Vendor Payments TBD

Food service vendor Betsy Hite of Elegant and Easy Gourmet Catering claims the festival’s organizers still owe her company $18,000 for feeding bands, stagehands, VIPs and others several meals a day during the October event. “I’m not a nonprofit,” Hite told the Sacramento Bee. “I’m not a charity. I’m already in the hole, (even) with the $10,000 they gave me.”

TBD Fest production manager Abraxis Spera responded, acknowledging several contractors are still owed for services, but did not disclose the identities of said vendors. “As money comes in, we have every intention of paying Betsy and her company,” Spera told the paper. TBD Fest featured Blondie, Moby, Justice, and Empire of the Sun, a food pavilion and a culinary stage with food battles, but reportedly lost money. That didn’t deter organizers from trying again with a New Year’s Eve event featuring A-Trak that broke even, the Bee said.

Next up, TBD fest is teaming up with music blog A Beautiful Buzz to present a four-day event in Austin, Texas, that will coincide with the upcoming South by Southwest and feature “some of the best electronic, dance, and indie pop from around the world,” according to the blog.

TBD co-founder Clay Nutting told the paper the fest must keep doing events in order to repay vendors like Hite. “We have to do events to try and make revenue to make our obligations,” Nutting said. “We’re not happy that we weren’t able to take care of everything, but we’ve been in communication with everyone.” Hite isn’t so sure her check will be in the mail any time soon. She contacted city officials, retained a lawyer to demand restitution, and plans to file a lawsuit if the payment doesn’t arrive, the Bee reported.