festival

Friday October 14, 2016

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator Ð Friday October 14, 2016 Harvest Picnic organizer sues talent agency, performers, for millions The organizer of the annual Harvest Picnic music festival has filed a lawsuit against one of Canada's largest talent agencies, as well as musical acts Jann Arden, Johnny Reid and the Cowboy Junkies, seeking more than $26 million in damages due to breach of contract. The lawsuit also says both the Harvest Picnic and the annual Hamilton Music Awards are in danger of collapsing. Local promoter Jean Paul Gauthier alleges The Feldman Agency, based in Toronto and Vancouver, Reid and the Cowboy Junkies both breached contract provisions preventing them from playing within a certain radius of Hamilton within 90 days of the Aug. 26 to 28 Harvest Picnic at Christie Lake Conservation Area. His claims against Arden relate to concert date announcements. Feldman acted as the booking agency for those festival acts. The allegations, which have not been tested in court, were made in a 15-page statement of claim filed in Ontario Superior Court under Gauthier's company, September Seventh Entertainment, which also runs the annual Hamilton Music Awards. "The events that September Seventh produces and owns, namely the Harvest Picnic and Hamilton Music Awards, are now at great risk of ceasing to exist due to the unconscionable conduct, high-handed conduct or conduct in bad faith and breaches of contract by the defendants," the statement of claim says. This year the Harvest Picnic expanded from one to three days. Crowds were noticeably lower than the previous five years. Meanwhile, several artists, many of them local, have said they have not been paid by Gauthier. "I got a bounced cheque," said Hamilton singer-songwriter Tomi Swick, who performed twice at the festival. "It's a sad situation. (Gauthier) has always been pretty good to me. It was a good festival.Ó Other musicians who have not yet been paid by the festival include

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday October 14, 2016

Harvest Picnic organizer sues talent agency, performers, for millions

The organizer of the annual Harvest Picnic music festival has filed a lawsuit against one of Canada’s largest talent agencies, as well as musical acts Jann Arden, Johnny Reid and the Cowboy Junkies, seeking more than $26 million in damages due to breach of contract.

The lawsuit also says both the Harvest Picnic and the annual Hamilton Music Awards are in danger of collapsing.

September 10, 2016

September 10, 2016

Local promoter Jean Paul Gauthier alleges The Feldman Agency, based in Toronto and Vancouver, Reid and the Cowboy Junkies both breached contract provisions preventing them from playing within a certain radius of Hamilton within 90 days of the Aug. 26 to 28 Harvest Picnic at Christie Lake Conservation Area. His claims against Arden relate to concert date announcements.

Feldman acted as the booking agency for those festival acts.

The allegations, which have not been tested in court, were made in a 15-page statement of claim filed in Ontario Superior Court under Gauthier’s company, September Seventh Entertainment, which also runs the annual Hamilton Music Awards.

“The events that September Seventh produces and owns, namely the Harvest Picnic and Hamilton Music Awards, are now at great risk of ceasing to exist due to the unconscionable conduct, high-handed conduct or conduct in bad faith and breaches of contract by the defendants,” the statement of claim says.

This year the Harvest Picnic expanded from one to three days. Crowds were noticeably lower than the previous five years.

Meanwhile, several artists, many of them local, have said they have not been paid by Gauthier.

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator - Saturday August 24, 2013

August 24, 2013

“I got a bounced cheque,” said Hamilton singer-songwriter Tomi Swick, who performed twice at the festival. “It’s a sad situation. (Gauthier) has always been pretty good to me. It was a good festival.”

Other musicians who have not yet been paid by the festival include the Toronto-based band The Rheostatics, Hamilton singer-songwriter Lori Yates and Hamilton native Jeremy Fisher.

“I honestly feel bad for (Gauthier),” said Fisher’s manager Mike Renaud, owner of Hamilton-based Hidden Pony Records. “I think he just got in over his head. I don’t think he’s a malicious person. But I don’t think this (filing a lawsuit) is the best way to handle it.”

Calls and emails to Gauthier were not returned. A representative of The Feldman Agency offered The Spectator no comment on the lawsuit, but Feldman president Jeff Craib told CBC News that it was “frivolous and vexatious.”

In a statement emailed to The Spectator, The Rheostatics said the band felt “let down.” (Continued: Hamilton Spectator)

 

Saturday September 3, 2011

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday September 3, 2011

It might get loud…

An extraordinary triple musical convergence will take over Hamilton’s core Saturday as Supercrawl, the Locke Street Festival and Country Music Week all rub elbows.

sketch

Any one of these three events would be a biggie for the city core. Last year, organizers estimated some 15,000 people attended the Locke Street Festival alone. Another 20,000 poured onto James St. North for Supercrawl. And that was when both festivals were held on different September weekends.

This year the two daylong annual festivals — each featuring an outstanding musical lineup — will take place on the same day, Saturday, Sept. 10.

Added to the excitement is the Canadian Country Music Association’s annual FanFest, the centrepiece of Country Music Week, which is taking place in Hamilton for the first time in 11 years. On Saturday, Sept. 10, between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., Canada’s top country music stars will perform on the Jackson Square rooftop plaza. FanFest will draw country music enthusiasts from across the country. Organizers are expecting up to 5,000 people.

All three events are within walking distance and all three are free. It has the makings of a huge downtown party — part country hoedown, part art crawl, part indie rock concert, part blues festival, part shopping spree and part grazing expedition.

Imagine Stetsons rubbing brims with black berets and Rasta caps, cowboy boots going toe-to-toe with Birkenstock sandals, beer sharing tables with cappuccino, symphony cellists trading licks with indie kids and belly dancers bouncing hips with line dancers and hip hop DJs.

line drawing

There could be 40,000 people in the core for the combined “Super Saturday” events.

According to Tourism Hamilton, all of the city’s approximately 1,100 hotel rooms are booked for Super Saturday, with Supercrawl and tourism officials now sending the overflow to Burlington and beyond for lodging.

The estimated economic impact of Country Music Week alone could be as high as $7 million (based on an estimated 10,000 participants), says Dana Borcea, marketing and media relations co-ordinator for Tourism Hamilton.

Super Saturday also gives the city a chance to show off a new side of itself to an influential and captive audience. “Art is the new steel,” as members of the James St. gallery community say.

The Canadian Country Music Association is holding its annual general meeting at the Hamilton Convention Centre next weekend as part of Country Music Week. The CCMA has some 1,600 members. Hundreds will be coming from out of town — Edmonton, Calgary, Halifax and Vancouver. They represent record labels, booking agencies, concert promoters and management companies.

“There will also be a strong representation of people from the music industry attending Country Music Week that day,” says Tim Potocic, co-owner of Hamilton’s Sonic Unyon record label and one of the organizers of Supercrawl. 

“It will be excellent exposure for the city of Hamilton.”

Hamilton Spectator

In particular, it will be great exposure for Hamilton’s thriving music scene. All the performers on stage at the Locke Street Festival are local and, although the big name at Supercrawl is Toronto’s Broken Social Scene, a good percentage of the performers on the three stages of James St. North are from Hamilton, including Young Rival, the Dinner Belles, Monster Truck, The Rest and the Junior Boys. Even the Hamilton Philharmonic is joining forces with folksinger Basia Bulat for a concert on the street.

It also spells good news for the city’s night clubs as out-of-town industry folk take over downtown venues for private parties and showcases. The Casbah is hosting a Sony Music Canada party, while the Paquin Entertainment Group holds court in This Ain’t Hollywood and Royalty Records sets up shop at Waltz in Jackson Square. The Artword Artbar Café (Colbourne at James N.) is featuring an afternoon Ladies of Country showcase, a public show presented by a coalition of four entertainment companies.

The amazing thing about this Super Saturday is that it wasn’t really a planned thing. Organizers for all three events picked their dates without being aware of the others.

“It was just a coincidence,” says Potocic. “We picked this date about a year ago with a lot of consultation with people on the street. Then we learned about the CCMA and Country Music Week. We gave then a call and co-ordinated things with their FanFest. And they directed us to a couple of acts — the Heartbroken and Ridley Bent — for the Supercrawl stages.”

The city has gotten aboard, adding increased policing to both the Supercrawl (29 officers, up from four last year) and FanFest events (another four officers), as well as providing a free shuttle bus linking Supercrawl to Locke Street.

The shuttle (it’s the faux cable car you see running downtown) will move in 30-minute intervals starting at 10 a.m. at Main and Locke — moving to stops at John and Wilson, Pier VIII Marine Discovery Centre, James and Strachan, James and York/Wilson before returning to Main and Locke — to 10 p.m. (Source: Hamilton Spectator) 

Marvellous Maps

 

Wednesday July 12, 1997

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator - Wednesday July 12, 1997 BURNING DESIRE TO WATCH Everyone's an armchair fire chief. As the plastic recycling plant burned to a shell, heaving an Apocalyptic cloud of smoke skyward, it seemed half of Hamilton gathered Wednesday night to gawk -- and offer their firefighting expertise to anyone within earshot. "What nimrod would put a hose right there? The smoke's coming from over there, " said one man, pointing agitatedly to where he felt Hamilton's smoke-eaters should be paying attention. "Why aren't there any hoses along that wall? They should be hosing down the walls near that smokestack, " said another, as he settled into a comfy patch of grass off of Ferguson Avenue North with his family. But along with the complainers came an enthusiastic crowd of onlookers who were treated to one of the biggest and most spectacular fires in the city's history as free entertainment. Children played, families sat on blankets, others brought coolers and lawn chairs to sit and watch along the railway tracks and grassy knolls around the Wellington Street North Plastimet Inc. plant. It seemed more like Victoria Day fireworks than a fire disaster. People Ooooooh'ed and Ahhhhh'ed when walls started to collapse, or when the thick smoke coming from the fire scene temporarily changed from black to light grey and then back to black. Area residents spilled on to their porches and tugged on beer and cola. An enterprising ice cream vendor peddled into the area. Dogs caught Frisbees. People laughed. Some children cried. Driving was a nightmare as rubberneckers spent more time gazing at the plume of smoke than on the road, and the streets and sidewalks were jammed by people following the towering inferno to find the source of the fire. A threesome of young pedestrians, picking their way along Barton Street towards the fire, were excitedly guessing the cause of the blaze. "Maybe it's a bomb! Or a plane crash!" offered

By Graeme MacKay, Editorial Cartoonist, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday July 12, 1997

BURNING DESIRE TO WATCH

Everyone’s an armchair fire chief. As the plastic recycling plant burned to a shell, heaving an Apocalyptic cloud of smoke skyward, it seemed half of Hamilton gathered Wednesday night to gawk — and offer their firefighting expertise to anyone within earshot.

Hamilton Spectator photo

“What nimrod would put a hose right there? The smoke’s coming from over there, ” said one man, pointing agitatedly to where he felt Hamilton’s smoke-eaters should be paying attention.

“Why aren’t there any hoses along that wall? They should be hosing down the walls near that smokestack, ” said another, as he settled into a comfy patch of grass off of Ferguson Avenue North with his family.

But along with the complainers came an enthusiastic crowd of onlookers who were treated to one of the biggest and most spectacular fires in the city’s history as free entertainment.

Children played, families sat on blankets, others brought coolers and lawn chairs to sit and watch along the railway tracks and grassy knolls around the Wellington Street North Plastimet Inc. plant.

It seemed more like Victoria Day fireworks than a fire disaster.

People Ooooooh’ed and Ahhhhh’ed when walls started to collapse, or when the thick smoke coming from the fire scene temporarily changed from black to light grey and then back to black.

Area residents spilled on to their porches and tugged on beer and cola.

An enterprising ice cream vendor peddled into the area.

Dogs caught Frisbees. People laughed. Some children cried.

Driving was a nightmare as rubberneckers spent more time gazing at the plume of smoke than on the road, and the streets and sidewalks were jammed by people following the towering inferno to find the source of the fire.

A threesome of young pedestrians, picking their way along Barton Street towards the fire, were excitedly guessing the cause of the blaze.

“Maybe it’s a bomb! Or a plane crash!” offered one.

“Maybe the Mars probe crashed!” enthused another.

And with officials keeping mum on what might have sparked the fire causing all this commotion — who can argue with the Mars probe theory?

(Source: By Adrian Humphreys, Reporter Hamilton Spectator)

 

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