In an alternate universe, I would be rocking out right now, up at the Edenvale Airport, instead of sitting in my dining room hammering out this post. My ticket money has been completing refunded as of Wednesday (thank you, EventBrite!) so I am not out any $$$ because of Roxobust, unlike many others who spent thousands on airline tickets and hotels, yet…

Here is a list of concerts I took a pass on because of blowing the entertainment budget on Roxodus: The Killers, Muse, Florence & The Machine, The Black Keys, Arkells, Cheap Trick (who played last month in a wonderful venue close to me BUT WHY WOULD I GO SINCE I WOULD SEE THEM SOON AT ROXODUS…ARGH).

Looking at the bright side (or is it more the Sour Grapes Department? No matter): I wasn’t looking forward to seeing Kid Rock – probably would have left early that particular night. Also on the bright side: I hadn’t transferred any money electronically for food, drink and other festival purchases onto my “bracelet” for Roxodus’s cashless system, despite their urging concertgoers to do so right up to “the end”.

I am so impressed by those that stood up for the cheated fans. Particularly EventBrite, who stepped in to refund money to everyone who bought tickets. They did not have to do this. They were not obligated to do this. Yet they did the right thing for the music fans while Roxodus promoters did…uh, nothing. Nothing except make lame excuses and blame each other for the fiasco.

Huh…what happened to the “festival grounds too wet” excuse? Seems to have melted away as quickly as a morning frost in May...

Shout out also to other music festivals, who stepped up to offer free tickets to Roxodus ticket holders – you guys rock! So far Slamfest (in Kitchener last weekend) and WTFest (in Brantford later in July) have offered good numbers of free passes to those burned by Roxodus. I passed on Slamfest and already have a ticket to WTFest. I won’t be taking advantage of these offers…I have my money back so I prefer to let someone else have the chance to one of the free tickets.

I’ll still be up in the vicinity of Roxodus this weekend – CJ invited me to come up anyways, and hang out at her place at the Beach. So that’s where I’ll be heading after work tomorrow. And I’m delighted to do so.

I’m also delighted to see the shit raining down on the Roxodus promoters as the days go on. Bring. It. On. Yes, I am that type of person – call me The Widow Schadenfreude Badass. Not only is the OPP (Ontario Provincial Police) conducting an investigation, and EventBrite promising to aggressively pursue Roxodus for $$$…now the local conservation authority is investigating these guys for clearing hectares of trees off of the Roxodus property without the proper permits and approvals.

It’s kinda entertaining, to watch and read about all the blame-gaming and finger-pointing and mounting legal issues resulting from the collapse of this event. Not 4-days-worth-of-music-festival-entertaining…but one must take amusement where one can find it, in this ridiculous affair.

Perhaps this will result in a business school case study one day. Or a documentary. In the meantime, I am still mightily bummed and finding it hard to…

Rock on,

The WSB