In case you’ve been living under a rock the past few days, a stage collapsed at the Indiana State Fairgrounds. 5 dead and many injured.
Maroon 5 and Train were scheduled to perform at the fair this year. They were able to book another venue in Indianapolis (Conseco Fieldhouse) and all of the proceeds are going to a “Remembrance Fund” for those who died. Conseco Fieldhouse is also donating their proceeds to the Fund as well.
A separate shout-out to Women of Faith organization who was able to change their gathering so that Conseco was available to Maroon 5 and Train.
Lady Antebellum canceled her performance out of respect to those killed/injured; however, she also cancelled the contract with the Indiana State Fair so they did not have to pay her.
Janet Jackson also canceled her performance…but did NOT cancel her contract. She is still expecting to get paid for not performing. In light of the tragedy, that is just wrong on so many levels. Yes, she is legally in the right by holding them to their contract but seriously? What an ass.
MsRobyn, the only cite I have is an email from the State Fair to my employer advising us what to do for refunds. Because it involves my employer, I’m not able to share it here. I’m hoping this gets some publicity, though. Would it be in bad taste for the Fair to leak it to the press?
I’m guessing I misstated that…The Indiana State Fair would have been the one to cancel the performance because they no longer have the facility for her to perform.
I dunno; those are some pretty popular bands that she’s listed with. Sugarland, Lady Antebellum and Maroon 5 (at least) are at the top of their games. Which I guess is not to say that Janet is not desperate for cash; this isn’t a bottom of the barrel fair, though.
Sorry, but who, who and who? No offense to the bands, but they’re not nearly playing/known/ubiquitous as much as Ms. Jackson was. No fan of her or her genre, but I can’t imagine that state fairs are where she thought she’d be right now.
Oh, and no offense to state fairs–maybe they’re much bigger in the mid-west than the coasts.
No, but Ruby referred to Lady Antebellum as she and her, which sort of implies that Lady Antebellum is country’s answer to Lady Gaga. Which would be completely awesome, actually.
“Was” being the operative word there. As for Lady Antebellum, Maroon 5, and Sugarland, I assure you that they’re about the farthest thing in the world from obscure. I’m not a particular fan of any of them, but you’d have to be pretty insulated from pop culture to have not heard of them.
I’m not sure I understand the pitting. Jackson isn’t billing the families of the victims of the accident or anything, she’s billing the State Fair people. I don’t really see why she should feel morally impelled to let the Fair out of its contract. If anything, the Fairgrounds folks are the villains here, at least so far as they were responsible for the stage. I don’t see why anyone should go out of their way to shelter them from the economic consequences of that stage collapsing.
