The Monterey Festival that brought you Canned Heat, Buddy Guy, Delbert McClinton and Joe Bonamassa has filed Chapter 7 bankruptcy listing itself as $290,000 in debt.President of the Fest Julie Paisant stated that they did not get the sponsorships and donations they had expected and listed numerous factors that contributed to the filing. rising costs, the downturn in the economy and a less than anticipated crowd at this year’s festival.” Chapter 7 administrator will determine if any of the festival’s assets can be liquidated to pay creditors.
Paisant listed three factors contributing to the bankruptcy, “saying rising costs, the downturn in the economy and a less than anticipated crowd at this year’s festival” led to the failing.
“We just kept digging ourselves deeper and deeper,” Paisant said. “We’ve done everything. We cut expenses by 65 percent. We gave our own money (to the festival) as a board. We didn’t know what else to do.”
“I would hope people would continue to support blues music, because it’s such an amazing part of our American history,” Paisant said. “If there is a blues festival that comes out, I’ll be out there supporting it as everyone supported our festival.”
After 27 years it’s a tough goodbye. I find it hard to believe that the legends wouldn’t come together to bail this infamous institution out. A night of profit would wipe this nearly clean. Which leads me to believe there is a bit more politics involved than is currently being divulged. Regardless, RIP MBBF.