For some reason, I’ve been even grumpier than usual most of this week. But there were two stories in the NYT this morning that brought a smile to my face.
1) The rise and fall of Bleecker Street.
During its incarnation as a fashion theme park, Bleecker Street hosted no fewer than six Marc Jacobs boutiques on a four-block stretch, including a women’s store, a men’s store and a Little Marc for high-end children’s clothing. Ralph Lauren operated three stores in this leafy, charming area, and Coach had stores at 370 and 372-374 Bleecker. Joining those brands, at various points, were Comptoir des Cotonniers (345 Bleecker Street), Brooks Brothers Black Fleece (351), MM6 by Maison Margiela (363), Juicy Couture (368), Mulberry (387) and Lulu Guinness (394).
“six Marc Jacobs boutiques on a four-block stretch”. I have no joke here, I just like saying: “New Starbucks Opens In Rest Room Of Existing Starbucks”.
How’s that working for them?
Today, every one of those clothing and accessories shops is closed.
Oh.
While quirky independent stores couldn’t afford the new Bleecker, it became apparent over time that neither could the corporate brands that had remade the street. An open secret among retailers had it that Bleecker Street was a fancy Potemkin village, empty of customers. Celebrities shopped there because they wouldn’t be bothered. The “Sex and the City” fans lining up at Magnolia and snapping photos of Carrie’s stoop weren’t willing or able to fork over $2,000 for designer heels.
“Jimmy Choo — I never saw anybody in the shop,” Ms. Bowman said. “I don’t get it. Who’s buying this stuff?”
2) There was a music festival scheduled for the middle of Joly – the “Pemberton Music Festival in the mountains of Canada”. Tickets were $275.
The festival was cancelled, and the promoters filed for bankruptcy, about two weeks ago.
Pemberton, held in a picturesque spot about 100 miles north of Vancouver, British Columbia, was a typical entry into the frothy festival business. It was revived in 2014 by Huka Entertainment, a well-known independent promoter, after an earlier iteration failed. According to bankruptcy filings, the festival lost money for three years, and sold 18,000 tickets in 2017, down from 38,000 last year.
But wait, there’s more! The ticket buyers are being told that they are “unsecured creditors” in the bankruptcy proceedings! Which translates into, “Good luck getting any part of your money back, suckers!”
In filings, the two entities that controlled the festival — Pemberton Music Festival Limited Partnership and 1115666 B.C. Ltd. — declared $5 million in assets and $12.5 million in liabilities, with ticket holders listed as having an unsecured claim of $6 million. The first meeting of creditors is scheduled for June 6 in Vancouver.
Even better:
Music executives are now aghast over the failure to provide refunds and the maneuvering of investors in the weeks before the festival fell apart. Marc Geiger, the head of music at William Morris Endeavor and an outspoken voice in the business, called Pemberton’s collapse “a fraud and a scam” that could have a domino effect on the industry, hurting smaller promoters the most.
…
Mr. Geiger reserves a special ire for Pemberton’s investors, among them several wealthy Canadians with no background in the music business. As secured creditors, they now stand a better chance of getting their money back than the fans who paid $275 a ticket. One investor, Amanda Girling, is also chief executive of a company that owns the land on which the festival was held, and which is for sale for $12.5 million.
I hate to sound like a cranky old man who doesn’t get these kids today and their music (which is why I’ve avoided expressing an opinion about the top-billed artists) but: I don’t understand the point of spending that much money to stand around outside for two or three days in order to see one or two bands that maybe I kind of like, and a whole bunch of other ones where my feelings go from “totally indifferent” to “actively hate”.
If this really is “the symbolic end for independently promoted festivals”, would that be a bad thing?
This entry was posted on Friday, June 2nd, 2017 at 12:43 pm and is filed under Law, Music, Schadenfreude. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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