Metal Anarchy

As previously reported, this year’s Capulet Fest was recently cut short following a number of issues. Among them was a last-minute move from Thompson Speedway in Thompson, CT to The Webster in Hartford, CT, which has a much lower capacity. That change and other problems behind the scenes resulted in numerous bands pulling out of the event. Despite the unfortunate situation, it looks like fans do have support from Connecticut Attorney General William Tong, who has now decided to launch an official investigation into Capulet Entertainment LLC.

Tong said the following during a press conference:

“Good afternoon everybody, thank you for being here today.

If you’ve been following the work of our office over the last week — including the Supreme Court decisions on the Chevron case, and the immunity case yesterday — there’s a lot to be frustrated about, frankly, a lot to be angry about. But I gotta tell ya, nothing makes me more angry than seeing people in our state getting ripped off. I’m afraid that’s what happened with the Capulet Music Festival.

I just drove from Norwalk. I had a meeting this morning at Norwalk Hospital, and on my way up, after I switched from 95 to 91, I see this big billboard for the Capulet Music Festival that promised a band called Skillet. There was another band ,and a big, splashy music festival that was supposed to go over three days and offer an outdoor experience, camping, food, music, safety, fee, and that’s not what people got.

And Now this morning, we’re up to 60 complaints about what was not delivered. That billboard now feels to me, when I see it, like one big, giant misrepresentation and lie told to the people who paid good money for these tickets. Now we’ve got 60 complaints about a concert festival that never really happened the way that it was supposed to.

I will just tell you, as a consumer, as a fan, I don’t get to go to as many shows as I once did. But as a consumer and a fan, what happened to the people that paid for tickets is outrageous, it’s wrong, and it’s unacceptable. That’s why today I’m announcing an investigation into Capulet Entertainment LLC, which is run by a person we’ve identified as Estevan Vega. We’ve We launched that investigation already. We’re in touch with them already, and we’re going to get to the bottom of this.

Here’s what we know. What we know is that people were told and promised that they would get a three-day music festival at the Thompson Motor Speedway; that it’ll be an outdoor festival; that there would be food trucks; that there would be band after band; including these headline bands. I’m not familiar with them myself, but big bands is my understanding.

And that they would be provided a campus for this festival over three days. As I said before, that it would be accessible and it would be safe. I must tell you that when I hear about festivals like this, as your attorney general, I do think about that public safety issue first, because we’ve all seen images of the ‘Fyre Festival‘ that was supposed to happen, I think on a Caribbean Island that never happened.

People paid a lot of money for that festival, and they show up, and there’s no food, there’s no accommodations, there’s no festival. I think it was ‘Coachella‘, was it last year where there’s a huge rainstorm… What happened here is they’re promised a three-day festival at Thompson, and it was moved, sort of in the dark of night. There was limited disclosure, limited public disclosure.

There is some disclosure on the website, I think, Mike Wertheimer, head of consumer protection in my office, but not a lot of notice to consumers that it was moved to the Webster Theater, which is like a 10th of the size of Thompson. Not the same camping experience, outdoor experience, food trucks. Again, I don’t know about security and safety. I do know that it’s a fraction of the size of what was promised. Then the bands they were promised, many of them did not materialize. And the third day really didn’t happen. Now we’ve seen pictures of the Webster nearly empty for a third day that basically didn’t happen. People paid at least $65. There were at least three levels of tickets.

But my understanding is that those tickets went as high as $700 for sot of like VIP access. So real money, good money that people earned and paid for. I know that people made an investment in if you’re going to go to a festival and camp out for three days, that’s a huge mobilization, right? That’s a huge investment of an individual or a group of people to go and spend good money, not just to enjoy themselves, but to get the benefit of their bargain. They should have gotten what they were promised, and they didn’t.

That’s why because of the 60 complaints, we don’t know much more than that, Mike. The details are a little scant, but because not just of the volume of complaints, but because of the huge gap between what was promised and what was delivered. And my very real concerns that inadequate planning and preparation was put into this festival. Also, my very real concern is that it happens again, and I don’t want to see that happen again. Because of that, we’re launching an investigation today. With that, happy to take questions.

Q:Have you had any contact or reach out yet to the promoter to find out what happened?

We’ve had contact with his counsel.

Q: We were actually able to talk to him on Friday when this first happened, and we asked him about refunds. He said there were clearly stated policies when people purchase tickets without possible money changes. He also said there was clearly available ticket purchase protection. Does that stuff-

Don’t try to lawyer me, okay? Frankly, that’s nonsense. That he might have included boilerplate on his website saying no refunds, rain or shine. That doesn’t get it done. When you promise people at $65, $300, or $700, that you’re going to deliver a three-day festival that has food, that has camping, that has security, that is safe, you got to deliver on that. And they didn’t. Not even close. So the fact that he had some boilerplate disclaimer language on the website that, I haven’t seen the website, but I suspect that it’s not the biggest disclosure we’ve ever seen. Somewhere in the fine print, that doesn’t cut it, never has, and it won’t hear.

Q: What does the investigation look like? What is happening?

Like I said, we have scant information right now, and we have made contact with their counsel. We expect them to fully comply with our request for information, and so we’ll see what we find out. I obviously want to do the best I can for fans. But I also want to make it clear that I don’t know that Capulet‘s a big company. I don’t know what Mr. Vega‘s financial condition is. I don’t know where the money is. Until we get some answers, I’m not in a position, frankly, to make any commitments or promises as to what we can deliver, except that we can deliver our full weight and scrutiny in this investigation to get to the bottom of it.

Q: Will you be seeking refunds? And since there was some form of a festival to put on, will you be seeking partial refunds? What can people do?

Too early to say, except, you know Mike, that we’ll do everything we can for fans, and that fans are first and foremost in our priorities in this investigation and try to make it right for fans.

Q: What is your recommendation for if they are seeking refunds? Should they try to go through the company? Should they try to go through their banks and vice versa on that?

So people should pursue whatever remedies they have at their disposal. And if there’s a way to reach out to their credit card company or their bank, and they feel like their bank or credit card company will help them, they should try. I don’t want to tell people not to try with the company, but you’ve already had a conversation that I haven’t had with Mr. Vega.

It doesn’t sound like they’re being very understanding or that they’re willing to work with fans and consumers here. We’re going to conduct our investigation as quickly as we can, as thoroughly as we can. And it’s too early for me to say if there will be refunds, how those refunds will manifest, how they’ll be distributed, except to say, again, that our focus is on the fans and making this right. But how much I’m able to do that, I don’t know yet because we don’t know much about Capulet or this guy, Estevan Vega, or what their financial condition and wherewithal is.

Q: What kind of notice is a promoter required to give for something like a cancellation. You talked about there wasn’t a long… This was kinda done in the darkness of night.

They’re required not to lie to people. There’s no statute that says a concert promoter shall do X, Y, and Z. They’re just not supposed to lie to people. They’re supposed to be upfront, transparent, and clear. And they have to make an effort when they’ve accepted so much money for a festival. If there’s a change, they have to make an effort to let people know, a real effort, that actually has the effect of letting people know. That’s always the case under our consumer protection laws. When you sell goods or services or a concert or a festival, you have an obligation not to deceive people, not to lie to them, and not to engage in what we call unfair practices, right? Which is to rip them off. That’s what it feels like right now.

Q: Those who put the complaints in, what are they saying about their efforts so far to get their money back?

We’re still working through it. People want their money back. They’re angry, and I’m angry, too. They have every right to be outraged by the way they were treated here.

Q: How far is this investigation for sending a message for the promoters in the future?

Yeah, that’s a big reason why I’m here. I’m here for the fans of Capulet, and I’m here for the people that got ripped off. But, man, I want people to understand this is not okay. This conduct, when you put a big billboard up, this wasn’t like a small niche thing, right? This was a big deal. People were promised a big festival. I want people to understand. I want promoters to understand. You just can’t come in, run some fly-by-night operation and rip people off, number one. But number two, what I’m really concerned about is the next time they do this, someone’s going to get hurt. We all know that if you put inadequate attention to how people are going to get in and out, are they going to get water? Will they get access to food over a 12-hour period? All of that matters in 90-degree weather.

Q: Does it seem to you in your investigation so far, that folks at Thompson Speedway saw that those arrangements weren’t being made and broke ties?

We don’t know yet. It’s just starting now. That’ll be part of our investigation. We do have a sense that people knew. I don’t know if it was Thompson, but we do have a sense that people related to Capulet knew they had a problem. And that’s another thing. If you know you have a problem and you know you can’t deliver, you’ve got to let people know. And you can’t keep selling tickets and saying, No, it’s fine. Just show up and it’ll be all good. You can’t do that.

Q: When you said they couldn’t deliver, do you mean the safety concerns that you had or that they didn’t have the crowd to stay with me to make it work? What do you mean when you said they couldn’t deliver?

They didn’t deliver the product they promised. Whether there are other things they couldn’t deliver on, I can’t say yet because we don’t have enough information. Frankly, if their argument is they were going to lose money, not our problem. You set up a website and a marketing operation, and you promised a product, a service to people, a festival, and they paid good money for it. And your job is to deliver on it if you’re Capulet Entertainment. And I’m not going to be terribly sympathetic if their argument is, Well, the economics didn’t work. Too bad.

Q: Where’s Capulet based out of?

I don’t want to misspeak.

Q: There have been other kinds of events, whether it’s concerts, races, things like that, where the promoters or the organizers weren’t able to deliver. But have you seen anything as large as this and as spectacular?

Yeah. I can’t say that something like this hasn’t happened in Connecticut before, but I’ve not seen instances like this very much in my experience as attorney general in the last six years. This is a big one.

Alright. Anything else?

Thanks, everybody. Appreciate it. Thanks. Stay cool.”

[via Lambgoat]