Country Roads Music Festival | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: One other quick thing will do and then we'll uh

0:03 Speaker 1: and then we'll play some more tunes. And if you're

0:05 Speaker 1: just joining us live, of course we have the stiff

0:07 Speaker 1: Tones coming up in the third hour. And they're already

0:10 Speaker 1: in the building, so uh in just in just a

0:12 Speaker 1: couple of minutes. What do you mean, sort of not

0:14 Speaker 1: quite in the building. They're at the building. Oh, they'll

0:17 Speaker 1: let me know when they're ready to be in the building. Oh, okay, gotcha, gotcha.

0:22 Speaker 1: This is from Digital Music News out front. There is

0:28 Speaker 1: an actual Earth Well, it does say online that's one

0:31 Speaker 1: of their uh have heart, will travel very good and

0:36 Speaker 1: they do very good. Uh. Country music festival issues full

0:40 Speaker 1: refunds after failing to launch, latest in spate of country

0:43 Speaker 1: festivals getting mixed. Until I saw this, by the way,

0:47 Speaker 1: that sounds occurred to me. You don't see a lot

0:49 Speaker 1: of country music festivals, like big, large scale festivals. Uh,

0:53 Speaker 1: contrasting with rock festivals and hip hop festivals. Yeah, lots

0:57 Speaker 1: of metal festivals. County country festivals seems like you don't

1:00 Speaker 1: see as many of them. And apparently there's some weird

1:03 Speaker 1: lights like their cursed or something. It says Michigan's Country

1:07 Speaker 1: Roads Music Festival issues full refunds following a twenty twenty

1:10 Speaker 1: five cancelation, but plans to revive the event for twenty

1:14 Speaker 1: twenty six, it says. It says. After Faster Horses Music

1:19 Speaker 1: Festival announced its cancelation in January, event organizers aimed to

1:23 Speaker 1: fill the void with the Country Roads Music Festival at

1:27 Speaker 1: the same venue, the Michigan International Speedway. But now Country

1:31 Speaker 1: Roads has been canceled, with plans to revive the event

1:34 Speaker 1: next year. So what went wrong? Quote? All tickets will

1:38 Speaker 1: be fully refunded. You don't need to do a thing.

1:40 Speaker 1: We'll handle it on our end and make sure the

1:43 Speaker 1: money gets back to you as quickly as possible. The

1:46 Speaker 1: post says, this community means the world to us, and

1:50 Speaker 1: we can't wait to share something really special with you

1:52 Speaker 1: in twenty twenty six. Oh, I missed the first paragraph

1:55 Speaker 1: of that. So the first paragraph of the announcement says, quote,

1:58 Speaker 1: this wasn't an easy call, but we truly believe it's

2:01 Speaker 1: the right one. Our goal has always been to create

2:04 Speaker 1: something meaningful for this community, and we want to give

2:08 Speaker 1: it the time and care it deserves. So that's from

2:10 Speaker 1: the Instagram post announcing the tourist cancelation. Country Roads was

2:16 Speaker 1: due to kick off on July eighteen, yesterday, at the

2:19 Speaker 1: Groves of Michigan campground, but its cancelation was announced just

2:23 Speaker 1: four days prior. Wow, just four days before the festival

2:26 Speaker 1: they announced it was canceled. According to festival organizer Darcy Keys,

2:32 Speaker 1: their team was simply not prepared to pull off a

2:35 Speaker 1: festival in such a short amount of time, especially when

2:39 Speaker 1: many potential attendees don't order tickets until the last minute.

2:43 Speaker 1: By the way, so I've been involved in festivals. Festivals

2:49 Speaker 1: take I mean a large scale festival with national artists

2:54 Speaker 1: and the whole thing like what it sounds like they

2:56 Speaker 1: were doing, that can take like a year, a solid

2:59 Speaker 1: year year of planning. It really can. Doesn't have to,

3:05 Speaker 1: I mean, it might only take six months. But it

3:08 Speaker 1: sounds like they tried to do something quick here that

3:10 Speaker 1: they just couldn't do. So Keyes also said, quote, I

3:14 Speaker 1: don't think that we ever got to that critical minimum

3:16 Speaker 1: ticket sales level. We probably only had about three and

3:19 Speaker 1: a half months, and I think in hindsight, it probably

3:21 Speaker 1: wasn't sufficient time to be able to promote the festival. Unquote, yeah,

3:25 Speaker 1: three and a half months is not enough time. For

3:27 Speaker 1: a major festival, but she isn't ready to completely throw

3:32 Speaker 1: on the towel. Keys said that trying to put on

3:34 Speaker 1: the festival in such a short time this year was

3:37 Speaker 1: a learning experience and she looks forward to bringing the

3:40 Speaker 1: vision to life in twenty twenty six. Naturally, fans who

3:43 Speaker 1: were planning to attend have shared their disappointment on social media,

3:47 Speaker 1: but singer Mikaela Prue, who is due to perform at

3:50 Speaker 1: the festival, noted how such cancelations impact artists, especially lesser

3:55 Speaker 1: known ones, and that relates to what we were talking

3:57 Speaker 1: about with Jane's addiction. By the way, how you know,

4:00 Speaker 1: when when things get canceled, whether it's a tour, whether

4:02 Speaker 1: it's a festival, it affects a lot of people, especially

4:06 Speaker 1: lesser known artists like MICHAELA Prue, who many people were

4:09 Speaker 1: lined up to open. Oh yeah. But also, you know,

4:13 Speaker 1: it affects everything, and it has a ripple effect. And

4:16 Speaker 1: if you're not if you're not super famous and rich,

4:19 Speaker 1: you know, you can really take a hit financially. It

4:21 Speaker 1: can really screw things up for you. MICHAELA Prue also

4:25 Speaker 1: said quote festivals are obviously a major way that growing

4:28 Speaker 1: artists like me get their name out there. It's also

4:31 Speaker 1: one of the main ways that myself and my band

4:34 Speaker 1: generate income unquote. It's a matter of hard times for

4:37 Speaker 1: up and cooming musicians compounded by hard times for potential

4:41 Speaker 1: attendees an economic struggle. As economic struggles make it more

4:46 Speaker 1: difficult for fans to justify buying tickets to these events,

4:49 Speaker 1: more live music festivals will undoubtedly see the acts, leaving

4:53 Speaker 1: artists who depend on that income holding the bag. So

4:57 Speaker 1: there you go, So another another festival down the tubes

5:03 Speaker 1: and more lawsuits.