai Shriners did not return a phone message seeking comment Friday.
The settlement also requires Johnson to dissolve his nonprofit and bans him from directing “any fundraising efforts” for five years. Clay cannot hold any concerts or events with an audience of 1,000 or more in Vermont for five years.
The AG’s office instructed Mount Sinai Shriners to implement training to ensure more careful vetting for any future fundraisers to which the group lends its name.
No additional penalties were levied against the organizers as no “intentional fraud” was committed by any parties, said Assistant Attorney General Ryan Kriger.
“In these cases, it’s always a question of did these people mess up or was this a scam from the get-go,” said Kriger in an interview Friday.
Ticket purchasers who have not already been reimbursed can file an online form with the Attorney General’s Office.
