Reggae Rising falls

Public Safety, Public Works, reggae / By Bob Doran / July 6, 2010, 7:56 p.m.

The Humboldt County Planning Commission met tonight to make a thumbs up, thumbs down decision on the permit for Reggae Rising 2010. They said it was hard — they didn’t really want to do it — but they rejected the request for a conditional use permit — unanimously. Details pending…

Post hearing note from the Reggae Rising Facebook page:

We are very sad to announce that the conditional use permit for the 2010 Reggae Rising Festival has not been approved. For all the fans that have stayed positive, please stay tuned for a detailed announcement regarding this years event.

76 Comments

Comment / By BR / July 6, 2010, 8:39 p.m.

so sad

Comment / By rockingtofu / July 6, 2010, 8:46 p.m.

sad? sad, that the mateel went unpaid for too long: sad, that the mateel nearly went bankrupt wrangling with thugs like your neighbors; sad that sooooo many were robbed by this ill thought out plan. sad?? for that yes.For the loss of a fraudulent hollow hearted poser show>>> never@!!@

Comment / By Davee / July 6, 2010, 8:55 p.m.

Just love all the counter-culture hippies who moved to Humboldt and hated mainstream corporate America then reaching middle age they all just fight over money! Just love those hypocrites!

Comment / By AD / July 6, 2010, 9:37 p.m.

Yes, there were issues about $’s. But they guy at the helm who rode it down is not a hippie. He is a hybrid - a child of a rancher/oldtimer who married a child of a hippie. He was in way over his head and it shows.

It appears that there was no real long term plan for this event.

Let’s hope he pays his debts.

Comment / By Buzz / July 6, 2010, 9:51 p.m.

Can’t say I’ll miss the many species of bacteria and viruses downstream from the event.

Comment / By ReggaeGyals BayArea / July 6, 2010, 10:34 p.m.

KKKKKKKKHARMA IS A BITCH! Don’t mess with tree-hugging hippies, they will make you regret it! I, for one, will be celebrating the END of this joke of a festival; this corporatized ridiculosity stolen from the creative minds of the good folks at the Mateel; this valuable lesson 3 years in the making that Dimmick may never learn anyway. PAY YOUR BILLS, JERK! Much love to the Mateel Community Center and all the hard work you do! <3

Comment / By the reasonable anonymous / July 7, 2010, 12:28 a.m.

Good riddance to would-be reggae profiteer Dimmick. Let him take his pathetic scam to Mendo or somewhere else if he is able to fool the people there with his ridiculous line of bullcrap.

Meanwhile, all the people he owes money to here in Humboldt should pool their resources and get a lawyer and sue his shuckin’ jivin’ ass. Can’t come up with the cash? Oh, too bad, so sad. Perhaps the creditors will have to take his ranch. Such a pity.

Now the really funny part would be if the creditors sue him, take the ranch, and next year they lease it to the Mateel for the real Humboldt reggae fest, Reggae on the River. Now that would be some righteous karma.

Comment / By P / July 7, 2010, 12:49 a.m.

Later dude, know you almosty20 years. sorry you didnt make it. I keep with my friends of 15+ years on this one. we just want to have fun and provide for the old non-profits. One day you can profit alongside the schools etc. But for now, community prevails, or nothing. Ciao. Nothing personal,

Comment / By the reasonable anonymous / July 7, 2010, 1:21 a.m.

So, after several two-week extensions, and despite Kirk Girard’s shameless shilling for Dimmick and Dimmick’s own economic blackmail tactics (echoed and amplified by Girard at the last meeting) the Planning Commission has unanimously rejected Dimmick’s Conditional Use Permit.

I guess its one thing to hijack a C.U.P. from a non-profit that spent years building up the credibility of the event, but quite another thing to put together an event and a C.U.P. application on your own. What’s more, it turns out that organizing a large music festival in such a way that you can actually pay your bills and meet your obligations to public safety agencies is actually just a wee bit more challenging than just inheriting a ranch. Go figure.

Comment / By the reasonable anonymous / July 7, 2010, 1:29 a.m.

“let’s hope he pays his debts”

If you owe ten thousand dollars to your credit card bank and don’t pay, and you have tangible assets for them to go after, like for instance a large ranch, the bank doesn’t just sit around and say “let’s hope he pays his debts.”

Unpaid Debts + Creditors’ Lawsuit + Debtors’ Assets = Repayment.

So if I was one of Dimmick’s creditors, I’d be looking to collect ASAP, before he has the chance to piss away whatever equity he still has in the ranch.

Comment / By the reasonable anonymous / July 7, 2010, 8:28 a.m.

From the Contra Costa Times article: “Ticket holders have been waiting on the commission’s decision for several weeks. At a previous meeting, there was speculation that Dimmick had already sold 2,000 tickets for the event. At Thursday’s meeting, Dimmick said that number was actually “well below” 2,000.”

In other words, Dimmick lied to the Planning Commission at the last meeting when he was still trying to keep his ability to sell more tickets alive. The CCT article also quotes Dimmick as saying that it is “general practice” for festivals not to reimburse ticket holders.

So, I wonder how many tickets were sold during the four weeks while the Commission dithered and stalled. In other words, how many more fans were ripped off as a result of Girard’s shilling for Dimmick.

Based on Dimmick’s weak-ass application, one has to wonder whether he knew full well that he wasn’t going to pull this off and was just seeing how many reggae fans he could sucker into buying tickets to the non-event. Thanks in large part to Girard, he may have suckered quite a few, but not as many as he wanted to. Now that part IS “sad.”

Comment / By C / July 7, 2010, 8:46 a.m.

I guess none of you actually knew about the problems with the Mateel and People Productions, huh?

Comment / By the reasonable anonymous / July 7, 2010, 8:50 a.m.

What’s really disgusting about the T-S coverage (reprinted in the Contra Costa Times) is that they don’t even MENTION the Mateel’s Reggae on the River. Like Kirk Girard at the last Planning Commission meeting, they just pretend that Dimmick’s for-profit festival was the only Reggae Fest around. They give no context, no history, just handwringing over the “loss” due to the cancelation of Dimmick’s festival. No analysis of how this might benefit the Mateel’s NON-PROFIT Reggae on the River in future years. Seriously weak reporting.

Comment / By the reasonable anonymous / July 7, 2010, 8:51 a.m.

Hope the NCJ will do a better job.

Comment / By the reasonable anonymous / July 7, 2010, 9:08 a.m.

Too bad Kirk Girard and compliant Commissioners gave Dimmick four additional weeks to sell these non-refundable tickets to unwary out-of-area Reggae fans. At the last Planning Commission meeting, one of the Commissioners raised this issue, but acting on Girard’s guidance, the Commission gave him another two weeks to sell tickets, despite all the signs that he would fail to get the permit. Ticket-holders left holding worthless paper should direct their ire to Dimmick’s all-too-willing accomplice, Kirk Girard, as well as the Planning Commission dogs who let the staff tails wag them yet again.

Comment / By URLame / July 7, 2010, 9:36 a.m.

how about the same 5 people post all the same comments on the Times Standard topix and on the North Coast Journal blog comments….

Comment / By Jane / July 7, 2010, 10:27 p.m.

Well “URLAME” that is because both the Dimmick Ranch and People Productions have been great about rewriting history and getting the NCJ duped enough to legitimize the “koolaid” version. So you have to cover all bases to keep the paid press hags from spinning their webs. Hopefully that doesn’t happen this go around.

Comment / By the reasonable anonymous / July 8, 2010, 1:20 p.m.

As of today, both the Reggae Rising Facebook page, and the ReggaeRising.com website still say: Reggae Rising, August 6th, 7th, 8th, Dimmick Ranch, Humboldt. I think they’d better take that down right away; it seems to me (admittedly a non-lawyer) that they’re really pushing the boudaries of what might constitute fraud.

One issue is that someone who already bought tickets to this year’s show and has learned that it’s not going to take place might sell those tickets to someone who hasn’t heard the “bad” news. Of course in that case its the person re-selling the tickets who would be defrauding the buyer, but since they could point to the websites where no mention is made of the cancellation it would come back to Dimmick’s failure to announce the cancellation in a timely fashion. The seller might even tell the buyer to check out the band line-up on the website, where the buyer would see the dates and location posted as if the event were still slated to go forward this year.

Comment / By the reasonable anonymous / July 8, 2010, 1:21 p.m.

After searching around a bit, I did find a statement, in rather small print, on the “Info” page of their Facebook account that said:

“The Dimmick Ranch has worked day and night for the past 5 years trying to keep this World Class Music Festival alive and well….We all feel the deep pain and sense of loss of this year’s Reggae Rising Festival, but we are determined to make Reggae Rising 2011 phenomenal.”

But the main reggaerising.com website, and the main Facebook page have, in large typeface, the “August 6, 7, 8 Dimmick Ranch, Humboldt County claim”, and I had to look around quite a bit to find the above statement on the Info page of their Facebook account, and even then had to click “read more” to get to the end of the statement where they finally refer to the “loss of this year’s Reggae Rising Festival.”

And zero info on potential refunds or even whether they’d accept these ticket’s at next year’s supposed “Reggae Rising 2011.”

It’s been a couple of days now: this is really irresponsible. Perhaps its just more incompetence, or a desire to delay fans who will ineveitably begin to demand refunds when they realize they’ve paid for admission to a non-existent event, but in any case it certainly doesn’t look good.

I don’t know if they do tickets by mail-order, but if they do, leaving the impression that the event is still scheduled to go ahead as planned might lead some fans to go ahead and send in their ticket orders (and money). I hope its just Dimmick & Co not having their act together, and not a conscious effort to fool potential ticket-buyers.

Comment / By NWWRF / July 8, 2010, 10:41 p.m.

Greetings: We at NWWRF are setting up a web page so that folks who have purchased tickets for Reggae Rising 2010 can get a discount on tickets for NWWRF 2010. We have decided to place 500 tickets on Sale at our EARLY BIRD price of $80.00 — including camping. That is $20 off our current price and $40.00 off the gate price. Youth 14 and under are free. Check out the website www.nwwrf.com for festival info. Please send a proof of purchase to rr@nwwrf.com. This can be a photo copy of a hard ticket or you emailed receipt. We will then send you a web page address to purchase the tickets at. The site will be up next TUESDAY. We will also have tickets at the gate for $20 off the gate price, if we do not sell out. Check the website and the hotline (503-922-0551) for availability week of show. Please check out ( www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100001210903221 ) Thanks Peace

Comment / By mollyo / July 9, 2010, 11:34 a.m.

Amazing that so many people who would be expected to love and respect another human being, faced with clear evidence of his true humanity, are showing no compassion. Yeah, Tom is a man, he has been trying to reshape the festival, and he is on his knees, now. Kicking a man when he’s down is not worthy of good people. First of all, the problems with the Mateel were not Tom’s doing. And the people he alienated by trying to make this festival a viable enterprise MIGHT just have some selfish greed motivating them. When Tom took over, the festival was deeply in debt. He put everything he owns on the line to try to revive and restore it. There is plenty of room for non-profits to benefit even if the festival is run as a corporation. For profit? Not yet, and if it ever does get back in the black, it will be a miracle and will require a lot of people to put their egos on the back burner and think first about what we all love about this festival. The music, the people coming together in love and respect, the joy, THE MUSIC!!! Come on people, shake off the negative energy and think about how you can help!

Comment / By dirtydog / July 9, 2010, 5:46 p.m.

“First of all, the problems with the Mateel were not Tom’s doing.”

Uh 1st off, it appears u have your head so far up the a$$ of TD there is little possibility of us hearing any useful commentary from you.

Here, read this:

“We all know the basic facts. There is an email between Thomas Dimmick and Carol Bruno dated October 12, 2006, that states: “What I am finally realizing is that the Mateel has been what has been preventing me from freedom of flight, not Reggae on the River. Tom you are right. Lets do Reggae, but not do Mateel. “We know from that e-mail that Carol Bruno wanted to “do Reggae, but not do Mateel.” by October 17, 2006, Thomas Dimmick sent a letter to Mateel alleging that Carol Bruno said to him: “In no uncertain terms that she will not, under any circumstances again produce the ROTR event for the current Mateel administration.” After that, the ball was clearly in play and we had a controversy. …. Now, can u really tell me the troubles that befell the MCC were in no part Tom’s doing???

And the only reason his sorry butt was so far in debt was the $500,000 he and carol agreed to payout to the Mateel to avoid further court time over the 13 point lawsuit in which they were DEFENDANTS!

http://rotrblog.blogspot.com/2007/02/13-causes-of-action-mateels-lawsuit.html

Wake up. Educate yourself apart from the company spin. Really, no amount of positive energy is gonna cleanse this dirty dog.

Comment / By Thirdeye / July 9, 2010, 8:28 p.m.

Carol Bruno played Dimmick like a fiddle. He fell for her line that the lease was tied to People Productions. He went into debt to cover what was rightfully her liability. He is a fool. She is evil.

Comment / By the reasonable anonymous / July 9, 2010, 8:58 p.m.

Reminds me of that stock scene in crime drama where two criminals are meeting to divide up the loot or bury the body or whatever, and then when its all done one says to the other, “there’s just one more little loose end to tie up,” the other says, “oh yeah, what’s that?” and then the first one shoots the second one right through the head.

Comment / By Largo / July 9, 2010, 9:47 p.m.

“Uh 1st off, it appears u have your head so far up the a$$…” Uh, what sort of lamentably uneducated hillbilly bongscum writes stuff like that? Dirtydog christened himself much too generously.

Comment / By wannabet / July 10, 2010, 9:53 a.m.

“Really, no amount of positive energy is gonna cleanse this dirty dog…” Just count on Largo that one has a lot of “positive” to contribute for sure!

Comment / By Largo / July 10, 2010, 12:09 p.m.

Translation?

Comment / By Mollyo / July 10, 2010, 2:05 p.m.

OK, OK, so there is enough responsibility to go around. True dat I’m not entirely educated about what has led to the sad state of affairs RR is in at present. What I do believe is that a lot of folks have been laboring under a huge sense of entitlement, inflated egos, and belligerent opposition to the current management of said festival. It also seems clear that there has been a BIG problem with communication going on around there, and a sorry lack of cooperative energy. What I do know for certain is that my <3 is broken. Alas, it will heal, as it always has in the past. I just hope Tom manages to work through this mess and that the phoenix does indeed rise again. I wish I could put some love in the hearts of those peeps who seem dead set on hating and harming another human being or beings, not to mention the most awesome Reggae music fest that ever lived.

Comment / By the reasonable anonymous / July 10, 2010, 7:39 p.m.

MOLLYO said: “I’m not entirely educated about what has led to the sad state of affairs RR is in at present.”

Apparently not, especially because you go on to say:

“those peeps who seem dead set on hating and harming …the most awesome Reggae music fest that ever lived.”

Correction: The most awesome Reggae music fest that ever lived…and STILL lives, was and still IS the Mateel’s non-profit Reggae on the River which is all set to go, and will take place on three awesome days in August at Benbow.

Bruno and Dimmick’s Reggae Rising Ripoff was just an attempted privatization and profiteering scam by Dimmick and Bruno, who sought to destroy the Mateel’s non-profit Reggae on the River and replace it with their own for-profit monstrosity, which has now thankfully crashed and burned, due to a remarkable display of incompetence and malfeasonace by Tom Dimmick and possibly helped along by a bit of Karmic Payback.

Look, the guy not only failed to pay workers, vendors and other creditors for last year’s performance and then tried to bring in an outside company to run things so he wouldn’t have to pay those former workers and vendors — he even failed to pay what he owed to various public safety (police and fire) agencies, failed to pay the local school system for his use of their buses as shuttles, etc.

Meanwhile, the Mateel’s Reggae on the River, the original, continues on and has grown stronger every year, missing only the first year when Bruno and Dimmick pulled the rug out from under them at the last minute.

Unlike the imposter Reggae Rising Ripoff, the Mateel’s non-profit Reggae on the River has its permits, has paid all its bills and generated revenues for non-profit causes, maintains good working relationships with local public safety agencies, and is going ahead as scheduled at Benbow, with some 3,000 fans and a great line-up of performers over three days.

And the best part is, instead of lining the pockets of a couple of greedy individuals, all net proceeeds of Reggae on the River benefit the non-profit Mateel Community Center and all of its great programs here in the community!

Comment / By Exhausted / July 12, 2010, 2:21 p.m.

It seems to me that this whole thing is no longer about the music, the love, the spirit it brings, or the community it benefits and those organizations that are able to fundraise. It seems to me that this is an all out rule free cage fight RR vs. ROTR. It really is a sad affair and both sides are looking VERY childish and petty right now. I will enjoy ROTR just as much as I enjoyed RR last year and will probably attend ROTR from now because of this whole no refund debaucle. I don’t want to be taken advantage of anymore than the next guy but throwing stones when I myself am in a glass house (because lets face it we all have things in our past or present that we aren’t all that proud of) is no way to go about winning the war. RIP RR because after this I have a feeling that you will no longer be and enjoy the benefit ROTR because it seems you have persevered and I will be there to enjoy your wonderful celebration. Just try not to rub peoples faces in their own $h*t it is very unclassy.

Comment / By Mollyo / July 13, 2010, 12:09 p.m.

I don’t think the fat lady has sung her song just yet. If we want the first weekend in August to be as IRIE as it has been for the past 20 some odd years, people need to people need to change their attitudes and do something to help the situation. For ticket holders that feel cheated, what you can do is hold that ticket near to your heart and plan to use it next year. Everyone in the community needs to remember “the music, the spirit, the love,” and ask yourselves how you can help. There is room for RR and ROTR to thrive. The phoenix rises in Love and Respect, and I for one will do whatever I can to make sure of it.

Comment / By sosure / July 13, 2010, 2:15 p.m.

“hold that ticket near to your heart..”

That is the MOST HILARIOUS thing i have heard in a long time. Here i am, clutching my rr tckt close to MY HEART… ooooh i am feeling it! I am feeling the positive vibrations man. MMmmmmm my attitude is changin’ yea i feel it…

Good joke MollyO! Oh wait, you are actually serious aren’t you? What an insult to intelligence. Trust me, no amount of faith, positivity or attitude adjustment will clear up the karmic crud that enshrouds this hapless event.

Comment / By the reasonable anonymous / July 13, 2010, 7:56 p.m.

Better yet, let Reggae Rising fall for good, and work to rebuilf the original, NON-PROFIT Reggae on the River to a 3 day event with a larger audience.

I talked to a Park Ranger today, and he said that yesterday he had talked to Mrs. Arthur, owner of French’s Camp, where a large and vibrant NON-PROFIT Reggae on the River festival was held for many years According to the Ranger, in the wake of Dimmick’s Epic GREEDFAIL, Mrs. Arthur is seriously considering contracting with the Mateel to bring Reggae on the River back to that site for next year. From his description of their conversation it sounds like negotiations for the triumphant return of Reggae on the River to French’s Camp may already be underway.

If so, that would be great news for everyone… except a certain incompetent non-event organizer, reggae impressario-wannabe, and ticket-sales ripoff artist extraordinaire and his dwindling coterie of lackeys and cronies..

Comment / By Jane / July 14, 2010, 8:46 a.m.

I don’t think the fallout comes from a victorious attitude on the ROTR side at all. I think it comes from a lack of a sense of justice over the entire debacle. The media and planning authorities went with the smell of money, allowing both to be easily mislead and cajoled, at ROTR’s expense. It is hard to graciously say “…if you’d listened in the first place and put community above profiteering and special interests we wouldn’t have gone through all this bloodletting…” in a nice way.

It is nice to see the sun shining on the right event again and my own sense of justice has been restored even if that “justice” has taken time and been delivered in a more passive way than I had expected.

In a county with an underground economic system turning to the establishment to buffer against a highly corrupt special interest group isn’t very productive. Sad, but in my opinion, true of Humboldt County.

Hopefully lessons were learned all around on this one.

Comment / By Anonymous / Feb. 12, 2011, 9:05 a.m.

C’mon, guys! These comments used to be well moderated.