Monolith Festival organizers establish Kickstarter account for dontations

• The quotes were meant to be a paraphrase, my apologies, Sean, I didn't not mean to attribute those actual words to you, only what I took to be the gist of what you were trying to say. Now this part I can quote: "I appreciate the thoughtful dialogue with you guys." That goes likewise.

• Thanks for the good points; I always appreciate different perspectives when they are well articulated.<p> However, putting "dump Fecher and Baker and get some real pros in" in quotations is a little unfair, as I never said that -- I don't think that was ever said anywhere in the dialogue above -- and, as Matt said, they " have the same business managers as Lollapalooza and ACL," so the word "management" doesn't necessarily apply to Fecher & Baker; clearly there are lots of other people managing other parts of this project.<p> Regardless, I appreciate the thoughtful dialogue with you guys.

• I guess what I'd say here is that the Monolith folks have identified $1.2m as a rough figure of the cost of actually putting on the entire festival. A lot of that comes through sponsorships (e.g. Southwest Airlines, Esurance), but those companies aren't willing to commit to funding unless the organizers can show a certain amount of financial "get out of the starting blocks" backing themselves. And you certainly can't pre-sell tix in November 2009 for a September 2010 show. And yet organizations such as Red Rocks require major payment this far in advance for those dates, organizers' needs be damned. The success or failure shouldn't need to rise or fall based on "last minute" sales, except around the margins I suppose, but there are other factors in play here. The entire concert industry has started taking a beating this year (unless you're Carrie Underwood, U2, or the like). The broader economy has altered consumer behavior during 2009 pretty drastically, and work for Monolith 2009 started well back in 2008. I'm not making apologies for Monolith management, I don't work for them, and am not privy to what goes on in the back rooms of that sausage-making process. However, it just seems simplistic to assume that management issues can be the single driving factor behind a non-profit endeavor that is sponsorship driven, having financial difficulties. Monolith does have to deal with two specific challenges each year that Lollapalooza and ACL don't have to deal with. One is a geographical crowd limiting facility. Red Rocks can only hold so many, and can never ever ever reach the level of attendance of ACL. It's just not physically possible. The other has to do with the calendar vis-a-vis the typical weather in those locations at that time of year. I have no idea what the answer is, but I'm pretty sure it's not just "dump Fecher and Baker and get some real pros in". The Midwest Music festival that Baker started, had a great reputation amongst us on the east coast while it was going on, and seemed to be very well run.

• Thanks mondo, although I would hope that whatever discussion we were having here -- which seems to be a philosophical discussion -- was bereft of personal bias, whether you like me as a person, whether you like whatever band I'm in which you're referring to, or not.<p> No, I don't live off $2 a day, but if most of the world does that why don't we? What kinds of things would be different if there wasn't such a disparity between "want" and "need"? I'm just throwing it out there to get the wheels turning.<p> Yeah, there were "only" a total of 500 VIP tickets (which still adds up to over $100,000, for roughly 5% of available tickets, but could account for around 20% of total ticket sale profit), but how many pre-sale tickets were reserved as compared to "last-minute" tickets?<br> My question, regardless of any "failure to grasp" anything, still remains: why would the success or failure of any business venture be predicated on last-minute consumer interest and sales?<br> When I've played certain shows in the past promoters seem to get nervous when they don't sell a certain amount of pre-sale tickets by a certain date, so I would assume they use those numbers -- and those sales -- as indicative of whether or not they will be able to cover their costs. Is that not true?<p> I'm not embarrassed by my lack of "both the facts and basic business" knowledge, as I never professed to know anything except for that the show was Sold Out, which I promptly apologized for being wrong about; I don't know (and never said I know) how the business runs or who runs it, but it seems to be common sense -- nevermind "basic business" -- that a business which sells something and fails to make a profit has probably failed because it's selling a product that nobody wants, or because ... there was a problem with the way the business was managed.<p> Are there any other explanations for why a business doesn't make as much as it "needs" to operate? It seems fairly straightforward.

• 's cool...I just didn't take kindly to what sorta read like trolling, doubly so when it comes from someone fortunate enough to have benefited from Monolith's scene-support largesse by actually getting to play the festival. It's all good, and I'm quite hopeful you guys reach your goal.

• &#64;Mondo- It's okay, I can understand how people can misinterpret what Monolith (or any organization does for that matter). We try to be as open as we can with everyone involved. Personally, I'm glad these points were brought up, so, I can have a chance to address them.

• And I say that as someone who actually enjoys your band.

• Sean, do you live off less than $2(US) per day? Sounds like your trying to transfer your anger at the entire world, to Monolith, and that's just silly. And saying that costs should be "covered via the sales" of the limited number of *discount priced* tickets that were presold a month before the festival, is even sillier. These tickets consisted of two types. VIP passes, of which there were a TOTAL of 500, and reduced price two day passes. These reduced price tix would not have been intended to cover the cost. Basically, you've been pretty much factually completely off base in this entire thread, and I'd suggest you take Fecher up on his offer to discuss it privately with him, because your failure to grasp both the facts and basic business is embarrassing.

• Sean, I agree with your ideology. And, I can understand your perception. (Sometimes there's a few layers of complication to these business matters, and we always try to navigate them the best we can). And, for the record, I really enjoy your band, and please give Erik the rest of your band my regards and thanks. Also, please let me know of any ways I can help you out in the future. Best,

• Good, I'm glad that there are no hard feelings here -- as I don't know a damn thing about the internal workings of Monolith, and by no means meant to insinuate that you are (or any one person is) directly responsible for anything -- but allow me to further illustrate my point:<br> Monolith did sell-out all "regular" and "early bird" pre-sale tickets; the official website says that much clearly. If the system was somehow set-up so that costs weren't covered via the sales of those tickets, then I would have to argue that mismanagement is to blame. It doesn't seem like good business to make or break a venture by virtue of last-minute consumer interest and (hopefully) sales. I'm not a business major or anything, so I apologize if my reasoning is not in accordance with some kind of official business procedure.<p> I don't have anything personal against you (I don't know you), and was genuinely honored to play at Red Rocks, but it is undeniable that there is a general climate of promoters (and businessmen in general) claiming that they "just don't have enough" as they climb into their less-than-a-decade-old Benz and cruise off to their second or third home, while billions of people (the majority of the world's population, in fact) live(s) off less than $2(US) a day. There's so much disparity between "want" and "need" that people just don't see, and I'd bet that any failure of something -- even something like Monolith, whether you're personally at fault or not -- is rooted in that same disparity. That's why I'm angry.

• Sean, I appreciate you opening this dialog. Regarding your concerns, a third party ran our street team. I heard from your manager, Tom, when the event was upon us about how hard Erik had worked and that promises were apparently made to the band from our street team coordinator. And, I told Tom that I would be happy to help out the band in the future to thank Erik and all of you for your time -- even after all this bashing -- I'm happy to do. As far as Insurance, all bands playing the event had to be insured (that money does not go to us). This wasn't even an issue for almost all the touring bands, as they already had insurance in place... I'm happy to discuss this offline, so I can address all your concerns, and try to help - matt@monolithfestival.com Looking forward to hearing from you.

• I do recall hearing one of the stage hands boast about how much money he was going to make due to the fact that he had to work overtime, but as far as the "Sold Out" or not sold out thing:<br>http://www.monolithfestival.com/tickets<p> I guess only 5 out of 9 applicable categories listed actually say "SOLD OUT," so I apologize for not doing more thorough research before lambasting Monolith. You guys did screw us though; Erik Jeffries worked his ass off promoting for free too, and he's got two children and a full-time job; the 1/3 of our contractually-agreed payment going to some "insurance" fee that we didn't hear of until after the fact is total scheming bullshit. Maybe that's not your fault -- maybe you guys got screwed by "banks" too -- and maybe you really don't pay yourself (though I doubt you really get no compensation for your time), but there were -- sold out or not -- tons of people in-attendence, and plenty of sponsors. If you guys didn't make money, I'm still going to have to suggest that you take a look at the management. Maybe those Lollapalooza and ACL are the management I was talking about, eh?<p> I appreciate your steadfast support of the local music scene with regards to everything you do personally, but the question "where did the money go?" is still valid.

• BTW, as far as 'Administrative Costs', you may be pleased to know that none of the promoters and organizers themselves take any salary or money. The stage hands make more than I do off of Monolith... And I put 40 hours a week into it

• Funny stuff, Sean. Monolith has never come close to selling out. As far as business management, we have the same business managers as Lollapalooza and ACL. They're the best in the business. And, I can assure you that Monolith runs as lean and mean as it can...

• Are you kidding me?!<p> This is like when private banks ask the government (which means they ask themselves, and then we're forced to pay for it) to give them "bail-out" money after screwing people out of millions of dollars, and then coming back for more later.<p> This is the kind of thing where we need to ask these people: <b>"Where the hell is the money going?"</b><p>If we were talking about Wall Street and the big banks we'd already know the answer: ye olde golden parachutes. There's a trend for the people that organize money-making schemes (bankers, promoters, etc.) to think that they need to get paid lots more than everyone else, which is not to say that's what is happening within the Monolith organization, but I wouldn't be surprised if this $200,000 was for "administrative costs."<br> Monolith was SOLD OUT at Red Rocks this year; that's a 9450-person venue, and they're "struggling financially"? What, did they not screw enough smaller acts out of fair payment? Did they not charge the bands enough (1/3 is probably not enough) for "insurance" outside of their contracts? Did someone miss their monthly $600 Audi/BMW/Lexus lease, and is a little bent out of shape about it?<br> Regardless of ticket costs and how many thousands of attendees there were, there were also tons of advertisers, and they pay for their booth space; it's called "sponsorship." If you average the ticket price at $60 a pop you get well over half a million dollars, and that's not including whatever they worked-out with advertisers for booth space, endorsements, and sponsorship; it also doesn't include whatever amount of $225 VIP Gold Passes, which were also sold out. I'll bet Monolith cleared over a million easy .. for a weekend festival.<p> This smacks of mismanagement to me, and like the banks we all should know by now that a mismanaged business doesn't need more money; <b>it needs to fail, or it needs better management.</b><p> Seriously: how do you sell-out a weekend festival at Red Rocks and "struggle financially"? Let's see the expense report before we start digging for change between the couch cushions. They already took plenty of money from me and my associates -- who not only supported the festival by performing, but one of us was the single most active and hardest-working member of the street team -- so we'll just chalk that up to our "donation," even if it was partially willing, and partially unwilling highway robbery.<p> By the way: I gambled a bunch of money in Vegas a few years back and didn't exactly break even; I don't know if it was the $12 long island iced-teas, the fact that I'll only drive cars if they boast over 400 horsepower and only take premium gasoline, or all those $1,000 chips I stuffed in that stripper's ... ahem, but it's a travesty. I'm going to open a bank account so that you all can donate, you know, to support the struggling community of Las Vegas, it's active supporters (like me) and all. Westword will have a link to the foundation's website -- which will include the bank account number and our organization's fiscal goals -- when they interview me. It's a sad, sad story. Please find it in your hearts to give, because if I have to fly coach ever again I might just have to shoot myself.

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