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Avant Gardner owners were behind Electric Zoo fiasco, Mayor Adams promises response
By
Jon Campbell
Published Sep 5, 2023
Modified Sep 5, 2023
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Fatih Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
By
Jon Campbell
Published Sep 5, 2023
Modified Sep 5, 2023
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New York City Mayor Eric Adams suggested the city will take action against the organizers of the Electric Zoo music festival on Randall’s Island, where a weekend of chaos ended with an estimated 1,500 ticket holders crashing the gates Sunday evening after the event reached capacity before they got inside.
The NYPD estimated event organizers oversold the festival’s 42,500-person capacity limit by 7,000 tickets on Sunday.
“It’s unfortunate that the organizers wanted to turn our city into a zoo, and we were not going to allow that to happen,” Adams said during an NYPD briefing on Tuesday. “And we will be dealing with them in the next few days based on their behavior and actions.”
The event’s organizers are the same people behind Avant Gardner, an 8,000-person music complex in East Williamsburg that has a history of overselling shows by as much as 33%, according to reports from an independent monitor obtained by Gothamist.
Adams’ comments about the three-day electronic music festival mark a significant shift for the Democratic mayor, who had publicly supported Avant Gardner as recently as March. The facility, which is home to the popular outdoor concert space known as the Brooklyn Mirage, has been under intense scrutiny in recent weeks following the death of two concert-goers in the nearby Newtown Creek.
NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell placed blame for Sunday’s gate-crashing directly on event organizers overselling the festival.
“That caused the issue of some people not getting in,” Chell said Tuesday. “That’s what caused the issue of some people storming the gate, if you will.”
Chell noted this year was the first year Avant Gardner’s owners — including Juergen “Billy” Bildstein — had operated Electric Zoo on their own. The investors behind Avant Gardner purchased Electric Zoo and Made Event, the company that runs the festival, for a reported $15 million just before last year’s festival, according to Billboard.
Following Adams’ comments Tuesday, Electric Zoo issued a brief statement.
"The vast majority of Electric Zoo attendees had a great experience, but our job is to make sure everyone's experience is phenomenal,” the statement reads. “We'll be working closely with our partners to review the planning and execution of the event from start to finish.”
On its social media accounts, Electric Zoo has said all Friday ticket holders will receive a refund, as well as those who were denied entry Sunday.
But the organizers have a history of over-selling events at Avant Gardner, according to the security firm T&M that was hired as an independent monitor at the behest of the State Liquor Authority in late 2021 over what regulators called “rampant” drug use at the Brooklyn venue.
A T&M report obtained by Gothamist shows that, in early 2022, the monitor observed crowded conditions within the Great Hall, an indoor concert venue at Avant Gardner with a capacity of 2,776.
Ticket sales data in the report shows Avant Gardner sold 3,700 tickets to a show on Jan. 29, 2022 — or 33% higher than the Great Hall’s maximum occupancy. On Feb. 4 that year, ticket sales exceeded max occupancy by 23%. On Feb. 18, it was 30%.
In a letter to T&M, Avant Gardner disputed the notion that its events are overcrowded. A venue attorney noted the city had never cited it for being over capacity and the monitor never found that the number of people actually in the room actually exceeded its max occupancy.
The chaos Sunday on Randall’s Island followed a series of follies over the weekend that left thousands of ticket holders incensed, including many who traveled to the city to attend.
First came the abrupt cancellation of the opening day of the festival on Friday, which was announced just a few hours before gates were scheduled to open. In a public statement, the organizers said they struggled to get their main stage built in time — blaming the delay on “global supply chain disruptions.” As a result, the city declined to sign off on its permits.
The festival did open on Saturday — but only after a delay of three hours. Even then, many concertgoers took to social media to document themselves stuck in a will-call line that stretched on for a few hours, all in an attempt to get their wristband to enter.
Then came Sunday’s finale, when organizers announced around 6:30 p.m. that the festival grounds had reached capacity and those who weren’t already on Randall’s Island wouldn’t be allowed to enter. Videos posted on social media showed a throng of concertgoers pushing through the gates in what appeared to be dangerously crowded conditions.
Adams has been a longtime supporter of Avant Gardner, with whom his administration has close ties.
As Brooklyn borough president in 2017, he wrote a letter in support of the venue when it first sought a full liquor license at its current location — despite opposition from the local community board.
Last year, his office organized a meeting between Avant Gardner co-owner Juergen “Billy” Bildstein and one of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s top aides at a time when state liquor regulators were cracking down on the venue. Gothamist first reported on the meeting in March.
One of Adams’ closest friends, Brooklyn power broker Frank Carone, represented Avant Gardner when it sued the State Liquor Authority twice in 2018. Carone went on to serve as Adams’ chief of staff during the mayor’s first year in office in 2022.
Amid a years-long battle with the State Liquor Authority, the venue was required to hire an independent monitor to act as a watchdog over its operations for a period of a year. But correspondence between Avant Gardner and T&M shows the relationship quickly deteriorated, in part as they jostled over T&M photos showing crowded conditions at the venue in its reports to state officials.
“They’re showing pictures of overcrowding from one angle,” Avant Gardner attorney Joseph MacLellan said in a tense September 2022 exchange with the State Liquor Authority’s board. “Where are all the other angles? Where does it show that there were 150,000 people at these events? It's not in any of these reports.”
T&M sued Avant Gardner last month, claiming the venue owes the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid bills. As part of the lawsuit, T&M claims its relationship with the venue soured in part after its reports began questioning whether the venue was overcrowded.
This story has been updated with additional information about refunds.
Tagged
new york city
eric adams
Jon Campbell
Jon Campbell covers the New York State Capitol for WNYC and Gothamist. Prior to that, he covered the Capitol for more than a decade for the USA TODAY Network. He has twice earned the Walter T. Brown Memorial Award, an honor given annually by the Legislative Correspondents Association alumni for outstanding state government coverage. Jon grew up in the Buffalo area and graduated from the University at Albany. Got a tip? Email Jon at [email protected] or Signal at JonCampbellNY.90.
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