I don’t even know how this is possible, but they are still talking about our Blackout in Burlington almost 2 months after it happened.   In fact the Burlington Free Press launched a full investigation into the Barstool Blackout Tour and ran their expose as the front page story in Sunday’s paper.   I’m talking they went through 300 emails, texts etc from us to them and all the inner workings of what happened with city officials etc.  Everything.  It’s actually kind of wild and fascinating stuff.   It also vindicates everything I’ve ever said about the Blackout Tour and pubic officials in general.   We come out smelling like roses and Hayseed Weinberger comes out looking like a bafoon.  This is kind of a long blog so if you don’t like reading about the Blackout Tour just shut up, move along and buy a tshirt.    For the rest of you enjoy….

 

 

 

All italicized quotes from Burlington Free Press

Sunday, Oct. 21

The city begins to react on Sunday, two days folowing the event, after the Free Press is tipped off to the troubles and calls to inquire about the response by police and firefighters. Deputy Police Chief Andi Higbee sends an e-mail to a mayoral aide, Mike Kanarick, at 4:41 p.m. saying the Free Press has called.

By 5:51 p.m., the mayor responds and clearly is not happy based on his short investigation. He texts: “Good — it is crazy this was approved — web site is ridiculous… Please try to figure out exactly what happened with approval — the details matter and time is short to get in story.”

Shortly before 8:30 p.m., a one-page talking points sheet is prepared as mayor responds to Burlington Free Press questions.Among other things, the mayor notes, “It is unacceptable that at (sic) event that promotes and generated this level of dangerous intoxication happened in a City-owned property.”

So essentially what these emails and texts show is that Mayor Weinberger didn’t even know our concert happened until 2 days after it was over and that was only when a reporter who could have been tipped off by anybody on the planet (feminisst, ugly chick, old neighbor) called to complain about it.  I would think if the concert was as big a problem as Mayor Weinberger made it out to be he would have heard about it sooner than 48 hours after it was over.  Honestly name another event that could be portrayed as disasterous as this one was that occurs right in the middle of the city and the Mayor wouldn’t hear about it until a reporter asks him 2 days later.

Anyway roughly 1 hour after hearing about it for the first time Mayor Hayseed Weinberger has already said it’s crazy this event was approved.  Why?  Because according to him our “website is ridiculous”.  His words not mine.  He also says he needs any details anybody can get him quickly to help build his case against us even though he has no idea the facts of the case yet.  This confirms what I’ve said all along.   Us being banned had nothing to do with the safety of our event.  That decision was made before the Mayor even knew what happened.  It’s just that Hayseed Weinberger doesn’t think our website is funny and that’s all there is too it.   There is no other explanation for it.  I mean he didn’t hear about any issues for 2 days yet somehow only 1 hour after being asked a question about it he has already decided it should have never happened simply based on reading our blog. Then within a mere 4 hours he has already decided he needs to hold a press conference to villafy us despite the fact he openly admits he has not talked to anybody at Memorial about the event and what actually transpired.  Seems fair.

Monday, Oct. 22

At 12:07 a.m., Weinberger is still doing more background research on Barstool. In a note to Bridges, he cites one of its promotional items that says, “It’s 10 years of building a party brand. There is a reason we get banned and nobody else does. Because we party harder, stronger and better than everybody else. Deal with it.”

At 5:45 a.m., Bridges responds: “Trying to get banned is an interesting business plan.”

 

Once again more proof that Hayseed Weinberger and the rest of the Burlington Vermont officials are basing their entire press conference and actions on what our website says rather than on the actual event. The Burlington Free Press even points out how they are pulling information from our promotional materials.  It would be like banning a Monster Truck Rally because they say “MAYHEM MAYHEM MAYHEM” in the commercials.  The fact that our entire website is hyperbole is completely overlooked.   IE – If we say we are going to burn a city to the  ground that doesn’t mean we plan on literally lighting the city on fire with kindling and shit. A concept that Mayor Hayseed Weinberger doesn’t seem to grasp probably due to the fact he just looked at our website for the first time yesterday.

 MONDAY Oct 22nd

At 12:07 p.m., Auditorium manager Campbell, reports he’s found broken glass in an upper men’s room after the concert.

GASP!

Findings from the Investigation

 Among the findings by the Burlington Free Press in its review of 294 pages of public records compiled by the city attorney’s office:

• The Barstool Blackout Tour operators had warned the city of Burlington in April that it would hear unfavorable comments, most likely from the University of Vermont, and be pressured to cancel the Oct. 19 show. The organizers maintained other sites will “attest to the fact that we put on safe, smooth events.”

I’m actually pretty proud of this part.   It just speaks to the professionalism of what we do and never get credit for.  Just like we do before every event we book, we lay out all the problems our shows can encounter.   The last thing we want is a venue not be prepared for us because that’s when we run into issues  If the venue is run properly we never have any issues.   We’ve done 100 flawless shows.  We’ve done 3 that didn’t go smooth.  We don’t do anything different.  The crowd is the same everywhere we go.  It’s just some venues aren’t prepared for EDM shows and will yes you to death and you don’t realize how mickey mouse they are until it’s too late.

We have no problem if a venue doesn’t want the event.  We just want to make sure EVERYBODY knows what they are booking.  We know there are naive morons like Hayseed Weinberger who will take one look at our website and say we are the Antichrist and they will distort facts and make it seem like chicks dancing in Neon to loud music is the devils work.  That’s why we bend over backwards to make sure venues understand this before they book us and won’t cave to this pressure.   We did this same thing with Memorial Auditorium.   Unfortunately nobody consulted Hayseed Weinberger first to find out that he was morally opposed to it because that’s the only reason we are running into these issues right now.  But nobody can say we weren’t forthright because we were.  We double and triple checked before they signed the contract.

The Mayor Seeks Political Advise on How To Deal With Barstool Sports After Press Conference Debacle

The records also give insight into the Weinberger administration’s efforts to fashion a message in the days after the Barstool concert. The mayor sent an email to Burlington attorney Eric Miller, to political consultant Andrew Savage and to aide Michael Kanarick asking for feedback on a statement from the event promoter on Oct. 23. David Portnoy, the road show’s president, had gone online that day with harsh criticism of Weinberger, calling him an “out-of-touch, power hungry lunatic” and a “hayseed.”  The city in its public records response did not provide any responses to the mayor from Miller, Savage or Kanarick. Weinberger declined interview requests by the Free Press and other media outlets who were asking him about Portnoy’s comments.The mayor’s office eventually issued a three-sentence statement. Weinberger said he would not respond to the comments and that Barstool’s “shortcomings speak for themselves.” He also promised to follow through on a new policy for renting city spaces.

By far the highlight of the entire expose and maybe the highlight of my blogging career.  Yeah I know Burlington is a small town.  I know Mayor Weinberger is a hayseed.  But the fact that he needed to consult a political adviser to figure out how to respond to me is downright hilarious.  Like I thought when he said “he would not respond to the comments and that Barstool’s “shortcomings speak for themselves” he was speaking off the cuff.  Nope!  The dude was so rattled that he needed to have a statement crafted for him and they won’t release any of the emails on what they talked about in how to respond.  BAHAHAHA!   You got to love politicians!   Hey Weinberger you don’t have to wonder what I’m really thinking or who you’re really talking to when you deal with me.  I don’t have a team of tacticians in here plotting my next move.  Hell I’m writing this as I go. On the other hand you’re a fucking fraud and a squid and this proves it.   Be a man and speak for yourself coward.  Or at the very least hire better political consultants because that statement sucked.

MY SUMMARY OF THIS EXPOSE

Anyway in closing here is my summary of this 300 page expose by the Burlington Free Press.  Mayor Weinberger didn’t even know we did the event until 48 hours after it was over.  He only found out about it when a reporter who could have been tipped off by anybody with an axe to grind vs. us (and there are thousands of them) asked him a question about it.   One hour after hearing about it for the first time and even though he had not spoken to anybody at the event and had no real details he had already decided it should never have been approved and was going to hold a press conference lambasting us.  He made this decision simply because he thought our “web site was ridiculous. ”

Hey if Mayor Weinberger wants to ban us because he hates our website that’s fine.  Just be a man about it and say the real reason. Don’t hire political consultants to spin the story. Stop pointing to these imaginary issues that simply didn’t exist and that have no facts to back them up.   Mayor Weinberg doesn’t like our website.  He said it himself. He doesn’t think the jokes are funny.  He thinks women should wear burkas when they go out in public.  He thinks he is smarter and morally superior to everybody in Burlington and only he can say what type of entertainment college kids can enjoy and this isn’t up to snuff for his tastes.  That’s what this boils down to.   Sure it may be illegal and against the First Amendment to come out and say that, but at least I’d respect him for it instead of being a coward hiding behind false allegations about what a debacle it was. Because for all the talk about drunkenness and mayhem there were 16 kids detained by the cops out of 2500 at a college party.   That is .0064 percent of the crowd.  There was 600 dollars of boos sold during the night.  Oh and there was broken glass in the men’s room.   All this nonsense has literally been over nothing. It’s like I’ve said from the beginning with this fiasco. Nothing happened.   The facts back us up.  They don’t back him up.  Nobody was more surprised by the backlash than us and now we see it was 100% political.  That’s the nuts and bolts of it.  And in the future when I say we burned Burlington to the ground this is exactly what I mean, but I’m sure that will be used against us by some new mayor in some new town. Viva La Stool indeed!