Bike’N’ Roll Promoter In The Wind

The Michigan concert promoter responsible for repaying sponsors and investors in the failed Bike’N’ Roll Fest is reportedly facing bankruptcy and is nowhere to be found.

WOOD-TV of Grand Rapids reported June 8 that Rivertown Live CEO Ben Shawa is allegedly on the run from angry investors and for violating his parole on a 2004 grand theft conviction in Florida.

That conviction reportedly was for bilking concert investors out of $100,000. Michigan correction officials said Shawa violated his parole when he stopped making restitution payments in Florida, WOOD-TV said.

The Bike’N’ Roll Fest, originally scheduled for I-96 Speedway at Lake Odessa, Mich., June 9-11 and Alliant Energy Center at Madison, Wis., June 16-18, was postponed to Sept. 2-3 at the speedway when funding bottomed out. That plan has now been scrapped.

Great White and Nelson issued statements May 12 saying both bands had pulled out of the festival lineup because Rivertown Live failed to come through with agreed-upon deposits.