Will Pruitt (maybe spelled Pruett) of Dayton Ohio set up what was supposed to be a huge metal and music festival at a campground in Dripping Springs, Texas. It was a supposed to be a 4 day event that was to showcase local Texas bands as well as bands from all over the United States and even Europe. The show was to take place May 7th to May 10th at the Dripping Springs campground and had a roster of over 100 bands. Tickets were $60 and VIP tickets were $150.
Saturday morning bands awoke to hear that Mr. Will Pruitt had fled the scene, not paying the bands, the campground or pretty much anyone else he was supposed to. Some bands had even flown in from Russia and Italy to play the event.
I guess Will Pruitt had probably been asked for some money the first two days of the event and had all he could of giving excuses before taking off early Saturday Morning. Not only didn’t anyone get paid, but it’s said that some bands have lost their merch and they paid to have it placed at a merch table.
Obviously this guy didn’t promote it very well, otherwise I think I would have heard something about in the past year on the major metal websites or at least saw some press releases come through the wire about it. Nope. Not a thing. For something that was supposed to be a great “Open Air” type festival someone surely didn’t do much to push it.
If you know Will Pruitt, give him a swift kick in the nuts and call the cops because this guy is a criminal and he owes a lot of people money promised.
You can read more about the “Blunder” of Gods at Austin Metal Examiner.
(Image: Thunder Of God Festival Poster from the defunct Thunder OF Gods Myspace Page that no longer exists)
i’m curious if he is either stupid or brave to screw over some hundred and a bit metal bands. between the bands and their fans, that is a lot of angry people, if he keeps up this hate he just might make it to politician.
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[...] Martyr reports that, on Saturday morning, the bands who were set to perform from that point on discovered that Pruett had fled the scene. He didn’t pay any of the bands, and did not pay for the use of the campgrounds, where the [...]
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that’s not a reason to hate all promoters, but that is the biggest, cowardly thing I’ve ever heard.
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No, not all of them. There are plenty that are good, honest promoters, but this guy just took sleeze to a new level.
Perhaps a better title would have been “This is why bands don’t trust promoters”.
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[...] Another report from a Metal blog. [...]
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While this promoter does suck (he promised to place radio and print ads 2 months before the event) the Austin media deserves at least some of this blame, 101X included. Sensing looming disaster about 2 weeks before the event, a dozen or so of the Austin bands on the bill printed up extra posters and began blasting out e-mails and press releases to let all the local media in on the fest. Of course, since no formal ad-buys were made, that publicity never made it to one single blog or radio show even in passing. I blame this promoter for the fiasco, but Austin is oversaturated with music press, and that community let people down by ignoring these bands’ pleas for a few bones worth of free publicity. You gotta pay to cum, as the Bad Brains put it so eloquently.
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ouuuuch!
that is awful. This guy deserves what comes to him (by law of course) and maybe little tussel :)
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