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Speaker 1: KBLA Talk fifteen eighty and I pose the question what happened,

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what actually happened with the La Jazz Festival and being

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completely transparent. A man in the studio before me this

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morning is one of my closest friends. He is the

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president and CEO of Bridge Street Incorporated. You know him

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to be the former head of the La Federation of Labor,

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a former council member for the tenth District. I worked

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with him on numerous projects, both on stage as well

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as backstage, with the Summer of Success in Baldwin Village

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show when he was over that council district. He is

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the visionary creator founder of the La Jazz Festival. Martin Ludlow, good.

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Speaker 2: Morning, Good morning, Dominique. Thanks for having me here. Appreciate you.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for coming in. I mean in these and

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I've said many times on this show, I am on

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the board of the La Jazz Festival Foundation. I've been

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a big cheerleader and supporter of this project since I

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first heard about it. I think you've been working on

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it for about fifteen years. But these conversations are tough

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because I keep on my professional hat and interview you

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as is my job. But also, you're my friend, so

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and I have a personal stake in this, so I

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do my best to be as transparent about that as

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possible through the conversation. Let's start with the shaker that

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everyone received a little over a week ago that the

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La Jazz Festival, which You've been working on for fifteen

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years and I've been talking about for at least a

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year or two, was canceled at the last minute.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, so parts of it were being canceled earlier than

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you know, the opening night. And I think as folks

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will remember, you know, first, let me just say heartbroken,

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devastated in many ways. And we've had a lot of wins.

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We've had a lot of wins. We've had a lot

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of incredible productions, and it's it's always difficult to have

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that big loss. And I was doing an interview yesterday

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with La Times, and La Times reporters are sort of

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asking me about, you know, how do you how do

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you recover from this? How does your business recover? And I,

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you know, I said to them, well, it's not easy.

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But I look at a lot of you know, professional

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coaches and folks who got to go out and they're

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going to lose a game. No matter what they did

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last year, what they did the previous seasons, they got

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to come back out. They got to figure it out,

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and they got to come back because I got to

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I got another game coming up in front of them.

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And it's easy, I think sometimes in this different world

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to look at them just as oh, that's just sports,

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that's just you know, sort of a fun game. But

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it really is. Everybody's under a microscope. If you're you know,

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monitoring a team that's you know, sort of beloved in

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that community, and you end up losing a really big game,

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it's really hard for folks to recover. And I'll never

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forget some of the young kids that I coached and

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mentored seeing them go through that tremendous emotional low if

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they missed a pass or missed a touchdown or whatever.

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And so I'm going through that myself right now. The

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punchline is, we were getting very very close. We're about

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thirty days out when we got notified that here's the

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final decision by Public Safety, Law Enforcement, Fire County of LA.

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And the final decision really was, here's what it's going

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to cost. We've been meeting with you for four to

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five months in inner governmental round tables. We've all been

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trying to figure it out. I don't know. We spent

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over a minute and a half on industry professionals, everything

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from transit professionals, parking professionals, what we call people flow professionals,

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how to ensure that a crowd is moving in and

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out safely and quickly and efficiently. The idea of building

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something on Dockwaller Beach, which was really the premiere moment

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of the whole festival, that has never been done before,

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ever in the history of the state of California. And

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when we got right down to it, the numbers that

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we were looking at that they were giving to us

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to pay sort of government was staggering. And when you

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added it all up between their costs and the cost

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to build, what they were telling us we had to

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build on the ground was really out of our reach,

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and so we scrambled. I spent a good week reaching

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out to millionaires, billionaires, just about everybody that I could

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say that, look, this is gonna this is gonna fall

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apart if we don't do something right now. And then

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at the last moment, when I realized that we were

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not going to get that savior, we weren't going to

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get that last big influx of money. I pivoted, went

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to AEG to see if we could get the Peacock

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Theater for our Sunday show. They said yes. Went to

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Greek Theater and see if we could get their facility

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for the Saturday show. They said yes, And so we

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thought at the last minute, let's save the weekend and

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you know, sort of figure out a way to create

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that vibe and still make it fun. But twenty four

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hours before the announcement that we were going to completely postpone,

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I got a call from two of our major headliners

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saying that they were not coming with us over to

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the pivoted location. And with those two exits, we lost

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a major round of funders, two people and two organizations

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in particular, and there was just no way to recover

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at that point. So we had to really make the

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hard decision, and that last weekend was really where all

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of the resources were coming into to cover all of

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the free shows that we were trying to build.

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Speaker 1: So yeah, so let's backtrack a little bit for people

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that you know, didn't follow every step of this but

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are now caught up in the social media frenzy around

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it LA Jazz Festival was is your vision to create

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a festival that offered free shows, one free show in

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the park in every council district, Jazz afterne.

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Speaker 2: And beyond, all the way out to Marino Valley, Inglewood, Compton.

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We were really bringing it to parks all over southern California.

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Speaker 1: And also small restaurants and venues and in addition, convene

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a roundtable of different festival organized nisers, like a panel

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to do tours around the history of the beach and

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access to the beach and you know, jazz itself. All

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of this was part of something that was supposed to

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run from the seventh through the twenty third of August.

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And when you say the first time it's ever been done,

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I hear people say, well, we have the l Park

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Jazz Festival and the Guardina Jazz Festival and the Playboy

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Jazz Festival. And so I think people don't are not understanding.

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Speaker 3: What you mean. So let's start there.

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Speaker 1: What were you trying to do and what would make

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it should it happen in the future, would make it

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the first because you know.

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Speaker 2: I think some people have described it as the first

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jazz festival in LA and that's farthest from the truth.

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In fact, I remember one reporter that says, how does

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it feel to be bringing jazz to LA Jazz has

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been here for over one hundred years. We're not bringing

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jazz to LA. But you know, it's really inspired by

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the incredible international jazz festivals worldwide that really are sort

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of like harvest season within those cities where they're major takeovers.

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If you're in New Orleans for a New Orleans Jazz

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festal for those two iconic weeks, it really is a

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moment where everybody in the city lives and breathes around

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the moment that all of the international tours are coming

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in from around the world, because it is a unique,

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significant city wide experience, the activations and so forth. Montrou

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which is probably one of the most attractive of them,

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very much on the beach, the cove setting. It is

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all the restaurants are activated at night. If you haven't

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had a chance to be there, it's not cheap to

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get there, But if you ever get a chance to

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get to that, you'll see the vision of what it

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means to have a whole city takeover. Montreal, which actually

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in Detroit have gotten over a million people to their

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international jazz festivals. That's very different. You know. I was

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very grateful for the support of a lot of the

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local jazz festivals because the goal of this was to

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try to lift the whole ecosystem and to try to

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really put LA on the map from having a similar

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sized festival that you'll see in other cities like a Newport,

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Rhode Island, like a Cape Town, South Africa, and we

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have not had something of that scale here in Los Angeles,

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and that was the intent.

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Speaker 1: And so and the other you know thing that I've

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heard is why start so huge? You know, it was

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maybe it was too big to stand up that quickly

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that even though you've been working on it for fifteen years,

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but at that scale.

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Speaker 2: No. So the original idea was to put this on

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Dargwaller Beach, and that was a very intentional effort to

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really elevate the narrative of the African and African American

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experience here in the United States, given that jazz was

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founded by our ancestors that were brought into this country

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across the ocean. First moment that we experienced it was

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on the beach. We have been denied access to that beach,

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whether it's the ability to purchase properties, whether it's the

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you know, in some cases our properties that we own

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were taken from us Bruce's Beach, Viceroy Hotel, Ebony Beach Club,

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and to do that festival on the beach required a

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vote of the California Coastal Commission. Since nineteen seventies, the

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Coastal Act has essentially said, you can't privatize the beach.

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Most of us think about that through the lens of

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you can't privatize it to build a building. Well, that act,

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that law takes it all the way to any level

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of a privatization, whether it's a long term, permanent structure

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or it's a part time event structure. We fell under

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that category. To address that, we had to agree that

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seventy five percent of our tickets would be free. The

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only way to make the economics work on something that

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was going to truly cost millions was to find a

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path where you could still do paid tickets on the beach.

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So that's when we started to build it out even

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larger than the original vision, so that we were including

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all of these different moments across southern California that would

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essentially go into the formula of a major festival and

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allowing us to keep seventy five percent of those tickets

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for free. If the twenty five percent that you're charging

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for or right there on the beach, the math absolutely works.

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So that was when it really started to grow tremendously

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to the size. And you know, I'd say it, we

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came very very very close. By the way. We ended

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up spending over a million, almost one point two million

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on musicians, and I just want to put that out there. Yeah, yeah,

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that part of the number that we spent is making

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sure that both businesses and musicians were covered. There still are,

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there's still work to be done, but just want to

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put that out there.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to talk more about that when we

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come forward. Martin Ludlow is here. What really happened to

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the La Jazz Festival is our topic and that question

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of you know what happens next? Who's holding the bag?

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All that and your future plans are straight ahead on

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KBLA talk fifteen to eighty and Martin Ludlow is here.

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He was is the creator of the La Jazz Festival.

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And of course when you first told me about it,

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I did see your vision, this giant you know, Party

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on the Beach, but also the socially innovative piece which

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marks all of your work, whether it be in the

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City Council, whether it be you know at the LA FED,

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whether it be with Bridge Street where you produced all

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of those concerts inside the prisons for Common and the

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Labor Day music festivals that we did at Exposition Park,

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and you know the Doc King event, a huge Doctor

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King event in Memphis.

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Speaker 3: I mean, you tend.

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Speaker 1: To have a socially innovative component even to the entertainment stuff.

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It's your sweet spot. And so I saw the vision.

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I was very excited. I still see the vision and

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also heartbroken that it seems to have crashed and burned.

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You point out that you spent one point two million,

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did you say you have already spent on musicians? Is

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that deposits? That's just what you needed to pay them

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to secure their attendance on those performance states.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and that you know, was really the heart of

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the festival. We had I think one hundred and almost

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one hundred and sixty artists from eighteen nations that we

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had confirmed, and I will acknowledge that there still are

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a couple whose contracts were going back and forth didn't

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get countersigned. They there's about twenty of them that did

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not get their deposit, but the balance of them did.

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And so I'm working in morning, noon and night to

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you know, with the moment to your point of the

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burn and crash, trying to pull the money together to

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cover those deposits. And I will and that's an absolute

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guarantee if those musicians are listening. But to the other

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one hundred and thirty of them, you know, I've been

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on the phone pretty much daily. I've got more calls

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to make. The calls have been incredible. Almost every artist

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that I've spoken to have said, listen, love the vision.

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I'm hoping you'll allow to keep us, keep the deposit.

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Said absolutely. And then third, can you put us on

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the next show because we love working with you. And

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that's been the majority of the calls, and so you know,

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I'm heartened by that, grateful for it. And I think

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that for hard working musicians who are living their life,

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you know, it's it's tough. It is tough, and it's

247
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you look at your working show to show to show

248
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you live off of those shows. I think there was

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not just I don't think there was just a passion

250
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about getting paid. There's a passion to your point, about

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the vision of the festival, and people felt a lot

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of pride in the narrative. And it wasn't, you know,

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just a solo it. I think I heard one musician

254
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talking about his family remembering the days of the ink

255
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well and having to be forced to go to the

256
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ink well just to access the beach safely. And so

257
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there was all kinds of stories like that that are

258
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very passionate and made people feel differently about obviously the postponement.

259
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Speaker 1: So and I want to be clear about this because

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I'm seeing so much stuff on social media and even

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some of these articles that are being published in what

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I would call mainstream press that you don't get to

263
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put those major artists, you don't get to put John

264
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Lengend's name on a flyer without a deal with him.

265
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It's not you can't just make that up. You'll be sued,

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you'll be shut.

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Speaker 2: Down, right, correct, correct?

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Speaker 1: So I mean this idea that it was all just

269
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a big phony thing that would never was never actually

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going to happen, is to me that's based on a

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lack of understanding of how the entertainment business works.

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Speaker 2: Oh yeah, and I you know, I've sort of been

273
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avoiding social media because it is brutal. But yeah, you

274
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those artists were very much looking forward to being there.

275
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And you know, anything I can say publicly is that

276
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I apologize to everybody involved that we were not able

277
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to pull it off. But it was painful down to

278
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the last, you know, twenty four hours, and a lot

279
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of those musicians were very much looking forward to being there.

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And like I said, I've been on phones just almost

281
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every day talking to different artists and and you know,

282
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the conversations we were having with lapd La Fire, the

283
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County of La those are very real conversations. And just again,

284
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we had almost one hundred people working on the festival

285
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for five months. That's that was a large payroll every

286
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every month. You know those If anything, those people right

287
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now are just really saddened because they were looking forward

288
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to seeing the fruits of their labor finalized. But yeah,

289
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we met as an executive team every Friday that That

290
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conference call was massive. Our talent repture on the call.

291
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I feel bad for those guys because obviously, you know,

292
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a lot of relationships get impacted when a festival doesn't

293
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go through or a tour doesn't go through. And there's

294
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been a lot of tours and a lot of festivals

295
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that canceled just over the last couple of months.

296
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Speaker 1: I mean, the industry, the business is struggling in generals

297
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that the economy. What do you.

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Speaker 3: Attribute that to.

299
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Speaker 2: I mean, it's all of the above. I'm not quite

300
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sure why the Brooklyn Jazz Festival postponed or canceled. They

301
00:16:31,240 --> 00:16:36,360
postpone or canceled on the Saturday before we did. There

302
00:16:36,399 --> 00:16:38,000
have been a number of tours that were announced that

303
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had postponed. There are some people tracking what they call

304
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blue Dot fever, where consumers worldwide have been sort of

305
00:16:46,440 --> 00:16:50,399
pushing back on price points. Consumers have been really reluctant

306
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to spend very you know, they just economically for a

307
00:16:54,799 --> 00:16:56,519
household to try to make a decision on how they're

308
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going to spend that precious, you know, paycheck that they have,

309
00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:05,400
it's it's a it's a real thing, and so you

310
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have to be creative. I think what you saw in

311
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World Cup was just incredible turnout, particularly for the free events.

312
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Where they were free events, there were just tens of thousands,

313
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if not millions, of people. So I think people consumers

314
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worldwide are looking for a really good bargain for what

315
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they're paying and if they can get really good entertainment,

316
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really good cultural experiences where it doesn't cost their family anything,

317
00:17:27,799 --> 00:17:28,960
there's a real interesting.

318
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Speaker 1: And you're right, of course, but yeah, so so okay,

319
00:17:34,039 --> 00:17:35,960
there's so many things to address here. When you talk

320
00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:38,640
about we only have three minutes of news, traffic and

321
00:17:38,640 --> 00:17:41,279
sports will continue on the other side. So let me

322
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go here. For folks who say, well, this is this

323
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is like a fire festival, what do you say to

324
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those people?

325
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Speaker 2: Well, there was one person that was quoted in the

326
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paper and I really appreciate I don't know who it was,

327
00:17:51,920 --> 00:17:54,000
and they were like, look, I've been in meetings with

328
00:17:54,079 --> 00:18:01,039
this guy. I've done tours of sites. This was an

329
00:18:01,319 --> 00:18:05,680
absolute commitment to creating a cultural moment that's free and open.

330
00:18:05,720 --> 00:18:08,200
We were talking about opening up public beaches, public parks,

331
00:18:08,480 --> 00:18:11,880
as you said, community restaurants. This was never about you know,

332
00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:16,160
having some high end you know, consumers flying to some

333
00:18:16,200 --> 00:18:19,480
destination location that really hadn't had any of the pre planning.

334
00:18:19,519 --> 00:18:22,359
In fact, at the end, the ultimate decision of why

335
00:18:22,400 --> 00:18:25,160
we didn't move forward is we knew we could not

336
00:18:25,319 --> 00:18:29,759
afford what was being asked of us to ensure that

337
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it would come off in the way that government was mandated.

338
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That's when we stopped. We didn't stop when people are

339
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already on site.

340
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and honestly, you know, that's I want to get

341
00:18:39,279 --> 00:18:42,200
to that after news, traffic and sports, like, what how

342
00:18:42,279 --> 00:18:47,640
do we as as a community, as a government, as

343
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public safety, you know, support entertainment and what's supposed to

344
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be the entertainment capital or one of the entertainment capitals

345
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of the world.

346
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Speaker 3: And you know what the breakdown was there.

347
00:18:58,160 --> 00:19:01,640
Speaker 1: But when we talk about the fire festival concept, there's

348
00:19:01,680 --> 00:19:05,359
also receipts. It's not like you know, I mean, I

349
00:19:05,400 --> 00:19:08,279
am not privy to all of them, but I know

350
00:19:08,519 --> 00:19:11,839
because I've done business with you. There's contracts for everything,

351
00:19:12,279 --> 00:19:15,960
there's blueprints for everything. I mean, it's this is not

352
00:19:16,039 --> 00:19:19,440
a fly by the seat of your pants operation at all.

353
00:19:19,799 --> 00:19:22,079
There is a paper trail.

354
00:19:22,359 --> 00:19:24,599
Speaker 2: Oh, absolutely no. And and to your point, I mean

355
00:19:24,599 --> 00:19:28,240
we went through you know, Look, I think most folks

356
00:19:28,240 --> 00:19:30,680
can contact their local council member and the council member

357
00:19:30,720 --> 00:19:32,839
will tell them no, Look that the team came by,

358
00:19:32,880 --> 00:19:35,440
they did site visits. We chose the parks in the

359
00:19:35,480 --> 00:19:38,599
fifteen council districts based on the desires of those council members.

360
00:19:39,039 --> 00:19:41,839
Those interagency task force meetings that we held out at

361
00:19:41,920 --> 00:19:46,240
Dockwyler Beach happened every month. There's probably sixty people involved,

362
00:19:46,240 --> 00:19:51,680
representing everybody from the Coast Guard to lax to a city, fire, county, fire,

363
00:19:51,759 --> 00:19:56,119
city police, County Sheriff, Caltrant, CHP, City of El Segundo,

364
00:19:56,240 --> 00:19:59,880
City of Manhattan, Beach County, Department of Beaches and Harbors.

365
00:20:00,119 --> 00:20:02,359
The roster was extensive, and we were meeting with them

366
00:20:02,359 --> 00:20:04,759
every month and our blueprints, to your point, we're getting

367
00:20:04,799 --> 00:20:09,079
more more intense and more significant and more detailed by

368
00:20:09,119 --> 00:20:12,960
the month. Also, just all of the people that were involved,

369
00:20:13,079 --> 00:20:17,319
you know, from talent managers to on the ground producers

370
00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:21,480
to public safety experts. We had the former assistant police

371
00:20:21,519 --> 00:20:24,240
chief of LAPD that was working with us between the departments,

372
00:20:24,519 --> 00:20:26,359
and we had the former planning director of the City

373
00:20:26,400 --> 00:20:28,799
of La working with all the planning departments, I mean,

374
00:20:29,319 --> 00:20:32,200
the folks that do Coachella traffic. This was a unique

375
00:20:32,279 --> 00:20:34,240
challenge to pull this off, and we brought in the

376
00:20:34,279 --> 00:20:36,519
best in the world, and I think we were all

377
00:20:36,559 --> 00:20:38,839
stunned at what we saw. At the last minute and

378
00:20:38,839 --> 00:20:40,640
it was just no way to move forward and it

379
00:20:40,759 --> 00:20:43,279
was it ended up being a postponeman and that's really it.

380
00:20:43,319 --> 00:20:44,160
At the end of the day.

381
00:20:44,799 --> 00:20:47,240
Speaker 1: I want to find out more about postponed till when

382
00:20:47,559 --> 00:20:52,559
and you know, pull more receipts. La Jazz Festival is

383
00:20:52,599 --> 00:20:55,519
our topic. And you're listening to KBLA Talk fifteen eight

384
00:20:55,680 --> 00:20:58,319
welcome back. Indeed, Martin Ludlow is with me. He's the

385
00:20:58,359 --> 00:21:02,039
CEO of Bridge Street in cored and the man behind

386
00:21:02,119 --> 00:21:06,720
the visionary behind the La Jazz Festival, which was abruptly

387
00:21:06,759 --> 00:21:10,519
canceled right before the opening day here in Lambert Park.

388
00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:16,880
You know, a lot of us are heartbroken. You you

389
00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:21,680
reference at the beginning of the conversation that shortly before

390
00:21:21,839 --> 00:21:27,559
opening day, fire and L A. P. D. Come with

391
00:21:28,079 --> 00:21:30,519
come with numbers. This is what we need and we're

392
00:21:30,519 --> 00:21:31,880
talking dollar numbers.

393
00:21:32,680 --> 00:21:34,799
Speaker 2: Yeah, So it's it was not just that, it was

394
00:21:35,240 --> 00:21:40,160
something that included what's called gross sales receipt tax estimate,

395
00:21:41,440 --> 00:21:45,799
where you're being taxed on ticket sales, food and beverage,

396
00:21:45,839 --> 00:21:51,119
expected sales, merchandise, expected sales and sponsorships, which you know,

397
00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:54,160
to me was a shocker to see all of that

398
00:21:54,359 --> 00:21:56,440
at that moment being asked to be prepaid.

399
00:21:57,319 --> 00:22:01,160
Speaker 1: So you're being asked to prepay taxes on things you

400
00:22:01,279 --> 00:22:02,720
may or may not sell, and.

401
00:22:04,200 --> 00:22:06,440
Speaker 2: Then the event your estimate is off, we will refund

402
00:22:06,480 --> 00:22:09,319
you the difference, or if there is a refund, or

403
00:22:09,319 --> 00:22:11,880
it can go the other way. If we think you underestimated,

404
00:22:11,880 --> 00:22:13,839
then it's going to go higher. So that was a

405
00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:15,359
new one for me, and that was a new one

406
00:22:15,359 --> 00:22:18,599
for our finance team. I think early on there was

407
00:22:18,599 --> 00:22:21,039
a reference that you may have to pay grocery seat

408
00:22:21,039 --> 00:22:23,759
sales tax, but it wasn't like there was a real

409
00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:26,119
clear conversation about it. In fact, I think even in

410
00:22:26,160 --> 00:22:30,039
the document that we got there, there's just still ambiguities

411
00:22:30,039 --> 00:22:32,039
as to which agency was that on behalf of Was

412
00:22:32,039 --> 00:22:34,359
that on behalf of the state, the city, the county,

413
00:22:34,920 --> 00:22:38,240
So definitely some confusion on that for us. But the

414
00:22:38,279 --> 00:22:40,680
sticker shock was was, you know, when we did the math,

415
00:22:41,279 --> 00:22:44,359
when you between the LAPD deployment, which was going to

416
00:22:44,359 --> 00:22:47,799
be almost eighty eight officers per day to get started

417
00:22:47,839 --> 00:22:50,480
in the event that they needed to deploy more, that

418
00:22:50,519 --> 00:22:53,240
would have all been on our tab. We had estimated

419
00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:55,640
that we knew LAPED was going to have to deploy something,

420
00:22:55,680 --> 00:22:57,599
but it was far lower than what we had expected.

421
00:22:57,680 --> 00:23:00,799
And I don't again, I don't sit here blaming the

422
00:23:00,839 --> 00:23:03,440
individual officers that were at the table working with us

423
00:23:03,480 --> 00:23:05,039
day in and day out. I think they were earnestly

424
00:23:05,039 --> 00:23:08,240
trying to figure it out. But I do kind of

425
00:23:08,319 --> 00:23:11,440
question the environment that we were in. When you just

426
00:23:11,559 --> 00:23:14,440
looked at a month earlier, there had been the quote

427
00:23:14,480 --> 00:23:17,039
unquote takeover of Newport Beach and there were horse drawn

428
00:23:17,319 --> 00:23:20,799
or horseback you know, uh police and you know, chasing

429
00:23:20,799 --> 00:23:22,359
folks off of the beach. I think there was a

430
00:23:22,400 --> 00:23:25,480
lot of sort of internal hysterian concern around that.

431
00:23:27,079 --> 00:23:30,119
Speaker 1: The fire, although that wasn't exactly a jazz crowd, not.

432
00:23:30,119 --> 00:23:32,200
Speaker 2: At all, right, right for us, it was just like

433
00:23:32,279 --> 00:23:34,920
these you know, these are going to be uh just anyway.

434
00:23:35,079 --> 00:23:36,839
I won't stereotype our crowd, but I know who was

435
00:23:36,839 --> 00:23:37,240
buying the.

436
00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:40,640
Speaker 3: Ticket and then fire.

437
00:23:40,440 --> 00:23:42,920
Speaker 2: And then you know, for on that it was just

438
00:23:43,000 --> 00:23:48,119
the escalation of really a couple of things. In LA

439
00:23:48,559 --> 00:23:52,359
there is eight, uh sort of eight levels of what

440
00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:54,960
you call medical plan based on the type of incident.

441
00:23:55,039 --> 00:23:58,319
Eight is the highest. We were assessed a level seven

442
00:23:58,359 --> 00:24:01,799
medical plan and a level seven seven medical plan not

443
00:24:01,839 --> 00:24:08,720
only called for ambulances, doctors, nurses, paramedics, EMTs, but we

444
00:24:08,720 --> 00:24:14,359
were also being required to build unprecedented levels of plastic

445
00:24:14,440 --> 00:24:17,559
snap on groundcover that you could literally drive a truck on.

446
00:24:17,920 --> 00:24:20,200
And it was like building a basketball court out on

447
00:24:20,240 --> 00:24:23,599
the sand for a beach festival. And when you look

448
00:24:23,640 --> 00:24:27,119
at our blueprints, they were just growing in terms of

449
00:24:27,119 --> 00:24:31,279
the numbers. Our first estimate from a vendor that was

450
00:24:31,759 --> 00:24:34,319
committed and had the level of equipment that we were

451
00:24:34,319 --> 00:24:36,799
going to need and supplies, it was almost nine hundred

452
00:24:36,839 --> 00:24:40,759
thousand dollars for that groundcover. We started negotiating and see

453
00:24:40,759 --> 00:24:42,960
if we could pull it back. By the time we

454
00:24:43,039 --> 00:24:45,599
got to the final number on that, when you add

455
00:24:45,680 --> 00:24:48,759
the groundcover, you add all of the personnel and all

456
00:24:48,799 --> 00:24:52,319
the equipment required for the Level seven, all the LAPD deployment,

457
00:24:52,839 --> 00:24:56,359
all of the grocery seat sales tax estimates, we were

458
00:24:56,359 --> 00:24:59,440
looking at one point six million dollars. That was never

459
00:24:59,480 --> 00:25:02,079
even remove totally thought of in our budget. Did we

460
00:25:02,119 --> 00:25:04,359
expect to pay for paramedics, Absolutely, we had them in

461
00:25:04,359 --> 00:25:07,359
our budget. Did we expect that would be LAPD, Absolutely,

462
00:25:07,440 --> 00:25:10,640
we had that in our budget. We did not expect

463
00:25:10,640 --> 00:25:11,559
to see anything on.

464
00:25:11,519 --> 00:25:14,279
Speaker 3: The level that we got back one point dollars one

465
00:25:14,319 --> 00:25:15,039
point when you.

466
00:25:15,000 --> 00:25:20,400
Speaker 2: Added between the public costs and the private costs required

467
00:25:20,440 --> 00:25:21,880
to build the elements that there.

468
00:25:23,279 --> 00:25:27,440
Speaker 1: How can we have any kind of entertainment event or

469
00:25:27,519 --> 00:25:31,880
festival or anything a new thing that's not owned by

470
00:25:32,039 --> 00:25:37,799
massive corporate interests, certainly anything black owned or independently produced

471
00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:42,160
when you have unknown costs coming in at the final hour.

472
00:25:42,400 --> 00:25:44,640
Speaker 3: Oh, by the way, we need.

473
00:25:44,480 --> 00:25:47,160
Speaker 1: Another one point two to one point six million, How

474
00:25:47,240 --> 00:25:50,440
how is that feasible if I'm not a giant live

475
00:25:50,559 --> 00:25:52,759
nation level company.

476
00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:55,759
Speaker 2: Yeah, and again I'll i'll, I mean.

477
00:25:56,039 --> 00:25:56,960
Speaker 3: It can can it? Can it?

478
00:25:57,200 --> 00:25:57,359
Speaker 1: Can?

479
00:25:57,400 --> 00:25:57,480
Speaker 2: It?

480
00:25:57,640 --> 00:25:59,920
Speaker 1: Could? It be blamed on you? Should you have no

481
00:26:00,079 --> 00:26:01,519
own that it was going to be one point too?

482
00:26:01,599 --> 00:26:03,920
Like what should you have done differently? And what should

483
00:26:03,920 --> 00:26:06,160
we have done differently? Because to me it sounds like.

484
00:26:07,839 --> 00:26:09,200
Speaker 3: The government.

485
00:26:10,079 --> 00:26:12,240
Speaker 1: And I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but it sounds like

486
00:26:12,279 --> 00:26:14,200
people were trying to shut it down. You got to

487
00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:18,000
pay taxes in advance on merch that you may or

488
00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:18,720
may not sell.

489
00:26:19,720 --> 00:26:21,559
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's been more than a number of people that

490
00:26:21,640 --> 00:26:26,200
feel like you. We were stunned. Our whole team was stunned.

491
00:26:26,920 --> 00:26:29,799
But you know again, just want to say anybody sort

492
00:26:29,799 --> 00:26:32,960
of tuned in on this. We absolutely had security and

493
00:26:33,119 --> 00:26:35,680
we had actually put one hundred security officers in our budget.

494
00:26:36,079 --> 00:26:38,960
We had LAPD. We expected there would be some LAPD

495
00:26:39,079 --> 00:26:42,240
deployment that we would have to cover. We had paramedics.

496
00:26:42,599 --> 00:26:44,480
But the escalation to.

497
00:26:44,519 --> 00:26:47,759
Speaker 1: The level seven, we're going to have a bunch of

498
00:26:47,920 --> 00:26:49,079
dead jazz fans.

499
00:26:49,119 --> 00:26:50,400
Speaker 3: I mean, what is happening like?

500
00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:52,880
Speaker 2: It was an emergency response before there was ever any emergency, right,

501
00:26:53,559 --> 00:26:55,559
and that's what it hit is like. But anyway, your

502
00:26:55,640 --> 00:26:59,359
specific question is, you know, could it you know, how

503
00:26:59,440 --> 00:27:01,160
could it get done? And I think there's going to

504
00:27:01,200 --> 00:27:02,839
be a post mortem after this. I know a number

505
00:27:02,880 --> 00:27:06,799
of council members have reached out and they have indicated, Look,

506
00:27:06,880 --> 00:27:09,160
if a developer was going to build a building, we

507
00:27:09,200 --> 00:27:11,680
can tell them right now at the very beginning, how

508
00:27:12,359 --> 00:27:15,440
what size, how many bedrooms? And there are codes, there's

509
00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:17,519
a formula, and they're going to get you down to, hey,

510
00:27:17,519 --> 00:27:21,119
three hundred dollars per square foot, four hundred dollars that

511
00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:23,240
advance before you can get going here. It was a

512
00:27:23,240 --> 00:27:26,000
complete opposite and that is really I think it's a

513
00:27:26,079 --> 00:27:28,799
keen insight and I appreciate you even raising it.

514
00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:32,039
Speaker 1: I mean to me, it's like, we are supposed to

515
00:27:32,079 --> 00:27:35,039
be the entertainment capital of the world. How can we

516
00:27:35,119 --> 00:27:38,680
have nice things if we don't all cooperate to build

517
00:27:38,759 --> 00:27:39,440
nice things.

518
00:27:40,480 --> 00:27:43,359
Speaker 2: Yeah, I you know, so parts that I'm going to always,

519
00:27:43,440 --> 00:27:45,839
you know, look back on and just be like, this

520
00:27:45,880 --> 00:27:49,559
is year one. What did we learned from it? I

521
00:27:49,599 --> 00:27:51,400
think it is going to take a will of government

522
00:27:51,440 --> 00:27:53,640
to say this is important and we want to help,

523
00:27:53,839 --> 00:27:55,279
and we want to figure out a way to do it.

524
00:27:55,279 --> 00:27:57,799
It's not just about you know, telling us, hey, you

525
00:27:57,839 --> 00:27:59,720
need this, you need that, you need this, no partner

526
00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:01,799
with us. And you know, this really was more the

527
00:28:01,880 --> 00:28:04,920
county driving it. The county Beaches and Harbors were in charge.

528
00:28:04,960 --> 00:28:07,640
This is the process that they had just set up.

529
00:28:07,640 --> 00:28:10,720
And ironically, this is a fact if you want to

530
00:28:10,720 --> 00:28:12,880
do an event on the beach, if you want to

531
00:28:12,920 --> 00:28:16,720
just rent a spot to do a family event or whatever,

532
00:28:17,440 --> 00:28:19,839
they don't even allow you to start the process until

533
00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:23,240
you're ninety days prior to the event. Think about that

534
00:28:23,680 --> 00:28:26,160
we announced this six months prior to the event, and

535
00:28:26,880 --> 00:28:29,039
they had to figure out how to change the portal

536
00:28:29,119 --> 00:28:31,359
just so that we could even you know, begin to

537
00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:33,920
start to upload some of the forums, and then finally

538
00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:38,480
there really wasn't like a process. I think people were

539
00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:40,480
trying to figure it out. And again, so when I

540
00:28:40,519 --> 00:28:43,319
think about the individual people that were at that table

541
00:28:43,359 --> 00:28:46,079
with us, I think most of them were seriously trying

542
00:28:46,119 --> 00:28:48,400
to figure it out. But there wasn't like a manual.

543
00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:51,000
There wasn't a blueprint. Hey pull out manual on how

544
00:28:51,039 --> 00:28:54,319
to build a mega event on our coastline. And that

545
00:28:54,480 --> 00:28:56,799
I think is an honest and I think all of

546
00:28:56,839 --> 00:28:59,720
them at the table would agree. We were throwing stuff

547
00:28:59,720 --> 00:29:02,839
out these guys every meeting. That is just like an

548
00:29:02,920 --> 00:29:05,640
open ad hoc process. Just whatever it was on somebody's

549
00:29:05,640 --> 00:29:07,559
mind that just fired it off and we would have

550
00:29:07,559 --> 00:29:08,880
to respond to that, and all of a sudden you'd

551
00:29:08,880 --> 00:29:10,200
see the price tag go up, and then there'd be

552
00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:11,799
the next point you have to respond to that price

553
00:29:11,799 --> 00:29:13,559
tager go up. And it was just like an open

554
00:29:13,559 --> 00:29:16,480
feeding frenzy. And at some point, you know, whether you're

555
00:29:16,519 --> 00:29:19,880
a restaurant owner, you're a grocery store owner, you got

556
00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:23,799
a small shop or gas station or whatever, there's a

557
00:29:23,839 --> 00:29:26,319
process for how you get permitted, and it's very clear

558
00:29:26,440 --> 00:29:29,839
in this city county state have those, and I think

559
00:29:29,920 --> 00:29:32,519
the final point is this was multi jurisdictional, as I

560
00:29:32,519 --> 00:29:35,759
said at the beginning, So how do we learn from this?

561
00:29:35,880 --> 00:29:38,319
How do we figure out how do you pull off

562
00:29:38,319 --> 00:29:42,680
a multi jurisdictional experience that can be affordable to a

563
00:29:42,759 --> 00:29:46,599
non mega corporation, the state, the county, the cities that

564
00:29:46,640 --> 00:29:48,519
are involved. There's got to be a way to do it.

565
00:29:48,519 --> 00:29:49,960
And that doesn't seem like rocket science.

566
00:29:49,960 --> 00:29:51,720
Speaker 1: You said year one, so that means you're planning to

567
00:29:51,759 --> 00:29:52,240
do it again.

568
00:29:52,400 --> 00:29:53,759
Speaker 3: They're planning to try it again.

569
00:29:53,880 --> 00:29:55,519
Speaker 2: Right now, I'm trying to figure out how do we

570
00:29:55,559 --> 00:29:57,839
first cover still the debt that's on this one. We

571
00:29:57,880 --> 00:29:59,400
still have a lot of debt and I'm working on

572
00:29:59,440 --> 00:30:03,039
it literally every hour, and we have a lot of

573
00:30:03,359 --> 00:30:06,599
reputational damage to fix. You know this is this has

574
00:30:06,599 --> 00:30:11,119
been devastating to to everybody involved. It's not just me.

575
00:30:11,279 --> 00:30:14,640
There are other people who have relationships impacted. And so

576
00:30:15,160 --> 00:30:19,160
you know, right now, I think the interest by more

577
00:30:19,160 --> 00:30:21,519
people that I'm hearing from on a daily basis is

578
00:30:21,720 --> 00:30:24,200
don't let it go, don't let the vision go. And

579
00:30:24,279 --> 00:30:26,720
that's that's where most of our mindset is. Now, how

580
00:30:26,759 --> 00:30:28,880
do how do we how do we wrap this one.

581
00:30:28,799 --> 00:30:31,480
Speaker 1: Up professional and when So when you say investment, you're

582
00:30:31,519 --> 00:30:34,440
talking about all the people, hours of the people that

583
00:30:34,480 --> 00:30:40,640
were hired, the musicians, deposits, equipment, like what other kinds.

584
00:30:40,720 --> 00:30:42,359
Speaker 3: I know, you commissioned artwork.

585
00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:45,200
Speaker 2: Yeah, we commissioned art We didn't We didn't buy really

586
00:30:45,319 --> 00:30:47,799
much equipment. That mostly was coming through vendors that were

587
00:30:47,799 --> 00:30:49,359
going to provide the equipment that you know, we were

588
00:30:49,359 --> 00:30:53,200
working out agreements with. But yeah, it's just it's staff ours,

589
00:30:53,240 --> 00:30:59,279
it's professional consultants. It's finalizing the remaining artist deposits and

590
00:30:59,359 --> 00:31:02,640
then preparing for some sponsors who want their money back.

591
00:31:02,680 --> 00:31:04,279
There are a couple of sponsors that have said, hey,

592
00:31:04,559 --> 00:31:07,000
you didn't finish, so we need our money back, and

593
00:31:07,079 --> 00:31:10,000
so we are refunding all ticket buyers, so anybody that

594
00:31:10,079 --> 00:31:13,039
purchase tickets, all that money goes back. So there's a

595
00:31:13,079 --> 00:31:16,440
lot to still unpack, clean up, and then I think

596
00:31:16,440 --> 00:31:18,599
you get to the point of, Okay, now what have

597
00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:20,319
we learned? Can you pull it off again?

598
00:31:20,519 --> 00:31:24,079
Speaker 1: Can it Can it actually be done if you're not

599
00:31:24,480 --> 00:31:29,720
a mega corporation and you know, yeah, I think that

600
00:31:29,759 --> 00:31:32,359
would be a sad commentary on the state of the

601
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:38,480
entertainment capital if we cannot support an independent producer in

602
00:31:39,079 --> 00:31:41,480
you know, in taking a new creating a new institution

603
00:31:41,640 --> 00:31:43,039
and taking across the finish line.

604
00:31:43,119 --> 00:31:45,079
Speaker 2: Well, I will say this was not easy for anybody.

605
00:31:45,400 --> 00:31:47,720
Sure wasn't easy for us. It wasn't easy for government.

606
00:31:48,400 --> 00:31:51,519
I do think, you know, there's some things that I'll

607
00:31:51,799 --> 00:31:53,480
sort of save because I don't want to put them

608
00:31:53,480 --> 00:31:57,119
out there just out of respect. But you know, if

609
00:31:57,119 --> 00:31:58,920
there's a will, there's a way, and I know our

610
00:31:58,960 --> 00:32:04,400
team had the will and we're looking for just folks

611
00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:08,119
in power to really support that. The community supported it,

612
00:32:08,720 --> 00:32:12,319
and you know that's always going to be the most

613
00:32:12,319 --> 00:32:15,480
painful element of this thinking back to year one. It's

614
00:32:15,559 --> 00:32:19,519
just the level of disappointment, level of frustration. But you know,

615
00:32:20,279 --> 00:32:23,319
you have if an individual has an idea, has a vision,

616
00:32:23,400 --> 00:32:27,079
has a dream, you go for it. It's not always

617
00:32:27,079 --> 00:32:28,640
going to end pretty. And you got to be ready

618
00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:31,759
for that side. And I'm obviously taking it, you know,

619
00:32:31,839 --> 00:32:33,839
every day, but got to keep going.

620
00:32:34,319 --> 00:32:37,279
Speaker 1: But it sounds like you are still considering putting this

621
00:32:37,279 --> 00:32:37,640
thing on this.

622
00:32:37,920 --> 00:32:42,279
Speaker 2: Absolutely absolutely and you know, even as I said at

623
00:32:42,279 --> 00:32:45,039
the beginning to interview, the conversations with the musicians first

624
00:32:45,079 --> 00:32:48,400
and foremost have been the most heartwarming. Folks who live

625
00:32:48,400 --> 00:32:51,359
here in LA love this idea, want to be involved,

626
00:32:51,480 --> 00:32:53,160
and are really encouraging us to figure out how to

627
00:32:53,200 --> 00:32:56,160
do it again next year. It's going to take key investors.

628
00:32:56,200 --> 00:32:58,039
I think it's going to be very hard to get

629
00:32:58,039 --> 00:33:01,000
corporate LA to come in and support, just given all

630
00:33:01,039 --> 00:33:04,599
of the backlash that's happened from the postponement. Never saw

631
00:33:04,640 --> 00:33:07,160
that coming, by the way, you know, it is a postpone,

632
00:33:07,240 --> 00:33:09,880
and I think there was one TV news story that

633
00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:12,319
went up immediately. It was very reckless. We were not

634
00:33:12,400 --> 00:33:17,799
even planning to start building the site until literally tomorrow

635
00:33:18,519 --> 00:33:20,720
for the big weekend, and they ran this story almost

636
00:33:20,759 --> 00:33:22,960
a week and a half ago that there's nothing being built.

637
00:33:23,440 --> 00:33:25,480
We'll take a look at our construction plans and what

638
00:33:25,480 --> 00:33:27,799
we agreed with the county, the city, and the state.

639
00:33:27,960 --> 00:33:31,839
We weren't even gonna start building until tomorrow. We by

640
00:33:31,839 --> 00:33:33,799
the coastal permit. We had approval to be on site

641
00:33:33,799 --> 00:33:37,960
Wednesday the nineteenth. We were negotiating to get access today

642
00:33:38,759 --> 00:33:41,480
from Monday, and we still hadn't gotten it all done,

643
00:33:41,480 --> 00:33:42,519
but we were getting real close.

644
00:33:43,079 --> 00:33:49,279
Speaker 1: Just like like you know, I saw a story from

645
00:33:49,359 --> 00:33:53,160
a magazine that said, well, we contacted people from jazz

646
00:33:53,240 --> 00:33:56,519
festivals and they weren't booked for a panel, Like did

647
00:33:56,559 --> 00:33:58,319
you call all of the artists and see if they

648
00:33:58,359 --> 00:34:01,359
were booked for shows? And I only point that out

649
00:34:01,440 --> 00:34:05,720
not just to be defending, but also when I'm encouraging

650
00:34:05,720 --> 00:34:10,599
our KBLA delegation. When you see these stories, especially internet posts,

651
00:34:10,800 --> 00:34:13,800
to you know, run it by the sniff test and

652
00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:16,360
think about in your mind, you know, if this person

653
00:34:16,400 --> 00:34:19,639
knows what they're talking about or what you know, if

654
00:34:19,679 --> 00:34:25,119
what they're saying makes sense. Because there's a lot of

655
00:34:25,360 --> 00:34:28,719
really wild stuff right now about the La Jazz Festival

656
00:34:29,079 --> 00:34:34,920
on the Internet, and I think that we could do

657
00:34:35,000 --> 00:34:38,039
ourselves a disservice if we just buy into it without

658
00:34:38,119 --> 00:34:38,960
at least vetting.

659
00:34:40,079 --> 00:34:41,199
Speaker 3: Martin Ludlow is here.

660
00:34:41,440 --> 00:34:46,840
Speaker 1: The La Jazz Festival was is his project, and we

661
00:34:46,960 --> 00:34:50,039
are telling the story of what really happened. Will continue

662
00:34:50,039 --> 00:34:53,639
the conversation when we come forward on KBLA Talk fifteen eighty.

663
00:34:53,800 --> 00:34:56,239
Ludlow is my guest. He's a creator of the La

664
00:34:56,360 --> 00:35:00,800
Jazz Festival, and I'm hearing that maybe it'll happen in

665
00:35:00,840 --> 00:35:04,559
the future. You know, what would you say, this is

666
00:35:04,599 --> 00:35:08,840
a loaded question, but you know, well I don't even

667
00:35:08,920 --> 00:35:11,199
know how to ask it. What would you what would

668
00:35:11,280 --> 00:35:14,000
you do differently? I mean, some of these things are

669
00:35:14,039 --> 00:35:17,519
beyond your control. Some you know, maybe there is a

670
00:35:17,559 --> 00:35:18,519
protective factor.

671
00:35:19,440 --> 00:35:23,079
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think the first one is really really starting early,

672
00:35:23,760 --> 00:35:29,199
earlier in terms of the formal launch. We you know,

673
00:35:29,239 --> 00:35:32,719
most people don't know this, but we got very close

674
00:35:32,760 --> 00:35:36,000
to launching the Ljazz Festival three times over the last

675
00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:39,599
three years, and each time we got close it was

676
00:35:39,639 --> 00:35:42,519
because we had a title sponsor that was almost at

677
00:35:42,519 --> 00:35:45,400
that point of saying yes. And you know, for folks

678
00:35:45,440 --> 00:35:48,360
out there that have launch festivals that have done big productions,

679
00:35:48,719 --> 00:35:51,320
I think what I'm about to say will resonate. You

680
00:35:51,480 --> 00:35:55,079
really can't dive in to the formal planning until you

681
00:35:55,119 --> 00:35:58,000
have been funded. You know, you really do have to

682
00:35:58,199 --> 00:36:01,119
have the seed money to start. And everybody starts off

683
00:36:01,119 --> 00:36:04,239
with the same question in the sponsorship world, Yeah, who's performing?

684
00:36:04,360 --> 00:36:07,239
They want to know who's performing, so and I think

685
00:36:07,280 --> 00:36:09,400
most of the folks on who are listening, who are

686
00:36:09,400 --> 00:36:11,440
in the entertainment or music world know that to be

687
00:36:11,480 --> 00:36:13,199
pretty much a fact. If you're going to do a concert,

688
00:36:13,239 --> 00:36:14,960
you're going to do a tour. You're gonna do a festival,

689
00:36:15,639 --> 00:36:17,239
they always want you to start off with the talent.

690
00:36:17,639 --> 00:36:19,920
We have the venue in terms of agreement by the state.

691
00:36:20,000 --> 00:36:24,079
We've had that since twenty twenty one, but even in

692
00:36:24,119 --> 00:36:26,760
that permit, it still requires that you have to start

693
00:36:26,800 --> 00:36:29,000
working with all the local agencies. So there's all those

694
00:36:29,039 --> 00:36:32,239
elements we couldn't get. We didn't get our title sponsor

695
00:36:32,280 --> 00:36:35,840
confirmed until January and that was a moment of truth

696
00:36:35,880 --> 00:36:37,639
where it was like should we go, should we pause?

697
00:36:37,679 --> 00:36:40,920
Well we ever get this moment again, and you know,

698
00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:43,159
I remember it was a gut check, you know, to

699
00:36:43,199 --> 00:36:45,079
your point after fifteen years of trying to get this

700
00:36:45,159 --> 00:36:47,960
going and then really getting hit with the pandemic which

701
00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:50,039
set us back, and then coming out of the pandemic,

702
00:36:50,440 --> 00:36:53,239
trying to get large brands like Coca Cola, Butdweiser and

703
00:36:53,280 --> 00:36:55,599
some of the other big ones that traditionally get behind

704
00:36:55,840 --> 00:36:58,679
big music festivals. Could you give them the confidence that

705
00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:01,519
you were, you know, at that moment you could launch.

706
00:37:01,800 --> 00:37:04,440
And we were blessed to have Airbnb come on. They

707
00:37:04,440 --> 00:37:07,239
were a perfect match for us. Their whole mission is

708
00:37:07,239 --> 00:37:10,719
trying to create those unique destination opportunities for people that

709
00:37:10,760 --> 00:37:13,480
traditionally can't afford those. There are a lot of people

710
00:37:13,519 --> 00:37:15,559
in the community that actually make money by putting their

711
00:37:15,559 --> 00:37:18,199
home up on Airbnb. So for us, it was just

712
00:37:18,239 --> 00:37:20,760
a perfect partnership. And when they said we're in, we

713
00:37:20,840 --> 00:37:23,760
immediately launched because that was the seed money we needed

714
00:37:23,760 --> 00:37:26,400
to start pulling in the artists, paying the deposits, and

715
00:37:26,480 --> 00:37:29,119
actually starting to get all of the professionals that we

716
00:37:29,159 --> 00:37:33,760
needed to begin meeting with the government. And we everybody

717
00:37:33,800 --> 00:37:37,440
moved fast. And I think that's probably the biggest the

718
00:37:37,559 --> 00:37:42,559
you know, the biggest reflection in terms of should we

719
00:37:42,599 --> 00:37:44,760
have just held off and try to pull it another year.

720
00:37:45,199 --> 00:37:48,920
Speaker 3: Well, you know, thank you for coming in and talking.

721
00:37:48,960 --> 00:37:52,639
Speaker 1: I know, you know, initially there was you know, you've

722
00:37:52,639 --> 00:37:55,880
got a balance between what the lawyers say and what

723
00:37:56,079 --> 00:37:59,159
and what the comms people say, and I think the

724
00:37:59,199 --> 00:38:01,360
public wanted to hear from you so far.

725
00:38:01,519 --> 00:38:04,000
Speaker 2: I'm anxious to talk, I you know, I for anybody

726
00:38:04,079 --> 00:38:07,280
that wants to interview, I'm just you know, I'm anxious

727
00:38:07,320 --> 00:38:11,320
to talk because this this this vision. Maybe somebody else

728
00:38:11,360 --> 00:38:12,880
will pull it off. Maybe it won't be me. I

729
00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:14,599
don't know what the future has for me. I know,

730
00:38:15,119 --> 00:38:17,599
we gotta we gotta finish up what we started. We

731
00:38:17,679 --> 00:38:20,119
still got a lot of fees that we've got to cover.

732
00:38:20,800 --> 00:38:23,119
That's gonna be me personally, and I am gonna do

733
00:38:23,199 --> 00:38:25,320
everything I can to make that happen and then we

734
00:38:25,360 --> 00:38:26,639
can talk about moving forward.

735
00:38:26,719 --> 00:38:31,000
Speaker 1: So and anyone who bought a ticket getting refunded, they

736
00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:33,400
should just go to the La Jazz Festival website.

737
00:38:33,559 --> 00:38:36,119
Speaker 2: No through the process that they purchase it, that that

738
00:38:36,280 --> 00:38:40,039
system will automatically start kicking it out. And yeah, but

739
00:38:40,079 --> 00:38:42,599
they you know, people can go to the website or

740
00:38:42,639 --> 00:38:44,840
go back to the platform where they purchase it and

741
00:38:44,920 --> 00:38:47,519
start the refund. But even if you don't get the time,

742
00:38:47,559 --> 00:38:50,119
if you don't have the time, it's gonna happen. And uh,

743
00:38:50,400 --> 00:38:52,440
we're you know, our team is making sure that those

744
00:38:52,440 --> 00:38:53,760
are the first things to get handled.

745
00:38:54,159 --> 00:38:54,639
Speaker 3: Yeah.

746
00:38:54,679 --> 00:38:59,639
Speaker 1: Well, you know, we just have a minute left here

747
00:38:59,679 --> 00:39:01,559
and I still have a lot of things I would

748
00:39:01,599 --> 00:39:03,960
ask you, but I'm going to hand you the mic

749
00:39:04,000 --> 00:39:06,639
and ask you what you want to leave folks with.

750
00:39:06,719 --> 00:39:09,639
It's certainly a huge burden for you your company. I

751
00:39:09,679 --> 00:39:13,000
hope that you know you the company and the vision survive.

752
00:39:14,280 --> 00:39:16,039
What would you leave us with this morning?

753
00:39:18,159 --> 00:39:23,519
Speaker 2: You know you don't often see the ramifications of a

754
00:39:23,599 --> 00:39:28,159
vision that doesn't work. This didn't work this year, and

755
00:39:28,320 --> 00:39:32,920
the ramifications have been substantial. You know, I've really been

756
00:39:32,960 --> 00:39:39,559
blown away by the level of media coverage, and I

757
00:39:39,639 --> 00:39:41,840
know that when we were just a few weeks out

758
00:39:42,519 --> 00:39:44,599
trying to figure out where we're going to get these

759
00:39:44,679 --> 00:39:48,679
you know, final final approvals to dive in, we looked

760
00:39:48,679 --> 00:39:52,559
at a report that showed our global media impressions and

761
00:39:52,599 --> 00:39:55,280
it wasn't just social media, it was all media. We

762
00:39:55,280 --> 00:39:59,440
were at five hundred million impressions and projected to hit

763
00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:06,639
eight hundred million projections impressions by the weekend. And no

764
00:40:06,679 --> 00:40:09,880
matter what happens in the future, that is something that

765
00:40:09,920 --> 00:40:12,880
everybody that was involved, all the artists, all the professionals,

766
00:40:13,280 --> 00:40:17,880
the event producers, everybody involved, the funders, the sponsors, take

767
00:40:17,920 --> 00:40:19,800
a lot of pride in that because that is just

768
00:40:19,840 --> 00:40:23,119
a statement that was you just can't you just don't

769
00:40:23,119 --> 00:40:24,159
see that every day.

770
00:40:24,440 --> 00:40:27,840
Speaker 1: Martin Ludlow, thank you. It's also a statement that there's

771
00:40:27,880 --> 00:40:30,559
a desire for this thing to happen. We got to

772
00:40:30,639 --> 00:40:32,639
leave it there. It is time to pass the mic.

773
00:40:32,719 --> 00:40:35,519
I appreciate you coming in and sharing your story with

774
00:40:35,760 --> 00:40:38,000
me this morning. You can find me at the Premium

775
00:40:38,079 --> 00:40:42,679
Radio dp RI I m A and then radio and

776
00:40:43,079 --> 00:40:46,440
of course you can go to the La Jazz Festival website.

777
00:40:46,480 --> 00:40:48,000
Speaker 3: It's still functioning.

778
00:40:49,239 --> 00:40:52,239
Speaker 1: Like my dad, the late Great and Mary Baraka used

779
00:40:52,280 --> 00:40:55,159
to say, a person is either free or they are

780
00:40:55,199 --> 00:40:59,400
not free. There can be no apprenticeship for freedom until tomorrow,

781
00:40:59,480 --> 00:41:02,039
my kbl A delegation One Love