Hi y'all. I don't post here often (ever?) but I wanted to address this, because I've seen it a lot of places. We booked Malcolm and confirmed him based on the pitch of his agent, which included direct links to where to check out his music, his work, his bio, etc., who works at a company that I've worked with for 10 years. They've never pitched me a sexual assaulter before. I've absolutely added the Google search to my process, starting last week, and since, today actually, I passed outright on a show that was offered to me (not for BLED but just a regular Fusion show) that would've featured someone that assaulted someone. Now, in this pitch from this agent, there was no information about who the artist was, so I maybe would've Googled (but honestly, I usually go to Facebook and type their name into the search bar and find their artist page and start there). It's just a misconception about my work flow that I type everything into Google. But because of this whole thing, I certainly will have to now. None of us WANT to think this is the world we live in, but it is, and we're taking notes every day, changing up our processes, and doing what we can. Sometimes, it's not enough, and we end up in a crazy situation like this, where we want to believe in restorative justice, but also, we 100% want to listen to survivors, and in this case, those two things flew in the face of one another, and left us in the middle like a flip-flopping fool. Announced, then quietly taken down, then tons of conversations with respected people, representatives of the actual survivor in this case, led to our decision, and then massive backlash, teary-eyed conversations with other survivors about it made them feel, and ultimately, the decision to reverse our stance. Also, when an act is represented by an agency, a label, a whatever, it's professional courtesy to handle things privately until they need to be public. For the same reason I don't ask my personal Facebook page (or Fusion's page) "Hey, would you come see a _________ show if we booked it?" If a bunch of people say no, or no one says anything, it's embarrassing to that organization's client. Now yes, this is a completely different scenario, but trust us when I say that MANY conversations were had, and now, seeing the backlash, we now know A. that it wasn't enough conversations had and B. maybe the conversations were had with the wrong people. Anyway, I think we made the right call, even if we had to bounce around to get there. And I hope there's a day, somewhere down the road, where these tough conversations lead to a world that someone who does something like this DOES have a path to re-entry into a community. But more importantly, as our team pointed out the other day, I'd love conversations like this to lead to a world where people aren't raped. So continue to be loud, voice your opinion, know that you're being heard, and just do what you think is right. Someone messaged me online today, and just rambled endlessly about how much it sucks that our festival is always talking about this stuff, and the point that I picked up is that we should just shut up and book a festival. And holy shit, I wish I could do that more than anything. But in the years where we did that, we made a lot of systemic mistakes that led to a lot of things we never wanted to do, and this is the way that we feel we can work to change those things. It probably will never be enough for some, but that's the beauty of life. We all see things differently, and this festival, through all it's ups and downs, is one of the best days of the year for an awful lot of people, and at this point, through all of this, it's the only thing that keeps us coming back. Thanks for the dialogue, and know that my door is always open. I can be reached anytime at nate at fusionshows dot com, and I'm happy to engage in any constructive conversations about anything we do. Also, hi Landon.
you are doing the important work when it comes to accountability and diversity. please don't stop that. it might be a bumpy road to get things right but as long as you constantly learning and adjusting and growing that is what matters most
Nate, it would be great to see you post here more often, you are a leader in this community, and we appreciate any thoughts you may have.
Just realized we have Norma Jean and '68 on this so we're definitely getting "Memphis" This is shaping up to be a must-attend for me.
Two things: 1. There are two Free Ticket February giveaways today. 2. Ratboys will be in the UK at the end of May, so they're not playing.
I literally was going to guess Kississippi on the first clue too but I didn't think she'd play because I thought her opening the Dashboard dates would interfere.
This is pretty great so far and I'm probs going, but I hope they add 3-4 more bands I'm interested in. And then I'll go diving in on artists I'm unfamiliar with.
I feel like we might get one more big add today and then a few mid tier cool ones and a ton of locals tomorrow
Typically the last day is a pretty high-billed band. Last year it was Cayetana. In 2015 it was Real Friends, who was the highest billed band.
In alphabetical order... 68 A Year in New York All at Once Andrea Gibson Astronautlis Backswing Basement Better Thoughts Bogues Bonzo Boy Rex Bringing Down Broadway Chaos Chaos Chris Bernstorf Complainer. Composetheway Comrades Deathbreaker Desires Dogleg Forest Green Former Critics Formerly Bodies Foxing Gatherers Glacier Veins Greet Death Grey Matter Half Tongue Harvester Hot Mulligan If Walls Could Talk Jetty Bones Joyce Manor Kayak Jones Kississippi Looming Lung LVRS Many Rooms Mom Jeans. Moses Mothers Mover Shaker Narco Debut Neil Hilborn Norma Jean Pancho Villa's Skull Prison Suicide Remo Drive Rent Strike Retirement Party Rozwell Kid Saving Throw Shortly Signature Mistakes Slingshot Dakota Small Talks Solitary Subversion Stories Untold The Texas Beachball Massacre Vagabonds Welman You Rest, You Joy Life
Only really "big" adds I see are Remo Drive and Neil Hillborn but I'm not really a fan of either Still a great lineup though!