There's some tension up in the North Bay surrounding last month's BottleRock music festival, and 142 stagehands who worked the event still haven't seen the money that's owed them. As the Press-Democrat is reporting, the conflict originates between the organizers and the catering company that oversaw the food and beverage sales for the event, owned by Napa chef Cindy Pawlcyn, and the problem may just be that the festival wasn't so financially successful after all.
A cut of the food and beverage sales was supposed to go back to the festival organizers, and $1 from every beverage sold was supposed to be donated to charity, including an autism foundation. BottleRock's Bob Vogt set up the foundation in honor of his 21-year-old son Will, and he expected to raise $1 million for charity from the event.
According to the two conflicting sides of the story, Cindy Pawlcyn's company is either in breach of contract for not submitting a full accounting of food and beverage sales by an agreed upon date in late May, or they simply didn't produce the numbers that organizers were expecting. According to Pawlcyn's employee Sean Knight of the catering venture Fish Market LLC, the profits from food and beverage sales "won't even come close" to covering the money owed to the 142 stagehands still awaiting payment, and they're now concerned that the funds won't go to the charities as promised.
BottleRock has already paid out huge sums to the more than 60 artists who performed at the festival, as well as to the city of Napa, and the the state-owned Napa Valley Expo center. They owe another $300,000 to the expo by late June, and another $100,000 to the city.
We thought it was slightly optimistic of the organizers to announce that they would be back next year before all the numbers were in, but maybe early ticket sales are another way they'll be able to cover the bills?
