LaconiaFest Shortfall To Be Paid

Laconia, N.H., Mayor Ed Engler told the Daily Sun the $63,000 shortfall will instead come out of the Motorcycle Week account that has accrued almost $118,000 since 2007.

The festival, which featured some 100 artists including big names like Steven Tyler, Bret Michaels, Ted Nugent, Buckcherry, Sevendust, and others, suffered from attendance well below projections and ended its scheduled June 11-19 run two days early.

The paper reported that the promoters left town without paying for police, fire and code enforcement services, and the state’s Attorney General has launched an investigation into complaints from workers claiming they weren’t paid, either.

The festival’s original permit required that some $310,000 – a figure based on daily attendance estimates ranging from 2,000 to 30,000 – be placed in escrow to defray the city’s cost. Actual attendance was reportedly a fraction of that.

When advance tickets fell well short, city manager Scott Myers reportedly cut the escrow requirement to $90,000 due June 1. When that date came and went without a payment, Myers cut that request in half. One of the promoters then reportedly paid $35,000.

Myers told the Laconia City Council that he has sent invoices to promoters Tyler Glover and Mike Trainor of M2 Management Group in North Carolina in an effort to recover the city’s costs.