Four-day music festival in Appleton falls apart after organizer can't secure permit
APPLETON - SmoshFest, an inaugural music festival that was scheduled June 15 to 18 at Jones Park, has fallen apart.
The city's Safety and Licensing Committee voted 4-0 Wednesday to deny a special event license to festival organizer William Dorman.
"We'd really love to see an event like this take place in Appleton," committee member Alex Schultz told Dorman. "We're a music city, and this feels like it fits in there, but again, we've got to get a little bit ahead and allow city staff to do the things that are necessary to pull something like this off."
By Thursday, the event website, smoshfest.com, had been taken down, and the event's Facebook page listed the festival as canceled.
City Clerk Kami Lynch listed a series of reasons why Dorman's application for a special event license was recommended for denial. They included:
Failure to pay the required park reservation fees.
Failure to provide a certificate of insurance showing adequate commercial general liability coverage for the event.
Failure to apply for a temporary alcohol license, despite indicating alcoholic beverages would be sold at the event.
Failure to secure a pyrotechnics permit from the Appleton Fire Department, despite indicating pyrotechnics would be used at the event.
Failure to provide the lineup of performers and the expected attendance for each performance so police could assess their staffing needs.
The event hours listed on the SmoshFest website were in violation of park rules and differed from the event hours listed on the application.
"I can't even get a Class B license right now," Dorman told the committee, "so it might as well just be a sober event the whole weekend."
Schultz said if the event were three months away, instead of three weeks, Dorman might be able to satisfy the requirements. The number of issues and the time crunch, however, were too much to overcome.
"If we were working on one item, I think we could help you get there," Schultz told Dorman, "but we still have a number of things, particularly the reservation of the park and the liability insurance and concerns from the police department. There's just a lot hanging out there that I don't feel we're going to be capable of resolving for your event."
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Dorman, operating as NEST Productions and Nolan's Safehouse, said he started work on SmoshFest four years ago as a way to give back to the community after his son survived surgery for craniosynostosis.
The SmoshFest website, before it was taken down, promoted hip-hop music on June 16, electronic dance music on June 17 and rock music on June 18. Advertised early bird tickets ranged from $20 for a single day to $60 for the full event.
Dorman acknowledged the launch of the festival didn't go according to plan.
"I haven't been able to successfully get everything accomplished due to the fact that I'm still under a bond hearing," Dorman told the committee. "They keep moving the court dates. I was unjustifiably arrested for a false crime that I didn't commit."
Online court records show Dorman is charged with felony strangulation and suffocation, misdemeanor battery and misdemeanor disorderly conduct in Outagamie County. The case is scheduled for a jury trial in August.
Dorman paid $607 for the special event application. He asked whether he could get the money back but was told the fee is not refundable.
Contact Duke Behnke at 920-993-7176 or dbehnke@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DukeBehnke.
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This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Inaugural SmoshFest in Appleton falls apart amid permitting issues
