DARRINGTON – By all accounts, it was a cheap trick or worse.
After classic rock bands flew across the county to play in the Darrington Rock Festival last August, the concert organizer, an ex-convict, refused to pay them. Bands Cheap Trick, Savoy Brown and several other headliners walked away without playing, disappointing an estimated 2,000 ticket holders.
Five months later, the organizer, Brian Burkel, is under investigation for fraud. No criminal charges have been filed. People hired to help run the concert accuse him of knowingly writing thousands of dollars worth of bad checks and skipping out of town without paying dozens of workers.
At least one artist, former Grand Funk Railroad singer Mark Farner, would like to sue Burkel. However, Farner’s attorney, Fred Wilhelms, said he can’t locate Burkel and consequently can’t serve him with a lawsuit.
Burkel, who has a Maple Valley address, could not be reached for comment on this story. Several phone numbers and e-mail addresses associated with him in the past have been disconnected.
In the weeks after the concert, deputies from the Snohomish County Sheriff’s Office were unclear on whether they would investigate Burkel’s behavior at the concert.
The department has since assigned a fraud detective to the case, sheriff’s spokesman Rich Niebusch said.
“They are going to pursue criminal charges if possible,” he said. “The suspect has since allegedly moved to China, which will make prosecution a bit difficult, but that’s where we’re at.”
After the concert flopped, a spokeswoman with the Washington Attorney General’s Office said disgruntled ticket holders could file complaints with her office and someone would look into the matter.
However, the office has not been able to follow through because it can not locate Burkel, spokeswoman Kristin Alexander said. People who complained to the attorney general were sent a letter informing them that the promoter is believed to have left the state.
Some ticket holders have received refunds through their credit card companies. Others haven’t been so lucky.
Dean McMullin of Everett spent $85 to see Cheap Trick play. He hasn’t received a refund and doesn’t expect to.
He remembers watching the band set up, then waiting an hour and a half while Cheap Trick tried to work things out with the concert organizer. Eventually the band left without playing, concert organizers disappeared and sheriff’s deputies swarmed the place, McMullin said.
“It was just a bad deal all around,” he said.
If Burkel is located, Wilhelms said he would probably sue him on behalf of Farner. However, even if he wins the case, Wilhelms said he doesn’t expect to recoup the lost expenses.
“In this kind of situation, even if you do find the promoter, you often find there’s nothing to attach, nothing to recoup,” Wilhelms said from his Nashville office. “But we’ll keep our fingers crossed. You have to do it because your clients demand it and it’s only fair.”
Cheap Trick’s publicist Ben-David Fenwick said the band is not commenting on the Darrington Rock Festival. He declined to say whether Cheap Trick plans to file a lawsuit against Burkel.
Savoy Brown’s manager, Steve Ozark, thinks Burkel should be punished for his behavior. Savoy Brown flew from Reno to Seattle on Sunday, the third and final day of the concert. Although Ozark had heard of problems with the rock festival, he said Burkel and his staff assured him everything was fine and that Savoy Brown would be paid in full upon arrival.
When the band landed at Sea-Tac Airport, Ozark demanded payment. After the band spent three hours in the airport waiting, Ozark finally determined concert organizers weren’t going to pay and the band left.
“This promoter did the absolute wrong thing on down the line,” he said. “If you have problems, express those problems. Don’t pretend everything’s fine and say, ‘Come on to our city.’ It was an awful situation, frankly, and after 18 years of booking, I’d say it’s definitely in my top 10 worst situations I’ve dealt with in 29,000 concerts around the world.”
Ozark doesn’t plan to file a lawsuit against Burkel because of bad experiences in the past. He’s sued concert promoters before and says they rarely show up at court and almost never pay judgements levied against them. He hopes the sheriff’s office arrests Burkel.
“I hope that law enforcement will take action against Mr. Burkel and anyone else involved in this,” Ozark said from his office in Lawrence, Kan. “It’s so obviously illegal. It’s not what grandma taught us. It’s not the right thing to do. He burned a lot of people.”
Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.
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