A day after Gary Foust talked about ticket sales that missed the mark by half, he was back on the phone with me discussing the negative tone of my story on the Country Roundup.
"I thought it was awfully negative and we’re trying to be positive," he said. "It’s our intent to be back next year. It’s not our plan to pull out of this."
Twelve hours after a pretty candid interview, he was calling back to say he wished I could put out a story that highlighted the positives and put people’s minds at ease about the festival. He went a step further when he spoke with the Courier and denied what I’d written on NewsCow.
"That information is not true. We haven’t put out any statement about low ticket sales or anything negative like that. I am not sure why someone would write that," Foust told the Courier.
Well, that’s what I wrote Gary because that’s what you said. Foust told me multiple times that ticket sales were less than expected, that walk up, gate traffic was bad and that it was unclear whether there would be a show next year.
Then I figure an investor or someone else with stake in the Roundup spoke with Foust and now everything is all sunshine and roses.
I spoke with Foust about the story and asked him to address any factual inaccuracies. He assured me that comments attributed to him were accurate.
He did say that he wanted to add that even though ticket sales fell short of pre-festival goals, it was the most paid attendance the festival has had. Foust considers the show a success and said the plan is to bring it back for another year.
"Just because we fell short of a goal for tickets doesn’t mean the show itself was a failure," he said. "It was a success."
However, he did acknowledge that given what was spent on acts and how much the Roundup tried to revamp, the festival should’ve sold more tickets. He told me in the first interview that those in the industry told him he should have been able to sell 6,000 tickets with the lineup the festival had.
He also said the show had to get more sponsors and that that would be key to offsetting the cost of acts.
Foust also took issue with a statement by city commissioner Phil Jarvis about money owed the city by the Roundup. He said he was confused by that and felt the Roundup had lived up to every agreement made with the city.
I have a call in to City Hall to check on the money issue, I’ll let you now what I find out.
But, I fully stand by the initial story I wrote and feel it to be a very accurate portrayal of the discussion I had with Foust by phone Wednesday.
