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Category Archives: Capital Hoedown
Capital Hoedown suing Taylor Swift
In case things can’t get any weirder for Canadian country music fans, Capital Hoedown is back again in the news for all the wrong reasons. After failure to pay for the property rental for last year’s event, and acts had all cancelled their performances, Taylor Swift was paid… and, according to multiple reports today, she kept the $2.5 million.
The festival, which organizers couldn’t afford to pay the City of Ottawa for land rental, and are still in debt over 2011′s edition (including payment to the federal government for land rental), was supposed to have announced its lineup for 2013 last month. Their website no longer exists and any e-mails to Denis Benoit bounce.
It’s the ticket company, Front Gate Tickets, who are suing Taylor in a New York City court room. They’re saying that she shouldn’t have been paid as she never performed – and want $1.8 million, which covers the tickets they were forced to refund to fans, back. Taylor would still keep over $700,000 in profit if the lawsuit is successful.
The contract wasn’t written with the ticket company, according to Taylor’s side.
Meanwhile, we are still blocked from Capital Hoedown’s Facebook page, as are other members of the media. Capital Hoedown owner Denis Benoit promised media that there would be no press releases, no media passes, no interviews, and nothing given to the media at all this year in regards to the festival. There has been no announcement of a promised lineup for 2013, or even a venue.
Boots & Hearts To Honor Capital Hoedown Tickets
In an unprecedented, fan-centric gesture, Boots and Hearts Music Festival has announced that they will be honoring all general admission tickets that had been purchased for rival festival Capital Hoedown, which was to take place in Ottawa on the same weekend this year. Starting today, country music fans wanting to exchange their Capital Hoedown tickets for Boots & Hearts tickets can visit http://www.bootsandhearts.com/ticket-exchange to complete the process. A one-day pass from Capital Hoedown will be valid for a one-day pass at Boots and Hearts, and a three-day pass at Capital Hoedown will be valid for a three-day wristband at Boots and Hearts.
“It’s disappointing to invest time and money in anticipation of an exciting weekend of country music and not have a festival to attend,” said Shannon McNevan, partner and executive director at Republic Live, the producers behind Boots and Hearts. “A cancellation of this nature negatively affects the entire Ontario country music market, from the fans confidence to buy tickets in advance to the agents of global superstars being afraid to book their artists at our festivals in the future. We believe it’s in the best interest of everyone involved, and for the future of country music festivals in this market, to ensure that if you’ve already invested your money, you have a chance to enjoy what you paid for. For this reason, we’re happy to give all Hoedown ticket holders that have not received refunds the opportunity to come and experience Boots and Hearts with us this year.”
Fans will need to provide four items for the exchange to work: ticket order number, first and last name of original ticket purchaser, e-mail address, and a phone number. Fans have until August 3rd at 5 pm EST to apply for the ticket exchange so that organizers can help prepare the festival for the new influx of crowds. A small service fee will apply to ticket exchanges. VIP tickets purchased for the Capital Hoedown can be upgraded to VIP tickets for Boots & Hearts at a nominal fee.
Boots and Hearts Music Festival will be taking place in Bowmanville, Ontario on August 10th to the 12th and will feature performances by some of the biggest names in country music, including: Carrie Underwood, Lionel Richie, Tim McGraw, Lauren Alaina, Terri Clark, Kevin Costner, Big & Rich and many more. For more information visit bootsandhearts.com.
The Day The Music Died in Ottawa
Dear readers,
When we first started this country music blog, we started out as a site for fans by fans. We listen to what our fans and readers are wanting to hear from us, what features they’d want to see, and even which artists they’d love to see interviewed. The first music festival Jessica and I ever covered together was Capital Hoedown last year, which featured acts like Carrie Underwood, Kenny Chesney, Rascal Flatts, and Miranda Lambert among many talented acts. We were the first ones reporting the Carrie-Miranda live duet/mash-up of “Before He Cheats” with “Gunpowder & Lead” at the festival which helped propel us into being one of Canada’s leading resources for all things country music. Since that August weekend, Capital Hoedown has always been one of the highlights of our brand and we always put an extra shout-out to the festival when discussing artists this year.
This year’s line-up for Capital Hoedown was to be even bigger: with promises of Taylor Swift, Reba McEntire, Ronnie Dunn, Sheryl Crow and Brad Paisley. When I was at the line-up announcement I was more than excited over the line-up organizers had made. We interviewed Concert International CEO, and Capital Hoedown organizer, Denis Benoit back in December before the Christmas rush and he promised in the interview that tickets would be sold-out by Christmas so fans needed to get them asap for this fantastic line-up, saying that they were selling “extremely well.” Tickets weren’t sold-out, and were still on-sale throughout this year. Read our interview with Denis right here on Keepin’ it Country.
Being a fan-first site, we read every Tweet, Facebook message, wall post, and e-mail sent in to us by readers. When we started to get a few mentions and messages from fans asking us what was going on with the Capital Hoedown as some artists had removed the date from their website’s tour pages, we reached out to our friends in those artist teams to inquire about the missing dates. Once we started to receive confirmations that those artists were out, with the okay to post the news, we did so. What happened next is a sea of press interviews, camera time, and paper mentions for our site with Canadian, and American, media and radio stations as we were the first ones to even realize that something was up. We received a “seize and desist” (sic – not ‘cease’) from Denis quickly after our confirmation from artist teams that they were pulling out with promises of “serious legal action” against our site for posting the information. Nothing else ever came from that e-mail as everything we’ve posted has been factual and 100% confirmed, and after speaking with American and Canadian attorneys, we were perfectly fine to post the information.
Read more below:
Taylor Swift Removes Capital Hoedown Date From Site
Although several of the artists that comprised the star-studded lineup for this year’s Capital Hoedown backed out last week, the festival is still looking to move ahead.
However, although not confirmed, they may just have to do that without the performance of Taylor Swift after the Ottawa date was removed from her official website. Although the Hoedown site still lists Swift as appearing, it also lists several other artists that have backed out, including Brad Paisley, Reba McEntire, Ronnie Dunn, The Band Perry and Terri Clark.
Yesterday, Hoedown founder Denis Benoit stated that changes to the artist lineup will be announced shortly. In addition, he was quoted saying, “We can assure everyone that there will be favourable additions to the line-up that fans will be pleased with.”
The statement also made clear that the show will now take place at an undisclosed venue that will be announced soon, but Benoit assures it is a large private site only minutes away from the original location. Last week, the City of Ottawa cancelled its agreement with Hoedown to host the event at Walter Baker Park due to a payment that was never made to the City.
Ticketholders who are no longer interested will be able to receive refunds starting June 19th.
Stay tuned as we will let fans know the new venue and changes to the lineup as they are made available to us.
Capital Hoedown Permit Pulled
We just received an e-mail from The City of Ottawa indicating that Capital Hoedown has never paid their $150,000 payment to the city, and therefore, their special event permit has been terminated. Capital Hoedown will not be able to proceed on city property in Ottawa. Here’s the e-mail and remember to leave us your thoughts. The e-mail is from Ottawa’s Media Relations Manager, Barre Campbell.
Capital Hoedown has a 3-day Special Event Agreement with the City of Ottawa. Capital Hoedown has an outstanding unpaid payment of $150,000. On May 24, Capital Hoedown informed the City that a wire transfer of $150,000 into the City’s account had been made that day. Accordingly, the City’s understanding was that Capital Hoedown organizers had met current financial obligations ($150,000). It takes time to process and verify this type of payment. The City’s Finance Department was in contact with Capital Hoedown organizers on the wire issue of the transfer in order to ensure receipt.
After spending considerable time investigating, it was clear that the money was never sent to the City contrary to what was indicated earlier by the organizers of Capital Hoedown. Capital Hoedown organizers were contacted by the City yesterday and informed that they had until 4 p.m. today to provide a certified cheque in the amount of $150,000 for City services. Capital Hoedown organizers have not met that condition.
Therefore, the City has terminated the Special Event Agreement and Capital Hoedown organizers will not have the authorization to proceed with this event on City property.
Reba McEntire & The Band Perry Tour Updates
With touring season kicking off for country music over the next few weeks, fans are marking down special dates in their calenders to travel to see some of their favorite artists.
While Reba McEntire might not be touring as much these days as she’s filming her new sitcom “Malibu Country,” country music’s Queen still has a busy enough schedule. With only a handful of dates set so far for 2012, she modified her tour schedule this morning to take out one Canadian date – her Ottawa, August 10th headlining date. See Reba’s tour dates here. The next tour date for the Oklahoma native is June 8th in Thackerville, OK.
The Band Perry, who are opening for Brad Paisley‘s “Virtual Reality Tour” also made a change to their tour calender today. The superstar sibling trio also no longer list their Ottawa date in support of Brad, which was scheduled for August 12th. The trio have a busy year ahead of them, and we’ll be at their fan club party next week at CMA Fest! Their next tour date in support of Brad is Friday night at Jones Beach, New York. They’ll also be making a stop on the TODAY show on Friday, so keep an eye on NBC in the morning to catch the group!
We’ll be at CMA Fest next week in Nashville – country music’s party of the year. What are you most looking forward to next week?
UPDATE: Terri Clark has also removed her Ottawa date from her tour page. She is now listed as part of the Boots & Hearts festival on the same date, August 12th. The Hoedown, however, still lists all acts – even Ronnie Dunn, whom we had confirmed exclusively has cancelled his date.
Ronnie Dunn Cancels Capital Hoedown Appearance
Country music legend Ronnie Dunn has pulled out of Ottawa’s Capital Hoedown line-up this Summer, Keepin’ it Country has confirmed. The former half of Brooks & Dunn was set to open up for Reba McEntire in Canada’s capital on August 10th at 7:30 pm EST. While Ronnie will not be making a performance as part of Capital Hoedown, he hopes to visit the nation’s capital in the future. We have no other information on the status of other performers at Capital Hoedown as of yet.
Capital Hoedown was granted two extensions over the last week to pay a $150,000 fee to the City of Ottawa for rental of city-owned property at this year’s festival. They were able to meet their financial obligation at the last minute yesterday, when their second extension was set to expire. Ottawa’s Capital Hoedown is still scheduled to run from August 10th to the 12th in Walter Baker Park.
Ronnie’s current single “Let The Cowboy Rock” is out on radio right now. He released a special edition of his album to Cracker Barrel stores this week, featuring eleven songs that were on his debut self-titled solo release last year, and two previously unreleased tracks. A portion of the sales to this Deluxe Edition will go towards the Wounded Warrior Project.
Capital Hoedown Still On
After rumors were circulating around Ottawa the last week, we have exclusively confirmed with the City of Ottawa that the Capital Hoedown is still on. Organizers of Capital Hoedown Country Music Festival in Ottawa were unable to meet their payment deadline with the City of Ottawa last week, and were given an extension until 4 pm EST today to pay the $150,000 owed to the City for usage of city-owned property during the festival.
We reached Dan Chenier, Manager of Parks, Recreation, and Cultural Services with the City of Ottawa about the deadline the festival had to meet today, and he confirmed that organizers were able to make the $150,000 payment this afternoon. In a statement by Dan Chenier, he says:
The City of Ottawa works with all festival and event organizations to assist in the logistics of staging such events. We work with these organizations while, at the same time, protecting the interest of taxpayers. The City granted an extension to organizers of Capital Hoedown to meet financial obligations. The deadline was end of day today.
Organizers have met current financial obligations ($150,000), which is in addition to money already provided in March ($72,000). Hoedown has confirmed the wire transfer of $150,000 was made this afternoon to the city.
Rumors began circulating when fans noticed that headliners Brad Paisley, Ronnie Dunn and Sheryl Crow had removed Ottawa from their tour date pages. As reported in the Ottawa Sun yesterday, organizers were granted an extension until today to pay for the rental space for the Hoedown which left many fans questioning on Twitter and Facebook if the festival was still on.
This year’s line-up includes the only North American date for Taylor Swift, as well as The Band Perry, and Reba McEntire. Single day tickets are sold-out but 3-day passes are still available on capitalhoedown.net.
Capital Hoedown Showdown Returns
Returning for a second year to Ottawa’s Capital Hoedown is a competition that any independent artist and their band will be looking forward to. Festival organizers and ourstage.com are teaming up for the second consecutive year to give an undiscovered country artist the chance to open up for some of the biggest names in country music when they come to Canada in August. Capital Hoedown is a three-day country music festival taking place in Ottawa, Canada through August 10th to the 13th, and features headliners Reba McEntire, Brad Paisley, and Taylor Swift.
The 2011 edition of Capital Hoedown Showdown gathered over 192,000 judging battles for 101 Canadian artists. Thanks to last year’s popularity, for the first time the competition will be opened to artists both in Canada and the United States. The winning act will open up for Taylor Swift on August 11th – which is her only North American date this year! Anyone interested in competing, or judging, can visit ourstage’s competition website for this festival.
“Capital Hoedown Showdown is a fun, friendly competition giving aspiring country artists the chance to play at Canada’s biggest country music festival,” said Denis Benoit, President and CEO of Concert International Inc. “Last year’s winner, WYATT, received international exposure for their participation and they had the privilege to perform on the same stage as Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, Rascal Flatts and Carrie Underwood.”
Artists and bands can submit their original country music from now on through June 25th, 2012 through Ourstage.com. Judging will begin on the website starting on May 17th. At the end of the first round on July 2nd, the top 100 entries will move on to the semi-finals in round 2. The top 40 entries will then move on to round 3 after July 16th with continued voting from fans on the competition website. The grand prize winner will be selected from the top 40 entries by a judging panel. The winning band or artist will receive a set during the festival before Taylor Swift’s show. Entries will be judged on originality and creativity, presentation, melody, vocal ability, lyrics, and music, and, entertainment value.
Meet Sheryl Crow at the Capital Hoedown!
It’s the most exciting time of the year for country music fans, with some of the largest music festivals in the world taking place this Summer in North America. Canada’s largest country music festival, Capital Hoedown, in Ottawa, Ontario features a superstar line-up including Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift, and Reba McEntire. Right now, Capital Hoedown is giving fans the chance to meet one of music’s legends – Sheryl Crow – at the Hoedown in a special contest running on their Facebook page. The winner will also receive three-day general admission passports to the whole festival!
It’s easy to enter and fans only need to follow three steps: “like” Capital Hoedown on Facebook, find out what song she’s singing in the Capital Hoedown promotional video on Youtube, and to fill in your contact information on the Hoedown’s Facebook contest form. Good luck! The contest ends April 23rd, 2012 at 11:59 pm.
Capital Hoedown runs August 10th through to the 12th at Walter Baker Park in Ottawa, Ontario.
