Rites of Ponzi Scheme

[Coma]

RITES OF DARKNESS III FESTIVAL UPDATES!! OCTOBER 2011

"As of late, we have had numerous rumors flying around regarding the upcoming Rites of Darkness festival. We would like to fully disclose what has been happening so people can know the truth from our side. A few months ago, we started sales through Paypal. We've had good history with Paypal and felt this was the best way to go especially with the numerous international people planning to come to the show. People with experience with Paypal knows that sometimes, accounts get locked and frozen because Paypal feels it seems fit and thinks a certain account is illegitimate. Well our account was one of the unfortunate ones to get locked. Though we could receive sales, we were unable to do anything with our account. Including taking the money out to go back into the show.


We worked hard on legitimizing our account including drafting them flight schedules (Antaeus, Anatomia, Impetuous Ritual, etc), venue contracts, receipts, past history with the first ROD festivals and more. But they kept a closed ear on our pleas and kept assuring us that the account just needs time to be unlocked. We trusted their word which was never honored. If the amount was low, we wouldn't have stressed it out as much as we have but the account was roughly around $53,000 - a high number that was gonna heavily go back into the festival. We had two choices to go through with Paypal; either refund every customer (nearly about 450 transactions) or wait 180 days from the date of the festival for them to release our funds. We kept working on legal arbitration, different avenues, and even the possibility of refunding all customers but before we could get to that point, we had someone in another Paypal office look at our account, review it and has since cleared our account to use.

And with through that mess, we've had to encounter some cancellations as of late including Urfaust and Butcher ABC. Both had important work obligations they couldn't pass up and we tried to work around them as much as possible but we couldn't come to a deal. And the latest cancellations that we have encountered that we regret to announce are Sargeist and Behexen. Again, we tried to come to a working schedule around their new jobs but nothing came to fruition. We understand the bands on our festival have personal lives they must attend to and when an opportunity comes up they can't pass up, we can only do so much. We completely understand if this sways peoples decision to come to the show but we hope to let everyone know before false rumors come out. We already have 3 replacements in the works and are just waiting for them to confirm by tonight and this week. If you've bought a single day ticket to see these specific bands on the schedules, feel free to email us and we can work on refunding you. We will NOT refund any 3 day passes or prefest tickets since we feel we've built a strong enough line up to have people enough variety to choose from.

More updates will come by tonight and tomorrow. Until then, see you in December."

[Deadite]

Kinda glad I didn't buy a ticket now.

[entwinedwithsickness]

I was going to go for basically 3 of those 4 bands. VERY glad I waited things out and didn't book anything.

Also holy shit @ "We will NOT refund any 3 day passes or prefest tickets since we feel we've built a strong enough line up to have people enough variety to choose from."

Classy.

[mankvill]

really sucks, but i'm still super duper excited. hopefully some of the replacements are just as tits.

[bozburn]

Originally Posted by entwinedwithsickness

Also holy shit @ "We will NOT refund any 3 day passes or prefest tickets since we feel we've built a strong enough line up to have people enough variety to choose from."

Classy.

Behexen was in my top 3 reasons for going, but I still plan on going. I wouldn't expect MDF to issue refunds if (and when) 10% of the lineup cancels, so why should ROD? I think it is pretty solid they are refunding 1 day passes though. I am still going, but bummed on Behexen's cancellation still.

[entwinedwithsickness]

Originally Posted by bozburn

Behexen was in my top 3 reasons for going, but I still plan on going. I wouldn't expect MDF to issue refunds if (and when) 10% of the lineup cancels, so why should ROD? I think it is pretty solid they are refunding 1 day passes though. I am still going, but bummed on Behexen's cancellation still.

$53K is most of the ticket money I'd imagine. If they had ALL of that money tied up..how the fuck can they afford these flights for all of these bands? You say this now but lets see how many of the bands actually show up. Good luck.

[Robinator]

lol.. all I know is if I was Ryan or Evan I would have did what late night host Ryan Ferguson did when the whole controversies behind Jay Leno and David Letterman happened which was to just sit back and have a good laugh at this shit!

[RottingBeercan]

Birth A.D. out, Ritual Necromancy in

[Deadite]

Originally Posted by RottingBeercan

Birth A.D. out, Ritual Necromancy in

They canceled? That's silly; I thought they played all over Texas all of the time.

[RottingBeercan]

"Birth AD have dropped out due to personal reasons. RITUAL NECROMANCY from Portland have replaced them. All tickets off Google Checkout purchased to this date have been shipped. Please check your email by tomorrow morning for confirmation numbers those who purchased shipping. The last 3 replacements bands will be announced shortly along with set times. They are sorting out their visas now so we can't fully confirm them yet."

[RottingBeercan]

^^^^^^^^ raises a point + this close to the fest plane tix to book would be ridiculous, unless they already had enough at their disposal months ago to book before all this shit happened. if Midnight or Antaeus cancelled i'd probably cancel.

[euronymous2005]

Originally Posted by RottingBeercan

^^^^^^^^ raises a point + this close to the fest plane tix to book would be ridiculous, unless they already had enough at their disposal months ago to book before all this shit happened. if Midnight or Antaeus cancelled i'd probably cancel.

I'd think so...they probably had some money from sales already to pay for those tickets. Or they used credit cards and are going to pay them back with the money from that account...

I never planned on going to this just because it falls during finals week. I'd love to go though.

[entwinedwithsickness]

Originally Posted by euronymous2005

I'd think so...they probably had some money from sales already to pay for those tickets. Or they used credit cards and are going to pay them back with the money from that account...

I never planned on going to this just because it falls during finals week. I'd love to go though.

I feel like I heard somewhere there was 500-600 tickets. $100 * 500 = $50,000

They had $53K in the account so it must have been over 500 tickets sold but I feel like that was the entire budget. I hope I'm wrong because a lot of my friends are going down for this. I don't want them to go to a festival where 12 bands show up. Time will tell though.

[ncziggy]

I just hope Sargeist doesn't cancel MDF, but, I imagine Ryan and Evan have their shit together.

[astralvesl]

Originally Posted by Coma

We kept working on legal arbitration, different avenues, and even the possibility of refunding all customers but before we could get to that point, we had someone in another Paypal office look at our account, review it and has since cleared our account to use.

Now I'm no expert, but you're telling me that the way this terrible problem was solved was by contacting a guy at ANOTHER paypal office? Can't help but think this whole thing could have been avoided if the organizer had his shit together.

[Coma]

I want the people I know who wasted money on this to get fucked over.

[entwinedwithsickness]

I blame Patslider for this reborn crueler Coma.

[Schwenger]

since Coma is dressing up for Haem we should all chip in and buy him this

http://www.youjel.ly/products/limited-edition

[teapot]

I'm still rooting for this fest and genuinely hope it succeeds. We need more than just MDF to look forward to, and Auditory Assault need never be spoken of again.

[Coma]

Originally Posted by teapot

We need more than just MDF to look forward to

Yeah, and this lame shit isn't it.

[bozburn]

Originally Posted by Coma

Yeah, and this lame shit isn't it.

It blows my mind that you are a real person!

[TCM]

Originally Posted by bozburn

It blows my mind that you are a real person!

[teapot]

Originally Posted by Coma

Yeah, and this lame shit isn't it.

Awwww, but what about Plutocracy, PLF and Butcher ABC? I mean, Butcher when they were still playing.

Personally, I was just psyched about Mitochondrion.

[Robinator]

Originally Posted by teapot

Awwww, but what about Plutocracy, PLF and Butcher ABC? I mean, Butcher when they were still playing.

Personally, I was just psyched about Mitochondrion.

Mitochondrion is fucking ace! I love that band...

that said, what are the possibilities that perhaps in a few years they become like the next 'Gorguts' or something? Perhaps, yeah that's a silly question to ask but I kinda see this band becoming bigger in a few more years. I guess it all depends on what future direction they head in and all..

[Robinator]

Originally Posted by teapot

I'm still rooting for this fest and genuinely hope it succeeds. We need more than just MDF to look forward to, and Auditory Assault need never be spoken of again.

Agreed. Years ago before gentrification was even a term to speak of here in NYC there were a lot more cool venues to book metal/hardcore shows at. That said, during the 90's when a place called Wetlands existed (awesome place too!) there used to be an annual death metal festival called Deathstock that I used to attend. It was only one day but usually it began around noon and went up until sometime after midnight. In fact that's where I saw Enslaved's first official U.S. appearance and that was right around the time their first official CD had just come out too!

Hmm.. maybe somewhere in the very near future possibly promoters will get ballsy enough to do something like that but then again considering how small a lot of the clubs and spaces are here I highly doubt then you could sell a lot of tickets to accommodate enough people in order to break even or cover costs and stuff...

[FTS]

Originally Posted by Robinator

Agreed. Years ago before gentrification was even a term to speak of here in NYC there were a lot more cool venues to book metal/hardcore shows at. That said, during the 90's when a place called Wetlands existed (awesome place too!) there used to be an annual death metal festival called Deathstock that I used to attend. It was only one day but usually it began around noon and went up until sometime after midnight. In fact that's where I saw Enslaved's first official U.S. appearance and that was right around the time their first official CD had just come out too!

Hmm.. maybe somewhere in the very near future possibly promoters will get ballsy enough to do something like that but then again considering how small a lot of the clubs and spaces are here I highly doubt then you could sell a lot of tickets to accommodate enough people in order to break even or cover costs and stuff...

Comafest 2013 at Union Pool:

Liturgy
Deadmau5
Odd Future
Chelsea Wolfe
Big Freedia
Matt & Kim
Wavves
Das Racist
Deerhunter
Davila 666
Neon Indian
Cult Of Youth


Free PBR to all those attending

[Coma]

Originally Posted by FTS

Comafest 2013 at Union Pool:

Liturgy
Deadmau5
Odd Future
Chelsea Wolfe
Big Freedia
Matt & Kim
Wavves
Das Racist
Deerhunter
Davila 666
Neon Indian
Cult Of Youth


Free PBR to all those attending

It's pretty pathetic that that would basically be your dream show.

[percivals]

Originally Posted by teapot

I'm still rooting for this fest and genuinely hope it succeeds. We need more than just MDF to look forward to, and Auditory Assault need never be spoken of again.

[RottingBeercan]

bring back Ozzfest

[Palabra De Dios]

Losing Behexen sucks. Sargeist doesn't sting as much hoping that they'll stay on for MDF.

This fest is going to be awesome. So much great black metal and doom metal (I mean c'mon: PAGAN ALTAR) to look forward to still.

Let's hope they can keep it together. There are still some amazing bands on this bill - it will be well worth the 12 hour drive to San Antonio.