Doug Richie, who operates two food trailers for area festivals, wondered what was up when he paid $750 via bank transfer to bring his trailers to a balloon festival scheduled for late June at the Porter County Expo Center.
He usually pays to reserve his spot by check or in person with cash. His wife found it odd that Hot Air America, Inc., wanted a bank transfer.
Looking back now, he calls it “women’s intuition.”
Richie and his wife weren’t the only ones who wondered about the event. Lori Daly, director of the Porter County-owned Expo Center, also had her suspicions about Richard Garvie, the event’s promoter.
“We knew something was not on the level. So I requested his federal Employee Identification Number, articles of incorporation, anything to show they were legitimate. He provided nothing,” she said, adding the event was on the Expo Center’s calendar for two weeks in April before she took it off.
“I pulled it off when we started to notice issues. Then it took another month. I gave him a deadline to get me the requested documents. The day after I issued the deadline, he canceled. Which I knew he would because it was all a scam and he was caught,” she said.
Despite stories in news articles from coast to coast about failed balloon festivals organized by Garvie, he steadfastly denied he’s scamming anybody and claimed a competitor has been calling festival sites in advance to poison his reputation, causing the venues to cancel.
Garvie said he is providing financing to the owners, has been more involved in the past, and is no longer involved in Hot Air America’s day-to-day operations. In the same breath, he claimed the Expo Center event hadn’t been canceled but moved to another venue, though he couldn’t say where it was.
He also said Daly and the Expo staff “were very unprofessional.”
“I think his definition of being unprofessional is different than mine,” Daly said. “I merely requested their FEIN, articles of incorporation or anything filed on behalf of the company. He provided not one document. If the event is taking place elsewhere, they have not advertised an event that is two weeks away.”
Daly also requested the event be removed from Eventbrite so people couldn’t purchase tickets after it was canceled.
Garvie said the Expo Center hadn’t been scammed and the event hadn’t been canceled.
“You’re doing a story that the event isn’t taking place,” he told the Post-Tribune Wednesday afternoon. “You’re calling up asking why an event has been canceled and as far as I know, it hasn’t been canceled.”
On June 8, the Expo Center put a post on Facebook saying the festival, scheduled for June 28-30, had been canceled and asking folks not to purchase tickets through the online site Eventbrite.
On Wednesday, the Expo Center put up another post, shared by the Porter County Sheriff’s Department, that said “Update: SCAM ALERT,” and included a link to a Tuesday story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, that said people purchased tickets on Eventbrite not knowing the event had been canceled and showed up at the venue, only to be disappointed.
Allegheny County Police issued a scam report and the story quoted a lieutenant with the department, though Garvie told the Post-Tribune the officer was lying.
Communities in Madison, Wisconsin, and Atlanta, Georgia, have reported similar circumstances, according to media coverage.
By Thursday morning, despite Garvie’s insistence that the event was going on as planned somewhere else, Hot Air America, Inc., said in a Facebook message to the Post-Tribune that the event had indeed been canceled and put the blame on Daly, among others.
“The statement made a week ago by Porter County Expo that this event had been canceled was false. The statement saying that this event was a scam — remember that we had now booked two venues, paid two venue fees, received two approvals and spent significant monies promoting these events — is false,” the statement noted. “(Wednesday), the Porter County Expo said they themselves had been scammed. This is also entirely false and defamatory.”
Hot Air America also threatened legal action against county officials “and others who have been responsible for the cancellation of our events.”
Tickets, according to an event website, were $25 for a general car pass and $50 for a premium car pass.
Hot Air America, Inc., said in its Facebook message to the Post-Tribune that tickets could no longer be purchased as of 8 a.m. that day and the company had 87 tickets to refund, and would refund vendors their fees as well.
Sgt. Ben McFalls, public information officer for the sheriff’s department, said police are not investigating Hot Air America, Inc. at this time.
As for Richie, the vendor, he found out about the festival on Facebook in early April and reached out to the festival organizer about bringing his trailers up from Jasper County, where he’s based and focuses most of his work.
The fee was supposed to be $500 per trailer but he got a break on the pricing. He found out while he was camping with family that the event had been canceled.
He reached out to Hot Air America with a Facebook message and said he wanted his money back if the festival was canceled. By Wednesday, he had been told there was a venue change.
“They said they would let me know,” Richie said, adding he has to hire employees to work in advance. “Once I miss an event and don’t have another to replace it, that revenue is gone.”
As he waited for a response, Richie said even if the festival went forward somewhere else, he didn’t want to do it.
“They don’t communicate,” he said, “and when they communicate, their communication is vague.”
alavalley@chicagotribune.com