Country FanJam Leaves Artists and Vendors in Lurch After Cancellation
As Nashville filled up this week with music fans from around the country for the annual CMA Fest, the inaugural Country FanJam was planned for the Tennessee State Fairgrounds just south of downtown. Featuring two stages, food and craft vendors, and four days of entertainment beginning on Thursday, over 40 separate acts were booked on the two stages, including names such as Wade Hays, Ray Scott, Tonya Watts, Ty Herndon, Doug Stone, Darryl Worley, Buddy Jewell, and The Bellamy Brothers.
However by Friday night, the security detail had walked off the site due to a bounced payment check, bands were cancelling left and right, all of the vendors had left, and eventually the fairgrounds locked the gates and the event was cancelled. Artists were left with empty spots on their touring schedules and were out their guarantees, vendors who paid pricey fees had made no money, and a few out-of-town fans who were hoping to attend the four-day festival and paid for tickets had nowhere to go, including some who were planning to camp on the fairgrounds over the weekend.
“When we got there on Wednesday night, we paid at the gate to get in, we paid our booth rent, pulled in, and there was nobody there,” says Sarah Smith who owns a salvage sign business and signed up to be a craft vendor at the event. “Literally, there was nobody there. And we had just driven four hours from our warehouse in east Tennessee. And they said, ‘Oh, everybody’s going to be here tomorrow.’ On Thursday when the first bands started playing, there was nobody in any of the stands. There would be maybe one or two people in the stands, but it would either be another vendor like us, or somebody who was with the band.”
Though FanJam had a full roster of entertainment, the event was very poorly promoted, and the fairgrounds were too large of a venue for the amount of vendors booked for the event. A Facebook video from one attendee named Steve Nash shows how poorly attended the festival was.
“There were probably 100 vendors, but the way the promoter ran it, he spread us so far apart,” explains Sarah Smith. “There fairgrounds are huge. It houses something like 2500 vendors during the flea market. We were next to four vendors, but then there wasn’t another vendor for three football fields. By Friday morning, all of the vendors were gone. We had not one customer come to our booth, because nobody knew about it. We came back Friday night just to enjoy the music because we are fans. Doug Stone and David Ball were supposed to play, and by Friday afternoon at 5:00 p.m., all of the artists had canceled.”
That is when the event began unraveling.
“The caterer was shafted $7,000, the security guards of the Nashville Fairgrounds were rented out through the promotion, and they left because their check bounced,” says Sarah Smith. “There was no security there, and it was sort of a free-for-all by 6:00 p.m. A couple next to us said they paid $200 and drove ten hours from Virginia to be there. There was a vendor couple set up across from us that pulled in on the last $400 they had to do this event, they gave $300 to the venue, they sold nothing, spent $100 in food for a family of three, and they didn’t know if they could make it home. I felt like we were in The Twilight Zone for 72 hours.”
The main promoter of Country FanJam was Dale Guthery. Guthery previously managed the Dark Horse Studio in Franklin, TN, and Fireside Recording on Music Row. He co-founded The Sound Office with two other individuals in 2008. Where some vendors, artists, and ticket holders feel they were scammed by the promoter, some are saying it was an instance of a promoter trying to do a good thing, and overstepping his financial reach.
Tonya Watts was one of the artists who played at Country FanJam Thursday night.
“I got paid,” Tonya insists. “I was told the minute I got to town as an artist that I may not get paid and not to go. I know the politics of this town. He [Dale Guthrey] put his heart into this. If acts are being warned not to go and they don’t show up, how can he have a show? I respect his effort. I feel bad for everyone. Plus the mafioso Music Row was never going to let it happen. They tried blocking him from the get go. People need to know that.”
Tonya Watts and other attendees of the event Thursday said there were roughly 30 to 40 people in the stands by Thursday night to see her and Wade Hayes play. However by Friday morning, the fairgrounds were virtually empty of paying customers once again.
Another problem facing FanJam appeared to be a lack of sponsors. One sponsor whose logo can be seen on promotions for Country FanJam’s “Battle of the Bands” was independent radio network Outlaw Nation.
“We pulled out of being associated with it over a month ago, when it became clear that the organizer did not have the financial strength to see it to fruition,” says Josh Brown of Outlaw Nation. “To make an event like this work, you have to be able to take heavy losses for the first 2-3 years. It’s unfortunate. We wish Dale the very best.”
Fans, ticket holders, vendors, and performers were leaving angry comments on Country FanJam’s Facebook page Friday and Saturday, demanding answers and refunds, but the comments kept getting deleted. On Sunday morning, the Facebook page was completely removed. The website remains up, with text saying the event has been canceled.
Saving Country Music reached out to Dale Guthery and FanJam for a statement on Saturday, and again on Sunday morning, but have yet to receive an answer.
UPDATE (6-14 2:45 PM CDT): Dale Guthery released a statement on his personal Facebook page.
First, My heart breaks for all the Fans & Artists that did not get to see and/or perform the final two days of Country FanJam 2015. Those that know me best, know I did all this for the FANS of Country Music and never would want to disappoint them or anyone.
I had a vision to bring Roots Country Music to the Fairgrounds Nashville and fully intended to complete that task, but with very low attendance numbers and financial constrains I felt it was better to cancel the last two days. I deeply regret that the Country FanJam 2015 only lasted two days, but I’m glad for those who got to play & watch for the two days we had. I will make things right and those who believe in Country FanJam thank you for your support and prayers.
June 14, 2015 @ 12:18 pm
Sad situation. Whether or not Dale Guthrey was trying to do good, it makes you appreciate the many folks who successfully pulling off events of this magnitude. It requires a lot of hard work, planning, and attention to detail.
Here is Guthrey’s bio from The Sound Office’s website. The spelling errors, typos, and sentence fragments indicate the he was in way over his head.
{link removed}
June 14, 2015 @ 12:33 pm
Don’t click that link above, people.
June 14, 2015 @ 12:36 pm
Why not click it? It’s from the guy’s website.
June 14, 2015 @ 1:29 pm
I think it got hijacked. There were weird chinese characters, something about nude dudes, and a popup prompt that I had to use task manager to get out of.
June 14, 2015 @ 1:32 pm
Here’s a screenshot. Nothing good can come from clicking anything on that page…
http://www.samjimenez.com/scm/soundoffice.jpg
June 14, 2015 @ 1:33 pm
I do believe that site is hacked with embedded Malware. I have removed all links.
June 14, 2015 @ 12:32 pm
Daaaaammmmnnnnnn!
June 14, 2015 @ 12:34 pm
Up 45 minutes ago on Guthrey’s Facebook page. I feel for him, but he should have anticipated this. First years are tough for festivals, especially with all the competition this one was facing.
Cancelation Statement:
“First, My heart breaks for all the Fans & Artists that did not get to see and/or perform the final two days of Country FanJam 2015. Those that know me best, know I did all this for the FANS of Country Music and never would want to disappoint them or anyone.
I had a vision to bring Roots Country Music to the Fairgrounds Nashville and fully intended to complete that task, but with very low attendance numbers and financial constrains I felt it was better to cancel the last two days. I deeply regret that the Country FanJam 2015 only lasted two days, but I’m glad for those who got to play & watch for the two days we had. I will make things right and those who believe in Country FanJam thank you for your support and prayers.”
”” feeling disappointed.
June 14, 2015 @ 12:53 pm
Thanks, I added that above.
June 14, 2015 @ 12:57 pm
That sucks for everyone involved. I expect we will only continue to see more of these stories in the near future however, simply put the festival bubble is looking more and more like it will burst in the next few years. Oversaturation of these type of events is doing nobody any favors.
June 15, 2015 @ 12:55 pm
CountryLife Music Festival in Chillicothe, IL was recently cancelled due to the promoter’s financial issues, about a month before the event. This was a pretty big event, with Keith Urban, Toby Keith, and Lynyrd Skynyrd headlining.
June 14, 2015 @ 2:09 pm
First and foremost, I applaud the efforts to offer a more traditional country music alternative to the shenanigans of CMA Fest. However, this article is my first time hearing about this event and I follow this type of stuff closely. So, if I did not know about this event, then the masses out there certainly did not.
Why did the promoter not cancel this event much, much sooner when it was obvious that ticket sales were terribly low? Fans were not going to magically show up and fill the stands.
June 14, 2015 @ 2:14 pm
The drama over the event was the very first I heard of it too. I never saw any promo for it, never received a press release or email, never saw anyone talking about it, nothing. And this is what I do 24/7.
June 14, 2015 @ 2:29 pm
I would think starting off with a two-day event in say, October, would have worked better. Don’t try to go head to head with CMA Fest right out of the gate. And, most importantly, promote the heck out of it. This thing as a total disaster from the get go. Weird.
June 14, 2015 @ 3:39 pm
I’ve seen a lot of people question putting this against CMA Fest, but I think that was sort of the point, to offer an alternative to what the CMA is doing. Considering the lineup of most CMA events and the lineup of this, I’m not really sure if it’s competing at all.
CMA Fest or not, if you keep your event a secret, nobody is going to show up. They could have played off the angle of being the CMA Fest alternative. Instead they appear to have put absolutely no effort out in promotion whatsoever. We’re talking not even taking an hour or two to send some emails out to the press. If you have a promotional budget, feel confident you did your best to spread the word, and it still flops, well then you can start questioning the timing. But now you still have no idea if the timing was the issue or not since you didn’t promote it.
And like has been said by many, anything like this is expected to flop for the first two years. Just not this bad.
June 14, 2015 @ 5:17 pm
Exactly. The Internet and music blogosphere have made it easier than ever to get the word out. And if the crowds are disappointing, don’t act disappointed. This guy should have personally thanked each and every person in attendance one by one by going around and shaking their hands. He also could have plugged the event’s website (apparently there isn’t one) so people could look for updates re next year’s festival. Friend everyone on Facebook, and take a zillion pictures of musicians and spectators having fun for inclusion on the website and Facebook. One final thing he could have done was have a suggestion box so his paying customers could tell him what they liked and didn’t like about the festival, and what they’d like to see next time. how it could be better next time. If he really cares about the fans, then show it by creating a bond with them. Let them know that care about them and not just their money.
There’s nothing wrong with poor attendance in your first year. You just dust yourself off. figure out how to make it better next time, and try again. But this guy did the worst thing he could possibly do: He sent those in attendance home feeling disappointed and ripped off. By doing that he has pretty much killed the reputations of both himself and the festival.
June 15, 2015 @ 2:31 pm
There were billboards and at some point country 98 was sponsor so some radio. The problem was no true headliner that could draw people. He had no money to pay anyone. Instead lots of unknown acts from out of town had to sell tickets promising them the get a better bigger stage if sold 100 tickets. Which pay to play deal which is never good for the artist. Early TV news stories about this there were claims that 50,000 were going to be there. A lot of small came here with dreams. I met one whose parents mortgaged their house to get for this. No matter how well meaning it is people who could not afford it got hosed. Both acts and vendors anyone else involved in anyway.
June 14, 2015 @ 2:17 pm
I feel bad for the fans and the artist too.
June 14, 2015 @ 2:35 pm
Is this the event that “ICEMAN” Bobby Golomboski was involved with? I thought I remembered seeing something about it on his page at some point. I hate it for these smaller festivals that may have the best interests of the country music listener at heart. Hard to promote such things … I’d imagine it’s even more difficult to try to promote it in Nashville during CMAFest. The masses only know Radio these days, it seems, and with Radio being such a homogenized product, there simply isn’t a diverse talent pool to promote. Simply put, if you’re on radio, you’re probably paying CMAFest, and if you’re not on Radio, the masses don’t likely know you.
Yes, I know Aaron Watson is an exception.
Out in LA, there’s a newish festival called “OakHeart” which is apparently picking up a little steam. Easton Corbin and Cassadee Pope were the bigger names on the bill this year, if that gives you an idea of the scope. They fill the stage with local acts…hopefully that gives the folks here some exposure.
I dunno…was the Fair Grounds a good choice in this situation? Seems like a pretty big venue to attempt on your first go. That’s like a local band renting out a 5,000 seat arena for their first ticketed show. Seems like a serious reach.
June 15, 2015 @ 4:27 am
No Dukes, this had nothing to do with the Iceman. Other than the fact that he was trying to warn people of this scam before they got burned by Dale Guthery, he had nothing to do with this event. He put on 4 separate stages during CMA fest and all were VERY successful. (And no artists were charged to perform)
June 15, 2015 @ 6:44 am
The Iceman (aka Bobby Golomboski) had nothing to do with this event.
June 15, 2015 @ 1:04 pm
THERE IS NO WAY I WAS INVOLVED IN THIS SCAM. I saw it from the beginning what it was about. My Post when I hard the news Good morning Nashville, going to be another big day The Iceman is very saddened by all the stories yesterday and good people he spoke to about how Dale Guthery and Country Fan Jam has taken their money and left them stranded it”™s very sad and something that I”™m not going to put up with and let go without a word. The Iceman spoke to a local TV station in Nashville and hopefully will be on camera with them today to expose this person who hurt a lot of good people during a time that they should have been playing and enjoying Nashville Stay tuned.
June 15, 2015 @ 1:09 pm
Thanks for clarifying. Keep doing your thing, Iceman. Sad to see what happened. Tonya Watts (mentioned in the story) is a local artist out here, and I’m glad she at least was taken care of. Disappointing that others weren’t. The festival game is a tough one, and it appears MANY people are trying to dive in … sometimes biting off more than they can chew.
June 15, 2015 @ 1:25 pm
Thank you my man Ben, Its an honor to spin your music
June 15, 2015 @ 2:52 pm
Thank you for spreading the word… PAY TO PLAY is never a good idea in most cases a scam. Also I know, even as close as, the weekend before the event he still get people buy vendor booths and get them perform for sold tickets. That past the point that no realistic expectation that ANYONE who was going there nobody there. The event should have had the pulled weeks ago when the few if any ticket sales. There no way you should be paying people with bad checks… that is a criminal act.
June 14, 2015 @ 4:25 pm
Sure, hindsight is 20-20, but if he insisted on going head-to-head with the CMA Festival, hold it at Centennial Park or a smaller park near downtown. At least that way it’s possible for fans and maybe vendors to experience both FanFest and the CMA Festival with a short walk or a cab ride, plus he’d have a much smaller venue to try to staff and oversee. The fairgrounds — both in size and location — just didn’t seem like a good fit for what he envisioned, especially not for a first-year event.
June 14, 2015 @ 5:01 pm
A lot of acts that were playing Fanjam were also playing at CMA fest – for free. I heard it advertised on the radio about 2 months ago. Last I heard of it. Think it would have worked out better if it had been a late summer event. CMA fest just killed any momentum this thing could have had. I don’t know what was happening behind the scenes, but it bothers me that any events like this in the future will be taken cautiously by the artist and may not get the support they need to survive.
June 14, 2015 @ 8:23 pm
Not to mention Bonaroo is also going on this weekend.
June 14, 2015 @ 7:05 pm
Flashback time, anybody remember the World United Music Festival, in a field behind a shopping mall in San Marcos, Texas, in 2008? Everybody got screwed on that one, artists, vendors, site workers.
June 14, 2015 @ 7:22 pm
I heard of it somewhere but don’t remember details
June 14, 2015 @ 9:16 pm
Everyone in Nashville knew about this event. It was the event we all said wouldn’t happen because the money and experience wasn’t there. It just goes to show you… Whether it’s writing, recording, booking, promoting, managing, producing or any other aspect of the industry …. None of it is as easy as people on the outside looking in think it is.
June 19, 2015 @ 12:28 pm
Everyone in Nashville knew? What’s your source on that? I’m in Nashville and the first I heard of it was the Tennessean article today.
June 15, 2015 @ 5:51 am
Normally not one to post comments on any site but just felt the need to share, feel free to shred me.
You folks seem to be treating this guy as the victim. Sure he had a great idea, but when you have your supporters, the guys that were working with you leave in February and you’re left with a staff of one, well you’re doomed. You are using sponsor money to pay your own bills. The man needed to trust the people he let in his inner circle, but didn’t. He’s now going to be spending some time in court with breach of contract suits and probably a civil suit.
What’s my point? Well don’t go into a gun fight with a pen knife.
You think I’m just talking shit? Well wait a few days, you’ll see the story.
And Trigger…. Keep on keeping on brother.
June 15, 2015 @ 3:33 pm
If he can’t come up with the money for the bad checks, he will be facing criminal charges as well.
June 15, 2015 @ 1:03 pm
THERE IS NO WAY I WAS INVOLVED IN THIS SCAM. I saw it from the beginning what it was about. My Post when I hard the news Good morning Nashville, going to be another big day The Iceman is very saddened by all the stories yesterday and good people he spoke to about how Dale Guthery and Country Fan Jam has taken their money and left them stranded it’s very sad and something that I’m not going to put up with and let go without a word. The Iceman spoke to a local TV station in Nashville and hopefully will be on camera with them today to expose this person who hurt a lot of good people during a time that they should have been playing and enjoying Nashville Stay tuned.
June 17, 2015 @ 12:00 pm
Thunder on the Mountain in Ozark Arkansas got canceled – twelve days prior to the start. No notice went out to the ticket purchasers – we heard about it on social media.
June 18, 2015 @ 11:51 am
This was posted by Heather Campbell, an affiliate of County FanJam on Facebook today:
To my friends old and new:
I know I have been silent this week and the reason is that I just needed time to collect my thoughts and really think about what I want to say. As you all know, I was part of Country FanJam, a festival that we all thought would be successful. As most of you know, it was not. Failure (to me) means that you didn”™t learn anything from the experience and I sure as hell know I learned a LOT!! In this case, I won”™t claim failure. It just didn”™t work out as we had hoped.
There aren”™t words to express the amount of hard work and dedication it took to manifest this event. Those close to me have a pretty good idea. Those who are not are wondering what happened. For the sake of appeasing everyone, here”™s the jist:
Dale Guthery recognized a void and heard the call from fans wishing there would be a smaller and affordable country music festival with classic country acts “like in the old days”. Through my personal friends and what I have seen online and experienced myself, I loved the idea and I wanted to be part of it. I BELIEVED in it. I called him out of nowhere having never even heard of him before. I HAD to be a part of this. It was in my heart and I was being pulled to it.
Since the day I met him, it has been blood, sweat, tears, laughter, friendship, trust, excitement, and so much more. Dale is one of the most honest and trustworthy individuals I”™ve had the privilege to know. He had the balls to create this event and it DID go on. Yes, two days in we had to shut it down, but it HAPPENED.
Why was the event shut down? The answer is the same to the question “Why are you doing this event?” Country music FANS wanted this and talked about it and that squeaky wheel got the grease. The FANS who wanted this so bad did not show up! Yes, some did, but in general the FANS (or lack thereof) is what brought it down. With very low attendance, how does one expect a show to succeed?
I cannot begin to describe the heartbreak we all felt when the decision was made to shut it down. It was a night I will never forget. We knew the disappointment, anger and resentment that would come with it. It was very, very heavy for us. We had FANS, ARTISTS, VENDORS, etc. that we knew we”™d be letting down. It was a business decision and it had to be done. It was completely overwhelming and until you”™ve experienced it, you just don”™t know.
Beyond the heartbreak of having to close the show, there have been many posts on social media regarding this and so many calling Country FanJam a scam. That”™s a double heartbreak. I have seen straight up lies posted and shared by fans, artists and vendors that aren”™t true. In respect to Dale, I will not call out names or offer exact details of the event, but out of all of this we found the snakes and weeded them out. And then there are some amazing, beautiful people that stood up to defend us, like Ray Scott, Tonya Watts, Wade Hayes, Kate McCrary, and several others involved. For all of you, I personally thank you for the support.
For those who have so much advice to give as to how to put on an event like this, why didn”™t YOU do it?
For those who want to judge and spread rumors and lies”¦ Well, everyone loves a good lynching, right? Let those without sin cast the first stone.
I have lost some people that I thought were friends, but I made so many more. I will always stand behind Dale %1000 as a class act that did something no one else dared to do and I am SUPER PROUD to have been a part of it.
Lessons learned, keep pushing, keep dreaming, keep doing, keep moving, keep your belief in whatever you believe in. Go forward and upward and you’ll never go wrong.
This was the original link to the post – not sure if it will work since you may have to be a member of the Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/222535761133362/permalink/848043568582575/