Alright...lemme preface this by saying I\'m NOT one of the organizers, and I say "organizers" instead of "promoters" for a good reason. However, I know each and every organizer personally, and can speak from their point of view pretty assuredly.
The reason why I say "organizers" is because NOT ONCE in Cabinfest\'s 6 years of existance have people EVER made money off the festival, and in most instances, have lost significant amounts of cash putting on music for increasing amounts of (incredible, smart, fun, and interesting) strangers. Free beer and food does not equal anyone making profit, let alone sound expenses, travel costs, etc. The festival/party/show (whatever you want to call it) has gone on for 6 years with no issues, and probably due to a miscommunication and some neighbors with some big-ass fireworks, this was the festival\'s first snafu.
Cabinfest started as a family/friends/music party that got bigger and bigger each year, with this year being the biggest. Most of the organizers, as well as myself, have been seeing the breakfast since 02 or earlier, at places in and around NYC that don\'t even exist anymore, so to have the Breakfast come up and rage meant the world to all of us...it was an absolute dream come true. WBT opened for TB last year at Mercury Lounge, so to reunite two bands with similar ethos was a simply devine connection, and one we were proud of. Trust me, no one was more upset, sad, angry, disapointed, or bummed about the situation than the original cabinfest folks. Especially since we\'d never had a single complaint in 6 years, and that includes Brothers Past, Consider the Source, Timbre Coup the night before Breakfast...all loud bands, let alone WBT for countless hours, and dj\'s well into the night.
We\'ve never needed or wanted more of an "official" permit to play, because everyone involved has always wanted to keep this on a great fence...somewhere between wall to wall music festival, and the best house party ever, annually. So there\'s the answer on that...nobody here is trying to be Superfly, or Bonnaroo, or whatever. Nobody is making money, let alone a career, off this. The breakfast were a great fit, and we had some personal connections to them, and quite frankly, the stoppage of music had nothing to do with what band was playing; but do realize, the organizers were more upset than anyone at the turn of events, cause they all take great pride in riding the aforementioned fence and putting on something different than any other small festival, or large house party, out there. They\'ve done it for years, and including this year\'s first 2 nights and half of Saturday, have imo pulled it off tremendously.
That said, I can speak for them, in that any positive vibes expressed on this thread are appreciated. For the 80 or so minutes the breakfast played, it was euphoric. Like I said, a dream come true. The breakfast had a good time, seemingly, and in talking to them afterwards, in their thousands of shows, it was nothing they hadn\'t seen before. If anything, watching Adrian and Jordan play on the piano while things were being figured out might have made everything worth it. And considering how much Adrian apparently loves marshmallows, he had to have left happy:)
Now that said, I can understand some negativity towards coming up, and paying, with the expressed interest in seeing the Breakfast, and having the set cut short (for info\'s sake, it was 1 two hour set, not two sets, and it was never advertised any differently than that).
For instance:
"Totally fucking BS IMO, but props to the Breakfast for playing so hard. Not sure how much they were paid for the gig, but I paid $35 to listen to a music festival. By far, the most I\'ve paid for a one set Breakfast show. I would have gladly given that money to the band directly and not the festival promoters."
Now, I\'m pretty sure me and you spoke after the stoppage. My name is Jay, and you were fairly bitter, and not really understanding that we had to A) shut down any loud music right then to avoid issues, and B)that we were indeed setting up to play more live music, in a quiter setting, to make sure folks had some tunes to listen to all night long. The breakfast had a time frame they needed to stick to in terms of travel, and had already done the festival a great service by making it up and playing their asses off.
However, I also fully understood your bitterness, and implored you to relax, drink a bunch of beers and eat some food for your money, and settle up in the morning. Not sure you were hearing this too well.
The one thing I can say about the organizers is that they are good, rational people, with no interest in ripping people off, or making you feel like you were treated poorly. I\'m positive, having spoken to the folks since then, that had you gone up to anyone wearing a Cabinfest crew lanyard the morning after and requested a refund, you would have been accomodated. I mentioned this to you pretty blatantly, and you weren\'t really having anything of it. Instead, you brought your complaint to a message board, which is fine and good, but not really helping your situation any.
$35 was for a full day of music (5 bands, btw), along with FREE BEER and food. And still, all you had to do was politely, or hell, inpolitely, request a refund for the shortened set, and you would\'ve been compensated the next morning.
Anyway, the bigger point is: much love to all who did make it up, and who had a good time. It was an amazing 3 days despite the issues on Saturday night, and we were able to get more music in this year than any other. A ton of love and thanks to the Breakfast, the Breakfast fans, and none moreso than Di (Galenas), who is a champion of live music everywhere, and whom without, Breakfast at Cabinfest would\'ve never happened at all. Hopefully we\'ll get some more Breakfast/WBT shows together soon, and we can all rage the night away proper. Thanks for listening, and...how bout that first fucking jam, eh? Beautiful music...I believe the set was taped, so hopefully archive.org soon enough!
