"WARNING!
Promoters – we firmly recommend that you do not do concert or festival business
with Lowell MacGregor or Eric Mayer of Vancouver, Washington. We have notified
the authorities about them.You have been forewarned.

August 25, 2005, the morning of the day the gates were to open, after 8 months of hard work and facing all kinds of roadblocks, Lowell MacGregor prematurely and illegally cancelled our Shakedown Campout & Music Festival. He and his company breached our contract.

Folks from 37 states and 3 Canadian provinces bought tickets and were on their way. Thousands more were going to buy tickets at the gate over the 4 days, since there was no extra gate charge or ticket service fee, and it was going to be hot and sunny all weekend. WOW!

Then Lowell MacGregor proceeded to tell everyone the promoter cancelled, while he put up a lit sign telling ticket buyers to seek refunds by calling the promoter's cell phone. Then the local paper stated that the promoter disappeared for 4 days. I guess they couldn’t call him on his cell phone, so they chose to believe Lowell MacGregor and Eric Mayers.

Lowell MacGregor was supposedly leasing the land which his company was renting to us after Horning Hideout ‘s closed, required us to move our festival in mid-stream.

This festival was not Lowell MacGregor’s festival to cancel but he tried to take control of the box office and other factors. This insanity was after many weeks of his denial of doing such a horribly poor job of accommodating our needs. We were supposed to be the customer. He was not at all concerned about our needs to set up the festival properly, but was constantly making more and new demands for MONEY!

These people didn’t even have a web site for this “venue” Columbia Meadows. We have a laundry list of things Lowell MacGregor wouldn’t or couldn’t do.

Early on, he stated over and over, “We saved your festival”. We guess that’s why he closed it and tortured us the entire summer, then lied to everyone about his closing our event.

None of the $35,000 we paid the Lowell MacGregor Group was returned. His idiot assistant, Eric Mayers lied about his ability to secure sponsors and told our associate promoter than only 150-200 people would show up. Insane. We paid Eric thousands and he was not able to secure one sponsor in a city of 105 micro-brews? Great job Eric! Oh, and he couldn’t get us a small generator because he felt it was too loud. Eric stated afterward, “we would have lost a lot of money if we allowed the show to continue (after they said they did not close the event). In this, Eric had no idea what he was talking about. He was involved in production and no idea on earth of the numbers behind this show. Even Lowell did not have full access to our accounting even though he tried to demand it. Our finances were none of his business. We paid our bills until he shut the show down by 10am that Thursday, August 25, 2006. The contract clearly stated that the balance of the rent was not due till midnight, but he wanted it now. No festival ever pays 100% of the rent before the event even starts. We wanted those gates open, he wanted them closed. He wanted to show Hal who was boss. Lowell MacGregor, the big tough guy. In the eyes of GOD, he is a midget.

Kayla Hutt was another character in the Lowell MacGregor Group. We had to furnish the vendor paperwork because these highly experienced and competent people did not have any.

The Lowell MacGregor Group (LMG), people fought us all summer. The facts show they repeatedly screwed up this festival with their lack of cooperation and hate directed toward us, even though we made payments all summer on time and paid all other bills on time all summer. We were being forced to sign new contracts with no additional benefit to us. We signed them under duress, our attorney Peter Shaver saying “if you don’t sign them, he’s going to shut down the show’, this happened repeatedly. Peter Shaver is a Buddhist, he should have disclosed this in advance. We had made him aware that this was likely to get messy close to show time and asked before contracting him; Could he handle it? He said yes. We lost.

It became a Shakedown Fest weeks in advance with MacGregor constantly changing terms and making additional financial demands other than what was originally contracted.

It was really quite intolerable. The dream festival turned into a nightmare, the effects of which still don’t go away. Tickets were refunded. We paid the price of dealing with these people.

Lowell’s actions were the dumbest we’ve ever seen in more than 30 years. He destroyed lives, our company and our music festival after we spent $250,000., incl. $100,000. to the bands. None of these monies will ever be returned. These two continue to lie to people about the festival and the promoter.

In retrospect, it’s obvious these people don’t respect GOD. If they had bothered to go to church and live by Christian principals, there wouldn’t have been such an unfair game of the unethical vs. the ethical.

We leave you with…

DO IT ANYWAY

People are often unreasonable, irrational and self-centered.
Forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives.
Be kind anyway.

If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies.
Succeed anyway.

If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you.
Be honest and sincere anyway.

What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight.
Create anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous.
Be happy anyway.

The good you do today will often be forgotten.
Do good anyway.

Give your best you have, and it will never be enough.
Give your best anyway.

In the final analysis, it is between you and God.

It was never between you and them anyway.

Mother Teresa
Missionaries of Charity

A concluding note:

The promoter was Stylus Shows, Inc. a company formed by an ethical man promoting since 1975.

“As President, I did everything possible to keep the Festival from closing, I even asked our attorney to pursue a court injunction to keep The Shakedown Fest open, but that was beyond his ability, so we just got killed. Lowell was in control, I wasn’t. You can blame me for knowing him.“

I am very sorry for letting down so many that were on their way to the event, and those readying their campers and cars, excited about the new festival with so many great bands to see. In the end, just about all of the customers were kind, even when tragedy was upon us. Thank you for buying a ticket, and try to pray everyday. Surround yourself with faithful people.”

Respect, and my sincerest regards,

Hal Royce Abramson
Concerts & Music Festivals
Rockville, MD
www.concert-promotions.com