Features
Blame The Accountant
A county fair in upstate New York is considering legal action against a promoter who canceled two shows at the last minute after failing to pay its share of the artists’ fees.
Photo: Rick Diamond / Getty Images
Country Stampede, Tuttle Creek State Park, Manhattan, Kans.
Madison County Fair’s board agreed to pay half the artists fees for Survivor on July 11, and Steve Holy and Mark Wills the next night, with Entertainment Trading Co. of Utica, N.Y., paying the other half.
When Survivor arrived at the Brookfield, N.Y., fairgrounds, ETC owner Blaine Wiggins showed up empty-handed and blamed his accountant, according to the Post-Standard..
He then canceled all three gigs over the fair’s objection, fair board VP Josh Walker told the paper. Survivor still gamely took the stage for seven songs.
The grandstand stage was reportedly dismantled night before Holy and Wills would have played.
Walker said the fair will take legal action. “He said he canceled it because he could,” Walker told the Utica Observer-Dispatch. “He said he didn’t need any of our permission, even though we had the 50 percent invested into it and he had nothing.” About 500 tickets were sold for the show, he said.