Sheriff investigating failed rock festival
DARRINGTON, Wash. – The Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office says it is pursuing a fraud investigation into last summer’s failed Darrington Rock Festival.
Three of the five headlining bands – including Cheap Trick – refused to play because the concert promoter, Brian Burkel, didn’t pay them in full. Several festival workers and band managers also say they never got paid, and many of the 2,000 concertgoers say they were cheated when they paid $75 to $150 for tickets.
Burkel, who makes a living selling autographs on the Internet, moved to Guangzhou, China, a few days after the August concert. He told the Herald of Everett in a telephone interview for Sunday’s papers that he made mistakes in organizing the concert but didn’t do anything criminal – a claim that some festival workers found hard to take.
“It’s been really hard to look back and have good thoughts because it was so disastrous,” he said, defending himself publicly for the first time. “I was very surprised. I really expected to make money. I at least expected to break even. I had no idea it could be as bad as it was.”
Burkel, 50, blamed the concert’s failure on low ticket sales at the door, thieving colleagues and competition from Seafair. He also said he made a novice’s mistake in counting on day-of-event sales to give him enough money to pay the bands and his workers.
His marketing manager, Bob Conrad of Knightime Direction in Scottsdale, Ariz., said he had no idea Burkel was relying on ticket sales the day of the event.
“I’ve been in the industry 36 years,” Conrad said. “That was never anything I’d put myself or my partner or my other employees’ families in jeopardy for.”
Burkel admitted giving Conrad and a Budweiser delivery man bad checks after the event; Conrad said his was for $36,431. But others were written by someone who broke into his trailer, stole checks and started handing them out “like candy,” Burkel insisted. Another friend of his walked away with $30,000 that should have gone to paying the concert’s bills, he said.
He filed no police reports. The bands and others are welcome to file lawsuits against him, Burkel said, but he doesn’t think anything will come of it. Nor did he really believe the sheriff’s office was investigating, though spokeswoman Rebecca Hover said it’s “absolutely still an active case.”
Conrad said his company is having credit and image problems as a result of the money owed by Burkel.
“There’s no way I’m ever going to let this thing go until we get every dime and then some,” Conrad said. “He’s stolen money from us and we want it back.”