Lewi’s Great American Madhouse

Don’t ever call Jim Lewi gutless.

The Agency Group’s Entertainment & Events chief and self-described “road dog” took his idea for the Great American Food & Music Fest, along with a cashless system using wireless wristbands, into the heart of Silicon Valley at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View, Calif., June 13.

To make a long story short, the wireless wristband system failed as doors opened. A wholly unexpected walkup business showed up at the same time. And then the backup “airport card” system failed. Food ran out, traffic backed up on Shoreline Parkway and, to use Lewi’s own description, “the shit hit the fan.”

Local media was merciless, pointing fingers at Lewi and Shoreline operators Live Nation – and just about everyone else remotely involved with the event. If Lewi went into the belly of the beast, the beast very nearly ate him alive.

“Because I was out front, taking care of customer service, I was punched, spit on twice, three different people cried on my shoulder, an old lady shook her cane at me,” Lewi told Pollstar of the experience.

By his own estimate, at least 10,000 would-be foodies and music fans were turned away at the gate. The following Monday, Lewi was on the air during afternoon drive time at top-rated radio sponsor KGO-AM publicly apologizing to fans who went away unhappy. And, nearly a week after the show, Lewi said he’d already personally responded to more than 1,800 e-mails and had barely slept.

A disaster, right? Not so, says Lewi.

“I would not characterize it as a disaster because there were 7,000 people that stayed, had a really good time and aren’t asking for their money back. No one is talking about that,” Lewi said. “It was our first year event and we’re owning up to our mistakes. We’re talking to every single person that is calling us. We’re refunding anybody’s money who asks and everybody is writing these sensational stories about what losers we are but yet there’s 7,000 people that had a great time.”

But perhaps the best evidence that Lewi will be making lemonade out of a lemon is the response he’s getting from inside the industry.

“All the promoters are calling,” he said. “We’ve got something, that’s for sure. They know me, and they know I can fix this. One said, ‘Jim, the good news is you’ve got something really special that people really wanted. The bad news is, you’re not going back to the Bay Area next year.’ I said, ‘Are you kidding? You think I’m not going back to the Bay Area? I’m no pussy. I’m going right back to the Bay Area, no question about it – it’s going to be a stop on the tour.”

That’s right: a tour. Rather than take a spanking and give up on what he and others believe is a great idea, Lewi intends to take the Great American Food & Music Fest on the road next year. And why not? He’s certainly found out the hard way what can go wrong and is working on how to fix it. And he’s getting some help from unexpected quarters: Patrons from the Shoreline show.

“What’s awesome is so many people are giving us advice,” Lewi said. And many others have contacted him to let him know they appreciate his forthrightness in accepting the blame for the failed system, long lines and food shortages – even though it’s still not clear exactly what happened and who is responsible.

The idea for wireless wristbands – which fans could “load” at Fast Pass booths by putting down a credit card or cash – was intended to eliminate lines as much as possible. Provided by a company called Bartronics, they required a wireless system inside the Shoreline and at least 130 laptops to be purchased by Lewi, who personally financed the event to the tune of at least $1 million.

When the cashless system crashed, waits at food booths stretched to 45 minutes to an hour, according to several local news reports.

Had the system worked properly, food booth transactions would have taken no more than 3 seconds as a computer read the wristband and food and beverage purchases were completed. Failing that, a wireless “airport card,” similar to a debit card, was to serve as a backup system. And when all else failed, the cashless system could be dumped in favor of good old-fashioned cash on the barrelhead.

Lewi described the moment the gates opened to the public: “Everybody’s ready. We hit doors. The screens are blank. It sounds like we’re at war. The helicopters are overhead. The shit’s flying.” Then Lewi and Shoreline staff, including Live Nation President of California Rick Mueller, realized the installation of software disabled the computers’ ability to operate the backup card system.

To shorten lines, some vendors began giving away food when the “cashless” systems failed. Others ran out when there wasn’t enough on hand. According to Lewi, walkups numbering more than double the number of advance tickets sold showed up at doors for the noon to 10:30 p.m. event.

Some entered the event after discovering the line they’d been standing in wasn’t for purchasing tickets, but for refunds. Despite warnings from disgruntled patrons, many went in anyway. One wrote to tell Lewi “it’s their loss.”

In the meantime, all hands were on deck trying to take back control as Marshall Crenshaw, Little Feat and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy played, celebrity chefs and Food Network personalities including Bobby Flay and Guy Fieri put on demonstrations, and vendors got their cash banks and credit card machines up and running as the third layer of backup kicked in.

Already, Lewi has identified some major issues that he’ll correct for next year’s tour, including carrying his own kitchens and servers.

“If we had double the kitchen size and double the crew, they could have served double the amount of people,” Lewi said. “It’s about knowing what we did wrong, going out and fixing it, and making it right.”

Despite the problems, the hate mail and physical threats from irate ticketholders, Lewi had nothing but praise for Live Nation, the Shoreline crew and even Bay Areans who thanked him for being “Mr. Anti-Wall Street,” as one described Lewi in an e-mail.

“Anybody who disses Live Nation should have been at that show,” Lewi said of his amphitheatre partners in the show. “They would have had a very different view, especially of the Live Nation San Francisco office because Lee Smith, Jodi Goodman, Craig Burk, Rick Mueller, Tim Anderson, Aaron Hawkins and all the customer service people were all out there in the heat of it, taking the shit and dealing with it.” Lewi said.

“I’ve never had anyone save my ass like that. It was like being thrown a life preserver. Tim Anderson, who runs Shoreline, is a god. Aaron Hawkins? This guy was out there, sweating, taking abuse. I’ve never seen people just throw themselves out there like that. Rick Mueller was handing out meal tickets, up on the Fast Pass booths yelling directions to people. It was like old school promoter land!” Lewi continued.

“All the customer service people were all out there in the heat of it, taking the shit and dealing with it and they were amazing. I can’t say thank you enough to them. They helped me turn this thing around. It was like going to war.”

And it’s a war he looks forward to taking on the road next year, as promoters jam his phone lines hoping to join forces on a new idea. After all: No guts, no glory.