Like the cork in a bottle of fine champagne, the AWOL organizer of a wine and music festival has suddenly popped up. But only to, er, whine.
As Page Six reported earlier this month, Sean Evans, founder and CEO of a popular traveling fest titled Blended Festival, had “gone missing” after allegedly “racking up over $6 million in unpaid debt from the festival.”
The fest’s first concert took place on Sept. 10 and Sept. 11 in Nashville with acts such as Lil Jon and the Chainsmokers headlining.
Acts including T.I., G-Eazy, Loud Luxury and others were set to hit the stage for various other dates, including upcoming shows in Tampa, Fla., this month.
Until, that is, Evans allegedly skipped town after the Nashville dates, allegedly “leaving hundreds of employees, vendors, talent and investors holding their hands out to get paid.”
But now we hear Evans has finally bubbled up to the surface, Page Six has learned.
On Nov. 14, Evans reemerged in the inboxes of his former employees and contractors insisting, “I have in no way acted fraudulently nor have I benefited in any way from the disaster, quite the opposite,” he wrote.
The company’s Instagram account, which we’re told was operated by a third party, previously announced the cancellation of the festival, and also alleged Evans “has been absent as of October 1st” and that “he disabled staff emails and left the team with no answers to be found.” Insiders confirmed that situation to us, but Evans claimed that those behind the messages were not social media managers – but hackers out to get him.
In the Nov. 14 email obtained by Page Six, Evans claimed the “social media accounts were, and still are, illegally hijacked… seemingly as an attempt to frame me as a fraud in the media.”
He then blamed “one, or perhaps even several individuals [who have] decided to use their desperation to justify committing potentially criminal acts against the company. Their choices have unfortunately resulted in alienating one of the potential buyers who would have provided funding that would have resulted in a positive outcome for everyone.”
Facebook/Sean Evans
Facebook/Sean Evans
Facebook/Sean Evans
We’re told that despite his email, nobody related to the festival has otherwise “spoken to him at all.”
Still, there is some light at the end of the tunnel — for potential festival goers at least. After the festival canceled its remaining events, Events.com sent out an update promising to “continue to pursue the event organizer” to recover the funds, but said they “will begin to process full refunds” to ticket holders.
Evans was also recently spotted at the Wonderfront Festival in San Diego, Calif., where we’re told he looked as if he might have enjoyed a mischievous vino or two.
Our emails to Evans and his company bounced back, calls to his cell went straight to voicemail and he appears to have deleted most of his online presence, including his LinkedIn page. He also did not respond to our text messages.
