Twiin Packs It In

The Santa Barbara, Calif., promoter that hosts the West Beach Music & Arts Festival announced Nov. 5 it has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy and is calling it quits.

In a statement on the company’s website, Twiin Productions’ attorney Josh Lynn said that Santa Barbara city officials made it impossible to keep the business afloat.

“The company was faced with unprecedented and inconsistent governmental and bureaucratic obstacles created by the City of Santa Barbara that could not be overcome in promoting the 4th annual West Beach Festival this past September,” the statement said.

The Daily Sound reported that the well-attended 2009 festival prompted complaints from neighbors about noise and allegations of drug use and underage drinking.

The city eventually voted to issue a permit to Twiin Productions for this year’s event Sept. 25-26 but with restrictions on ticket sales and reduced hours at Chase Palm Park.

Twiin Productions was also reportedly required to purchase $93,000 in security deposits and a $25 million insurance policy, the paper said.

A reportedly lower attendance at this year’s festival compared with last year was just one more obstacle. This year’s fest included Rebelution, UB40, Pretty Lights and J.J. Grey & Mofro among its headliners.

“The City of Santa Barbara subsequently declared the issuance of that permit would be contingent on new, conflicting, financially impossible and unsupported demands causing the end of the process to be a perpetually moving target,” Lynn said in the statement.

“By severely restricting the time for compliance, and costs associated with actually releasing that permit, the business could not find financial success.”

However, Mayor Helene Schneider said the added permit requirements set for Twiin Productions were not out of line.

“I think the staff did what they felt was necessary in order to follow through on the concerns we were hearing from the neighbors,” she told the Sound.