Motive Events


There are lots of positive things about the electronic dance music scene but I feel that in the long run the pros do outweigh the cons. However, this isn't an overarching analysis of the entire genre and movement. This article is a cautionary tale about anyone interested in going to a production put on by Motive Events, whose most notable yearly parties are the 420 Festival and The Lost City of Atlantis (or, known to most as simply Atlantis).

Let me tell you a little bit about "Motive Events" (website here). I'd go into more detail about Motive Events, but the fact of the matter is that there is almost zero information about the company. No phone numbers, no address, no background info, nothing. The most you can get is a few email addresses and after some research I've found the names Paul Ahi, Jeff Ryan and Jovan Brooks publicly posted on Motive Event's Facebook page. So, if you have any reason the talk to them about, I don't know, their flagrant mistreatment of their fans or their greedy, snobbish subhuman tenancies, you might try Facebook as your medium of communication.

Motive Events hides itself through the shroud of anonymity provided by the Internet and avoids criticism in this manner. I am writing this blog to fight fire with fire and provide a public source of Motive's activities, so that the consumers of electronic music festivals can have an informed choice in deciding if Motive Events is a company they truly want to support. I have nothing to gain by writing this and do so only to educate.

Let me spell out in chronological order the night of their most recent event, The Lost City of Atlantis 2011, which took place the night of Saturday, September 10th at the Oak Canyon Park in Irvine, CA.

Thursday before the event, roughly 2pm:
Motive cuts one hour from the scheduled event time, one whole stage (there was originally three, meaning one third of the performances were instantly removed) and truncates the physical area of the venue. Motive vaguely cites police influence. The original announcement Motive Events made (which was never found on their official website, only on their Facebook page and was removed less than two days after it was originally posted) can be found here. Here's a noteworthy sentence:

"The rising police and security costs have forced us to make changes to our "Atlantis Festival". We will be combining area 2 and area 3 in order for the police to "contain the event safely" and to cut down on city fees and over time reimbursement."

Motive clearly states that they aren't OK with paying for the amenities (in this case, security and police coverage) needed to house the event that they proposed. Do everyone and yourself a favor and do your homework next time, Motive. I threw more organized parties my freshman year of college in my dorm.

Disdain erupts from ticket holders in response to this Facebook comment. The kicker of the situation is that Motive did not even tell people which acts were cut at the time. People asked in the comments section if specific artists were still going to perform. Like a mysterious wizard, Motive replied abruptly and periodically to answer some individual questions about specific artists. They said a final, revised schedule would be released that same night on their official web site.

That same night:
No schedule was given. No excuse was given for the absence of the schedule.

One group set to perform, Heatbeat, had this to say on its Facebook page:

"We will like to announce that after a lot of effort to have some news from the Motive Events promoters, and after chasing them for a while to send us the money and flights that we agreed on contract, its impossible for us to presents us this saturday at Atlantis Festival."

Hmm.... can't say I'm surprised with Motive's professional behavior (or lack thereof) at this point. Because of the relevant criticisms of Motive of its Facebook wall, Motive removes the comment section and makes it invisible. Nice PR move Motive!

Friday, roughly 2pm:
Motive enthusiastically unveils HALF of the lineup and set times on its Facebook page (not on the official web site, where it was supposed to be). For some people this is progress, for others infuriating. Ticket holders wanted to know the lineup so they knew which performances were cut. With half of the lineup still up in the air Motive Events wasn't calming any nerves nor having any semblance of crisis management.

The day of the event:
Motive Events releases the rest of the lineup. There are still open spaces citing that a nondescript "opening DJ" would be performing. Many headliners that had been advertised for months were dropped. The official website of Motive Events even to the day of me writing this has not been updated to reflect any of the changes made in the few days prior to the event.

Motive offers no ticket refund options and adopts the "I-don't-care-I-screwed-you-I-have-your-money-anyway" attitude. Motive representatives fail to respond to any direct questions on the Facebook page. The comments of the ticket holders are distressed and distrusting.

Day of the event, 5:30pm
I am one of such ticket holders. I pull into Oak Canyon Park and am forced to pay a $20 fee for parking in an unguarded, poorly lit dirt lot adjacent to the venue.

6:00pm
I traverse the giant dust pit and join a line that is four people thick and roughly five hundred people long. The line move in two step increments about every 15 minutes. Security forces patrol the line and allow rampant cutting near the front as they announce via megaphone that an "express" line is available for an additional $20.

8:00pm
I am near the front of the line. The megaphone announcers are now advertising a $10 express line fee. The line near the will call booth and security pat-down area is now roughly ten people thick. A chant of "let us in" erupts from the crowd. People are pushing the fences. The line slows considerably.

9:00pm
I am at the front of the line. I overhear that entrance to the express line once again costs $20. A single 300-pound security guard is checking IDs. Since my ticket is will call and behind the entrance I have to painfully wait my turn to get past the tattooed rave bouncer twice because I have to loop back after getting my ticket. I hear someone else tell this problem to the security guard who articulated back, "I don't give two shits."

9:20pm
I finally enter the event. The stages are painfully close together and set up in the worst phonetic way possible. The two stages are adjacent to each other and the vast majority of the area allows the clear audibility of both people playing at the same time. Production value is nonexistent, as the only thing Motive Events bothered to do to make the event was set up some garbage cans and chain link fences. Set times, stage names and performance lists were completely absent. There were roughly 2,500 attendees at the peak hours.

1:00am
Headliner Miles Dyson does not appear at his scheduled time or at all during the Atlantis festival. Even after cutting a selection of artists, Motive Events still could not get their schedule straight.

2:00am
The event ends. I overhear many different people talking about how they will never ever come to another Motive event. It takes over an hour to leave the venue due to traffic.

----

The rave scene deservedly gets a lot of media flak. However, it's not the music fans that wholly give the scene a bad name. It's largely the corrupt, unreachable, unorganized and unprofessional promoters that can't secure an event to save their lives. Motive Events needs to start acting like a grown-up organization and maybe local politics will treat it like one. It is by far the most shining example of capitalistic greed I've come upon in my personal experience and it demonstrates nothing but neglect and negligence to the very ticket holders that bring the promotion company revenue.

Even at the time I am writing this, no update, apology or release was given by Motive Events regarding the outcome and poor planning of the party.

If you support Motive Events, you are saying you don't want to be treated like a human being. You are saying you don't want respect and you don't need your time, money and interests to be valued. You are saying you are OK with being misled and deceived and that you have no problem with those with authority abusing you for financial gain.

Do not support Motive Events.

Motive keeps deleting my  link to this web site off of their Facebook page. Please support me by reposting it here so other people can read this and be informed and please join this Facebook group dedicated to spreading information about the worst "company" ever.


UPDATE:
It has come to my attention that Motive Events is cleaning all the negative press off of their Facebook wall so I've taken the liberty of saving some of the more elegant and noteworthy posts:


"The production value last night was complete shit, let alone the organization, or should i say lack there of.... i hope you guys tank it hard."

"who do i contact to get my money back?"

"Maybe they were losing money on the event and all this was a last ditch effort to break even. Maybe they just got greedy. Either way, when all was said and done, I felt used. I felt dirty. We all got played. Never again motive, never again"


"FUCKIN' FAIL EVENT!!! Make everyone to pay $20 for parking!! Intentionally to make everyone wait at least 2-3 hours to get in and then charge another $20 for parking, what a joke!!"

"motive, you need to take responsibility for your actions i don't know what the hell happened yesterday and would expect your company to provide answers... you seem to think that what you are doing is going to slide and all things that we have to say don't matter. I am appalled at the lack of communication, shadiness, false advertising, unprofessionalism, lack of communication, lack of organization, just the general lack of everything that should have been provided to ME your CUSTOMER..."

"you dun goof'd, Motive"