{"id":477,"date":"2020-05-13T22:18:22","date_gmt":"2020-05-13T22:18:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madwithpowerfest.com\/?p=477"},"modified":"2020-05-13T22:18:24","modified_gmt":"2020-05-13T22:18:24","slug":"mwp-2020-canceled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madwithpowerfest.com\/index.php\/2020\/05\/13\/mwp-2020-canceled\/","title":{"rendered":"MWP 2020 Canceled :("},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<div class=\"x-resp-embed x-is-video x-is-youtube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Mad With Power Fest is Canceled. \ud83d\ude25\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Jht7mbwTy8o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Sorry everyone.<br>Please watch the whole video for details on plans moving forward, refunds, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<br>Transcript:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Hey Everyone, this is Ty Christian AKA Fang VonWrathenstein. I\u2019m the singer for Lords of the Trident and the organizer and founder of the Mad With Power fest here in Madison, WI. This is certainly not a video I wanted to make, nor is it news I wanted to give. After a lot of really heartfelt consideration, and a lot of talking things through with the management at the venue, we\u2019ve decided it\u2019s best to cancel this year\u2019s fest. I\u2019m going to go a bit more into the reasoning behind this decision, as well as explain our refund policy AND let you know plans going forward, so please make sure to watch this whole thing. I know it\u2019s a little long, but it should answer all your questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So first off, why cancel this year\u2019s fest? Well, there were a number of things we had to take into consideration. Firstly, at the current moment, without a vaccine, bringing a large number of people from all over the world into the same space just seems REALLY negligent. We discussed things like masks, temperature checks at the door, and requiring spacing or even seating, and even with all that, it still didn\u2019t feel safe enough. Additionally, due to local laws in place, the venue may be required to limit the number of people through the door, or enforce a distancing rule which would greatly reduce the number of tickets we could sell. The capacity we advertised might suddenly NOT be the reality any more, and we might\u2019ve EVEN been in a situation where we would have to tell some people who had already bought tickets that they COULDN\u2019T come to the fest. And that would suck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Next, there\u2019s absolutely no possible way we could have any video games, arcade games, or pinball at the event. I mean, these are machines that are designed to be touched by everyone in attendance. You just can\u2019t do that. Now, could we have Mad With Power fest without the games? Yes, but that\u2019s a bit like having a theme park without a theme. Imagine if Disneyland suddenly was unable to have their characters running around. Sure, there\u2019s a good number of people who go to theme parks JUST for the rollercoasters, but you gotta admit, you\u2019re losing something. Same thing with Mad With Power. I\u2019d hate for this to be someone\u2019s first Mad With Power fest and not be able to take part in that atmosphere of games and metal. They just wouldn\u2019t understand what differentiates this fest from literally every other metal fest in the US. And *I* wouldn\u2019t want that. It\u2019s my job to create that atmosphere, and to make sure that everyone has as much fun as possible at the event. With the way things currently are, I just can\u2019t guarantee that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Finally, the financials. Running a fest during, or just shortly after this pandemic would put us in a situation where we might not be able to make enough money to actually pay the bands. Even if the local or federal governments say \u201ceverything is normal\u201d and \u201cgo back to business\u201d, you\u2019re still going to have a large chunk of society &#8211; myself included &#8211; that\u2019s going to be pretty wary about attending large events. And even after we have a vaccine, it\u2019s going to take us a while to feel comfortable in those large groups again. That rightful feeling of caution is going to kill off a majority of our random, walk-up ticket sales. I mean if the quarantine was lifted tomorrow and someone said \u201chey we\u2019re playing a show this weekend, wanna come?\u201d I\u2019d be like, \u201cNooo!\u201d and I won\u2019t be the only one who feels that way. We\u2019ll have people that will rightfully feel afraid to attend the fest and ask for a refund for their ticket. And in this crazy situation, who am I to deny that? Without time to heal and feel safe, we wouldn&#8217;t be able to put on an event like this and make enough money to break even. And I say \u201cwe\u201d here, but in reality I mean me. I cover all the costs for the event and I take on all the financial responsibility to make sure that the bands, the arcade owners, and everyone else gets paid. I\u2019ll admit: it\u2019s a gamble on my part, but we\u2019ve been able to pay our debts every year. And I want to make something clear here &#8211; I don\u2019t personally make any money from this event. We try to keep costs as low as possible and do things like absorb the \u201conline ticketing fees\u201d and whatnot so our friends and fans have a better experience. We pay bands as much as we can, and give the money upfront, because that\u2019s the way I feel it should be. Thankfully every year we\u2019ve come out a few hundred dollars ahead, and we use that money towards the next year\u2019s fest. Having this fest be a moneymaker is not a goal of mine. Our main goals are to foster relationships between up and coming bands, and to create that sense of \u201cfamily\u201d that\u2019s unmistakable at fests like these. You know, you plan to take this annual trip to see these people once per year, and it always feels like this incredible reunion. That sense of family and fellowship is my goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, other than the financial stuff, this decision boiled down to one thing: YOUR safety. Well not only your safety, but the safety of your loved ones, the bands, the staff, the volunteers, and everyone involved with this fest. Many of you know me personally, and you know that it would never sit right with me if someone got sick and died because of a decision to blindly push forward on the fest this year. It would be very difficult to forgive myself for that, and to NOT associate mad with power with that tragedy. This fest is too important to me &#8211; YOU are too important to me &#8211; because everyone who steps through those doors is either a fan, a friend, or family, and sometimes all three. And the last thing I\u2019d want is my actions causing any suffering for you. Music is a force that brings us together and I will NOT turn it into something that tears us apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So having said all that, here\u2019s where plans stand: we\u2019re going to be re-doing Mad With Power 4 (I guess it\u2019ll be Mad With Power 4.1) in August of next year. The exact dates are Friday and Saturday, August 27th and 28st in 2021. My goal and hope is that the lineup remains exactly the same. Many of this year\u2019s bands have already gotten back to me and have confirmed their attendance for next year. Bear in mind, it\u2019s still a ways out, so we may have some lineup changes, as a lot can happen in a year and a half, but I feel confident that the quality of the lineup will remain unchanged. You\u2019re still going to have a crap-ton of awesome bands and a bunch of amazing arcade and pinball games to play. Please make sure to mark your calendars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last and most important part &#8211; refunds. Here\u2019s what we\u2019re going to do: I thought about making tickets transferable to next year, but that&#8217;s going to be a logistical nightmare and might end up with us over capacity or with confusion at the door for our guests. Also, not a whole lot of people know exactly what they\u2019re going to be doing in a year and a half. So, tickets for this year will NOT be transferable to next year\u2019s fest. Instead, I\u2019ll be giving individual refunds via email request. So, I\u2019ll be honest &#8211; we had some expenses this year that I will not be able to recoup &#8211; for example, advertising and the like. It\u2019s&#8230;not exactly a small sum, but that\u2019s the risk I take putting on a fest like this. So I\u2019m going to have to cover that cost personally, out of my own pocket. The reason I\u2019m telling you this is that if you decide you DON\u2019T want a refund, I will put that money in the Mad With Power vault, and I will use it to cover any remaining costs for this year, or put it towards next year, to make next year\u2019s fest even better. You can be certain that all money will go towards keeping this fest alive and awesome. Now with that being said, I know times are tough for a lot of people right now, so please &#8211; do NOT feel bad about asking for a refund if you need it. A lot of people are out of work and could use extra cash right now, and I will not take it personally. If you want a refund, please ask.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To get a refund for your ticket, please email madwithpowerfest@gmail.com, with \u201crefund\u201d as the subject line. In the email, the more info you can give me, the better. At a minimum, please give me your full name and the email address you used to complete the purchase. If you have things like the order number, the ticket number, or the date you purchased your ticket, all those things are incredibly helpful, but not 100% necessary, so if you don\u2019t have them, don\u2019t fret. Also, please give me around a week to process your refund. I don\u2019t like to keep a lot of money in my paypal account, as I\u2019ve heard horror stories of paypal suddenly \u201cfreezing\u201d accounts, so I\u2019ll have to transfer cash back from the bank into paypal, which can sometimes take a few days. If you haven\u2019t received your refund in 7 business days, please feel free to email again for an update, and I\u2019ll let you know where I\u2019m at. Remember, I\u2019ll be accepting refund requests until the evening of August 13th, 2020. If you don\u2019t email by then, I\u2019ll assume you\u2019d like me to put your ticket money towards next year\u2019s fest, which again &#8211; is completely voluntary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, I mean: this sucks. This whole timeline sucks. It\u2019s not fun, and a lot of people are not having that great of a time right now. I really, REALLY did not want to make this decision, and hit you with more bad news, but I had to do this to keep you, your family, my family, and all the bands safe. I know none of this is my fault, but I\u2019m sorry. I know we\u2019ll get through this together, and I hope we can all share a conciliatory horn of mead next year. I\u2019ll deeply miss seeing all of you this year. Please take care of yourselves, please stay safe, and we\u2019ll see you next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sorry everyone.Please watch the whole video for details on plans moving forward, refunds, etc. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Transcript: Hey Everyone, this is Ty Christian AKA Fang VonWrathenstein. I\u2019m the singer for Lords of the Trident and the organizer and founder of the Mad With Power fest here in Madison, WI. This is certainly not a video I wanted to make, nor is it &#8230; <\/p>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/madwithpowerfest.com\/index.php\/2020\/05\/13\/mwp-2020-canceled\/\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":478,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madwithpowerfest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madwithpowerfest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madwithpowerfest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madwithpowerfest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madwithpowerfest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/madwithpowerfest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":479,"href":"https:\/\/madwithpowerfest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477\/revisions\/479"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madwithpowerfest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madwithpowerfest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madwithpowerfest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madwithpowerfest.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}