Well here I go, it is 2013 and we are all still alive !!!, it has to be because the guy that made the Mexican calender either died or was sacrificed at the alter, maybe buy his wife. Hey you know them Latina Women, you get them pissed and watch out.... So the guy never finished the calendar. then 2012 years later we all thought life was going to be over... LOL end of the world.. well we are still here so, like I said the calendar guy in Mexico either died or was sacrificed at the alter.
Okay enough of that, time for reflection - I write this to bring some truth at least from my point of view which is pretty much from the outside but with knowledge of what was happening from time of looking for artist to perform.
Bridgeport Connecticut back in July 7, of 2012
The PR Festival - Part I
Okay so let me tell you the story about a job in Bridgeport Connecticut back in July 7, of 2012 a Puerto Rican Festival which turn out a complete Disaster. I think enough time has pasted to tell this story, my buddy referred this person to me and told me he would call me soon. So I get a call about 3 months after from a guy that tells me a bit of the history about the PR organization in Bridgeport... You know the same old greed story about how for many years this festival was the crown on all Latinos in Bridgeport and how the old President and Board Members were stuffing their pockets and so the new Board got elected and fired all the crooks, great huh !!! except one problem, no one from the old crew wrote down a how to run or notes on how to do anything, just in-case they got hit by a Bus or had to run from an ex-wife etc... They did not teach anyone on how to get this festival up and running each year and how to get sponsors, money from the government etc... So when the new President Jackie (No Last Name to Protect myself ) and the other new Board Members stepped in, they knew zippo on how to run and produce a festival. So they go to a guy they trusted and hire him as the Festival producer, the middle man etc... and yeah he had some knowledge of doing these types of events but his problem was that he was burnt out already. They guy was a regular working guy who thought he could make a few bucks by getting hired to produce this festival, and why not, he has a family to support and he's been involved with some medium size festivals before... and so the problem, he was involved not that he ran a festival of this size (Hugh) and this important for the entire Bridgeport Connecticut Latino population.
When I say it was a disaster, trust me that is what it was a complete disaster, but again in all fairness not all of this guys fault. See when people Call me and start asking me a million in one questions I already know that this person is looking to learn how to pull this off with very little knowledge and if you ask him about it, they deny the don't know, because they are scared I will take advantage of them. The real is they also can't afford to hire me because they hire the coordinator / producer so why paid two people, and the new Board wants to show they are not robbing or spending money foolishly. That's great right !!! WRONG, Your old President and the old Board robbed everything and everyone and maybe took all the information on how to handle a festival and I understand now the radio people may have also been part of the problems since they were in with the old Board, they even help book artists for many years (what does that tell you). The thing is that the old Board and Radio left this new President and Board without a clue as to how to get funded, how much to spend and how to do anything period. Then the President tell the consultant you handle it, but yet she micro manages any and all issues that come up while also doing her day job as a busy Director for some Government type of office. So even though she interrupted to find out whatever the issue was, she starts to listen to the problem and never finishes fixing any issues, and then she gets pulled by her day job and so the guy they hired never finds out about the problem or has already made different arrangement for that issue and now the funds to pay for that issue has been spent by the President with someone else and the consultant is left with the problem and it now is getting worse and the other worse part is that he finds out the funds for that project has been spent on another vendor that screwed up the complete project and was okay-ed by the President. But don't just blame her lets look at the whole board who lets this happens again and again, but now it is with the consulting guy and the President, meanwhile the clock is ticking and everything is a mess.
So
what happens - No one is stepping up to the plate to say STOP !!! or
even ask what is happening, even Large corporations have meetings to see
the progress and gather the troops. But this org. was so disorganize
that at times it seems like those old slap stick movies. I could not
believe so many people wanted this festival to tank. I was getting more
involved because I saw the unfairness treatment from all the vendors
and even the CITY, oh sure the Mayor show up to the Banquet (free meal,
photo op etc) but I think back on this and say that the Mayor could
have placed someone to watch over this, just to make sure it did not
reflect badly on the CITY of Bridgeport. So lets see - it started with
many things - the badly organized parade, the meetings with park people
that failed to hire staff to man the gates, the fencing around the
park, the accident of one of the main artist (Andy Montanez) weeks
before the festival, the calls from the mysterious Mary of Boston (Andy
Jr's Promotion person) who was trying to get Andy Jr to replace his
fathers performance (an inside ploy to not have this festival be the
first to have Andy Montanez perform - that's another story), the Fire
Dept. issuing orders to not close off the part completely (weird) only
because the City designated the park for this festival and the park in
the past was always closed off for paid events but for this event the
Fire Department did not allow full closure of the park, which sound like
a payoff, they forced a 200 foot section to be un-gated along side the
port-a-potty's which of course defeated the whole propose of having the
entire park gated. Then another big error was advertizing of that the
Festival was not free anymore and the entry fee was $5.00 a person, and
because no meetings took place to organize this event well and the
discussion of children door charge was never thought of.
So
they started out by asking for Big name Latino Artists - Like Don Omar
and Daddy Yankee - way over there budget, but again they really did not
have a budget they worked on how much and lets get the sponsorship to
pay for it. Well this idea is great but you need to plan out at least a
year before and have sponsors on board and also look for govt local,
state and federal matching fund grants for the arts type things to get
the sponsors in the mood to give you money in a poor economy. I told
the consultant everything I could to help, because after all the funds
were going to pay for Artist will go through my office since I will be
booking the Artist so I wanted to make sure this festival won. Well we
got all the things out of the way, and my questions of who is at gates,
the answer was oh I have my fraternity buddies, I knew at that point I
basically was giving advise to the wall. It heard me but did not
stick. So hey what can you do, and miracles do happen, but not in this
case. Now we are down to the wire and Deposits are slow in coming,
all target dates went out the window, if I pulled out they (Festival
Committee) would have blamed the failure on me for not providing the
talent they ordered even though they did not have full deposits in and
airfares were not purchased per riders. So I spoke with the artists and
they said do we have some of the deposit, I said yes we do but money is
coming in so slowly and off target dates I was uncomfortable, but the
Artist said go with it and so I did.
So
now the Artist Manager calls me with a small problem, they artist are
doing a show the night before they leave to NY and it's impossible for
them to make the early flight, the tickets that were purchased by the
Festival were sponsored and so non refundable and difficult to change
and they were First Class seating. So now you say well that's the
Artist fault, not so fast the riders states clearly to get refundable
and changeable tickets for this very reason, something always happens,
it is only human. So the festival have to find red eye tickets and the
only airline was JetBlue who as we know have zippo First Class. Well
the artist refused to go on the flights and in short I don't really
blame Andy Montanez because he is an older gent and he was on crutches
after all he was in a crash in Colombia and in bad condition, so he was
doing this for the people and the festivals pride. Well the truth the
airline stewards did the best they could to make Andy comfortable but he
was not having it and so he took the Last flight out of San Juan on the
sponsored Airline - yes the original airline which got him a first
class seat but to JFK and arrival time was 2pm, festival closed at 6pm
not to much time left to drive him from airport to hotel then wait for
him to dress for the show and be at festival before closing. Now lets
step back little just before that madness the day before when the date
of leaving has arrived and wow they came up with some more deposit funds
with promise that at and during the festival or before the Artist would
get on stage they would have the balance of the money. Then Bam - the
problem - about the airline and artist etc... okay so that's was all
done and the morning of the festival I now need to collect balance
due. Well I called the consultant and got voice mail, it is 6am and
this guy has to be setting up this festival, the day before we ran
through some of the details and all the answers from him was Yes.
Something
in my gut told me to get a car and go to the festival site and so I did
and when I got there he was the only one at the festival setting up
things, stage, vendors everything, and I asked him where are the people
for the gates his answer was they are coming, so is Christmas, but that
still along time away. I then saw these guys in yellow tee shirts
charging money as people drove into the park so I went up to them and
asked them who they were. Well this group of 20 men worked for the City
Parks dept and the Park Dept charges 20.00 to allow you to Park your
car in the lot. I asked the supervisor if anyone spoke to them about
manning the gates for the Festival and the answer was outrageous "oh
yeah my boss went to a meeting and the organization did not want to pay
for the men so they were told just to man the Main Park entrance and
charge 20.00 for parking. Should I tell you who was backing them up,
the Bridgeport Police. Are you putting the puzzle together. I asked
the consultant and he told me about the meeting with the park dept. and
it seems they wanted heavy duty money for these men to guard the gates
and charge the extra 5.00 for the festival. And so the fraternity
brothers were asked to do this for free I gather. What I was not told
was that the Police was included in the Park Dept deal. So the Police
could care less if people were walking in for free. Also it was now
about 11:30 am and no one is at the gates and people are coming in by
the hundreds and I start wondering how in the world is the organization
going to collect these funds to pay these artist. I ask the consultant
again where are your people his answer now was that the President
pulled them away for the Parade - so he had zippo people to guard the
gate, it was at this time I notice the 200 feet of open area and the
funny thing was that the section of missing fence was erected across the
street, I mean really the Fire Dept who works for the City gave the
order not to close up that section but for all other events it's close.
So the only thing that runs through my mind is that the old President
of this organization paid or called in favors to guarantee this New
Board and President failed. I blame the Mayor, the stupidity of the
new President and the Board the radio station because I truly have a
feeling they knew since I understand the old President had close ties
with the radio and may have even worked at the radio station.
Well
I knew I had to try something anything because this also reflected
badly on me and my office, I could not believe it was this bad, I went
to the consultant and demanded him to hire some of the Yellow Tee-shirt guys
(employees of the parks dept.) and then prayed no one would notice the
opening next to the port-a-potty's - and so we started collecting funds
the organization owed ($28,000.00) as balance, what finally came in was
$7,000.00 and that was because I got the front gate manned and then
when the President showed up I basically tore her head off because of no
personnel was here since the morning, and she said I thought the
consultant had his fraternity brother, and I told her you took them, and
she said (like if she was surprised) who these guys? At which point,
one of the guys said I thought since you called us we was only doing the
parade since you (meaning the new President of the Bridgeport PR Org)
told me to have all my guys meet you at the floats early this morning.
.... continued Part II
