FYI - WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED (KISAH BENAR) We started planning the Twelve Anniversary party in January 2014. We choose the date 12th May (Monday) as the following day is the public holiday in Malaysia, (Vesak Day). Between February and March, we started contacting a few of the artist/DJ agents for the event line up. We finalised the 5 DJs with their agents and signed the artist contract. We completed the contract for all the 5 DJs right after ASOT650 Kuala Lumpur. 15 March – Malaysia was shocked with the cancellation announcement for the 3rd day Future Music Festival due to the death of 6 people. 25 March – We announced the TWELVE 4th Anniversary event scheduled on 12th May featuring the 5 DJs listed. We decided not to announce the tentative venue KL Tower as we were still in negotiation. During this period, rumors were spreading about the possibility of government to cancel all outdoor events. Life in Colour featuring Feddy Le Grande was scheduled 19 April announce their cancellation. Super8 & Tab show in Sepang during the F1 Grand Prix (30th March) was also cancelled. However, the EDM Rockstar event in KL Tower went ahead on 12th April with the approved permit by the authorities. We expect by then, our event at KL Tower should not have any problems. 14 April – We paid the 50% deposit for Simon Patterson through his agent APA. The balance payment according to the contract is due 1st May. 17 April - KL Tower management informed us that the local authority decided not to allow any outdoor event at KL Tower until further notice. We immediately start looking at backup plan. We decided to move our event into a club. We had meeting with few clubs. We also hold on from paying deposit and purchasing the flight tickets to the other artist. We explain the situation to their agents and they understood. 23 April – We finally secured and announced our venue, Club Vertigo. We also immediately send our ticket design for printing. 25 April – The event Mysterious, schedule on 26 April announced that they have to cancel their event at the indoor venue The Mines due to the permit was not approved. Later during the day, they announced they move their event into Club Platinum. 26 April – Mysterious event was held at Club Platinum without any problems. 28 April – Our event ticket was ready and we distribute to all our appointed ticket agents. 3 May – The event We Love Asia featuring DJ Blend, Coone and D.O.D originally to be held at KWC moved to Club Platinum. However, on the night of event, the authorities came to the club and stop their event minutes before it was supposed to start. At this point, we were shocked and worried as event held inside a club was also been stopped. 6 May – The PUSPAL (The government agency for international artist approval) announced that they hold all International artist application until further notice. Reason stated was they need a “cooling off” period. We were in dilemma as our artist application was still on hold. The clubs will never allow an international artist to perform without a Puspal permit as their club will be facing the consequences. During this point, we discuss with all our artist agents and explain the critical situation we are facing. In less than a week, we still not sure if our event can still go on without problems. We still hold on paying the artists but Simon Patterson’s manager insist we still pay the full balance and purchase the flight tickets immediately. We proposed Malaysia Airlines, a direct flight from London and half the price compared to British Airways required by the agent. Simon’s manager did not approve it. He issued an email saying he is cancelling Simon. We persuaded the manager to give us a bit time as we need to be sure about our event permit. We do not want to pay full fee and buy flight tickets to all DJs and end up they come to Malaysia and cannot perform. Simon’s manager gave us the dateline, to receive the balance payment and flight ticket by Thursday (8th May) 8 May (Thursday) – We manage to get appointment with Puspal to discuss about our critical situation. We highlight that we have plan our event ahead and applied our event as a club event. We mention about the difficult situation for our event to cancel in just four days as we have a lot of confirmed guests coming from Singapore and Indonesia, mostly already took leave and bought their flights & hotel. Finally, we were given some hope. They will reconsider and issue our permit the next day (Friday). We immediately rushed after the meeting to settle Simon’s issue, to purchase his flight ticket and to transfer his balance payment. We manage to purchase the flight ticket online (despite credit card & technical errors) and email it to Simon’s manager at 7pm (Malaysian time) / 12pm (London time). However, we couldn’t get the bank transfer on time because we were busy the whole day meeting Puspal. The bank suggested we complete the transaction the next day (Friday). The flight ticket we bought for Simon (British Airways) will depart London at 6.35pm (London time). However, we received email from Simon manager that they wont allow Simon to board the flight until full payment received. We proposed that we can either transfer the money on Friday or we will pass the cash in hand to Simon in Manila (he is supposed to play for our Manila event on Friday 9th May). They still insist to have it transferred on Friday and suggested to put Simon on Sunday flight from London to go direct KL instead. Manila event was cancelled. We prepared all the transfer documents to be submitted to the bank on Friday morning. We also realised that we can’t get any refunds on the flight ticket we just bought for Simon. We need to buy a set of new flight ticket (British Airways) for Simon to leave Sunday and still reach KL in time for Twelve Anniversary. This will cost us another additional RM7000. While we trying so hard to settle the best solution to make everything happen, we were informed by our friends that a statement was released on Simon’s Facebook page few minutes after we issued the flight tickets and negotiating with his manager. Honestly, we are very upset on what was said about us. 9 May (Friday) – We finally got approval for our event to proceed with the permit. We transferred the payment for the other artists. We decided not to proceed with Simon’s payment as we realised we have to incur an additional cost to purchase the flights. We already have damaged our relationship with Club Haze in Manila for not having Simon to perform. We email the decision to Simon’s manager. We also discuss with the other agents and we got the full support that their DJs will still proceed to KL and perform for Twelve Anniversary. We know that we have lost almost RM40,000 for the Simon deposit we paid earlier and flights we bought. We just can’t take any more losses. To our beloved Twelve fans, as much as you are frustrated for not having Simon Patterson for this event, so do we. We have gone through a very difficult situation that is beyond our control due to the recent incidents. We are not blaming anyone for what had happened to our EDM scene here. We are doing our best to make our event to proceed without any problems. Just like any organisers, we have to make smart decisions to minimise our risk and losses. We even know that when we move our event into a club, we will never make profit. Even we sold out to 1000 pax to pack up the Club Vertigo, we still lose. But we have one spirit in mind, THE SHOW MUST GO ON for the sake of the fans and the music. We understand that Simon Patterson and his management have their own policies. We tried our best to talk to them and negotiate to find a solution. However, it is their right to make such a decision. At the same time, we would like to thank to the agents for the other 4 artists (PFA, JAM DJ, A&E Management, Audio Religion) for understanding our situation and gave us hope and full support to make this event finally happen. We also thank to all the fans that support our event regardless what happens. The TWELVE 4th Anniversary at Vertigo will feature Jordan Suckley, RAM, MArk Sherry and Indecent Noise. The Show Must Go ON…..that’s our promise. See you at Vertigo on Monday night.
Posted on: Sat, 10 May 2014 06:03:28 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015