Blended Festival CEO resurfaces and blames ‘hacked’ accounts
Like the cork on a bottle of fine champagne, the AWOL organizer of a wine and music festival suddenly popped up. But only to, uh, whine.
As Page Six reported earlier this month, Sean Evans, founder and CEO of a popular traveling festival called Blended Festival, had “disappeared” after allegedly “racking up over $6 million in unpaid festival debt. “.
The first concert of the festival took place on September 10 and 11 in Nashville with artists such as Lil Jon and the Chainsmokers headlining.
Acts such as TI, G-Eazy, Loud Luxury and others were scheduled to take the stage for various other dates, including upcoming shows in Tampa, Florida this month.
Until Evans allegedly left town after the Nashville appointments, allegedly “leaving hundreds of employees, salespeople, talent and investors reaching out to get paid.”
But now we learn that Evans has finally come to the surface, Page Six has learned.
On November 14, Evans reappeared in the inboxes of his former employees and contractors insisting, “I have in no way acted fraudulently or benefited in any way from the disaster, otherwise,” he wrote.
The company’s Instagram account, which we’re told was managed by a third party, previously announced the cancellation of the festival, and also alleged that Evans “has been absent since October 1” and that “he had disabled staff emails and left the team with no response to be found.Insiders confirmed this to us, but Evans claimed that those who originated the posts were not social media handlers – but hackers to catch it.
In the Nov. 14 email obtained by Page Six, Evans claimed that “social media accounts were, and still are, illegally hijacked… apparently as an attempt to portray me as a media fraud.”
He then accused “one, or even several individuals [who have] decided to use their desperation to justify committing potentially criminal acts against the company. Their choices unfortunately resulted in alienating one of the potential buyers who would have provided funding that would have resulted in a positive outcome for everyone.
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We’re told that despite his email, no one connected to the festival has otherwise “talked to him at all”.
Still, there is light at the end of the tunnel, at least for potential festival-goers. After the festival canceled its remaining events, Events.com sent an update promising to “continue to pursue the event organizer” to recover the funds, but said they would “begin processing refunds. sold out” to ticket holders.
Evans was also recently spotted at the Wonderfront Festival in San Diego, Calif., where we’re told he looked like he enjoyed a playful wine or two.
Our emails to Evans and his company bounced, calls on his cell phone 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.