How we got the story: Freedom & Dignity Festival's cancellation
The abrupt cancellation of the Freedom and Dignity Music Festival scheduled for Aug. 10 at Schaumburg Boomers Stadium clearly required more activity at the Daily Herald than its smooth running would have.
I was out photographing a railroad interchange in Bartlett for another article in the early afternoon of Wednesday, Aug. 7, when colleagues in Arlington Heights received an email from the Schaumburg Boomers announcing the festival's cancellation.
The press release described the decision by promoter Imagn Events as a consequence of the Dan Gibbons Turkey Trot Foundation's termination of its agreement to be the festival's charitable beneficiary.
A statement from the foundation was included expressing its belief that Imagn was unable to meet its financial obligations to the festival.
At many companies, unexpected developments may be able to wait for someone to return from lunch - or even from vacation - but daily newspapers are not among them. While I returned to the office, Deputy City Editor Charles Keeshan began writing an article based on the press release for immediate posting online. It included the email's contact information for an Imagn Events associate to whom people with ticket-related questions could turn.
By the time I got back, attorney Sean P. Patrick had reached out to Keeshan on behalf of Imagn Events, asking that the phone number of the overwhelmed associate be removed and promising a further statement.
As Keeshan complied with that request, I reached out to Boomers General Manager Michael Larson for a direct contact for the foundation. He jokingly asked what had taken me so long.
I called foundation namesake Dan Gibbons and left a message asking for further details of his perspective but never heard back that day. The following day, Gibbons said he'd read that he couldn't be reached for comment but hadn't heard my recorded message until afterward.
Throughout that Thursday, I had periodic contacts with Gibbons and Patrick in which both parties blamed the other for primary responsibility in the festival's cancellation. That resulted in another article in which Imagn continued to threaten legal action.
On Friday, Patrick suggested a lawsuit could be filed by the end of the day, but we received no confirmation in time to do an article.
Late on Friday, Gibbons also emailed me a further statement and a detailed description of what he claimed to be the financial arrangements between the foundation and Imagn - information he'd said he hadn't felt at liberty to disclose the day before.
It was on Monday that I received confirmation from Patrick that Imagn had filed its breach-of-contract lawsuit on Friday. He also said statements the foundation had made on WGN and elsewhere would likely lead to a defamation count being added to the lawsuit.
As I was writing about the suit and adding Gibbons' emailed statements from late Friday, I emailed Patrick several times looking for confirmation that the defamation count would address the same statements I'd received. But I never received a response or an estimated time frame for the amended suit.
For the moment, the story ends there. We'll see what happens next - and we'll cover whatever that is.