The Wicked World's Fair - one of the videos

 I want to shout-out all the vendors who are making information public regarding the failure of Wicked Worlds Fair. You all found yourselves in a very bad situation and you are taking control of it. I'm sorry that no one warned you before you got involved with JM but I am so glad to see you all raising awareness!

This is the most enlightening video with the best angle that I've seen. Many thanks to "The Nail in the Coffin" for posting the original. I apologize for the screen recording.

 

More videos can be found: 

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPR3sroRN/

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTL1SDMYC/

Mad May Market - Vendor review

Forwarded to me by a friend who had asked a vendor how Mad May Market was...

 

"There was zero to no traffic, most of the people I saw were staying at the camp grounds. The regulars at the bar had no idea that there was an event going on. Zero to no signage for the event. 

...

If they sold 100 wristbands that day, I'd be shocked."

"I feel bad, I met this one woman who traveled from Philly and paid to stay at the resort, hoping to make a profit. No one made any money." 

As per usual, if anyone else has more information about this event or others, or about Blackthorne as a venue (I'm hearing some interesting rumors currently), please feel free to comment. All comments are moderated before posting. 

Vendor gift certificates

 I was recently contacted by someone who was considering vending at the Oddities Market at Blackthorne. Since they were on one of the email threads, they got a chain email called "Good luck getting Jeff to Pay you"

This email brought up the vendor gift certificates (formerly known as "Jeff Bucks") and:

"In this email it details how he's telling vendors there's no money left to pay them, trying to get them to roll over their credit to next year, threatening to ban them from every even in the north east, etc."

According to JM, he paid out $13,000 in vendor gift certificates. 

Per the email snippets I was sent, it sounds like some people were paid and others were not. 

Can vendors please confirm this information? Were you paid? 

I would also like to share this snippet from a conversation on the Discord server:

Handler:

you helped spread the message that we were short on cash and wanted people to roll over their gift certs into next year. 

which is exactly the message I wanted you to spread. 

but I love catching you people and dissecting you. The wounded innocence. The pretended noninvolvement. The coincidental nonanswers. The way you say one thing to me, then I have screenshots of you saying other things to other people. 

JM: email to vendors

 A reminder to everyone to steer clear of JM and his events. This is the type of email he sends out. This email was sent out to former vendors:

"Hello!

Have you vended with me before and made a ton of money?

Yes, you have.

Behold! Your last chance. 

Come vend at the Halloween City Vendor and Oddities Market! It's got 3,000 people and you'll do very well. 

Otherwise, I expect to never, ever see a single one of you complain that I took your money, stole your money, or cheated me, and I'll sue you if I see you say it without documentation, because it's not true. Tammy Shipps, Silver Phoenix, and Michael Whitehouse took your money. You can believe what you want; but because this is what I do, my vendors make money, their vendors make nothing, since they do nothing. 

Come vend with us. Email me.

Or, you know, claim that I robbed you, which is both libel and slander, and no good between friends. Up to you! 

Last chance. Email me back and make money, or ignore me and lose money. Your hoice [sp]. 

Sincerely,

Jeff Mach,

greatest promoter in the Northeast"

Also, a reminder about gaslighting (i.e., "when someone intentionally twists your perception of reality for their own gain"). I'm not saying that JM is gaslighting anyone, but please consider for yourself:

Who really had the SPWF funds?

 TS is attempting to track what actually happened to the funds from SPWF, because she states she does not have them. I am waiting for further details, but it seems what happened was: 

You buy a ticket via TicketLeap.

*Unnamed Company* received the money from your purchase. 

*Unnamed Company* cut a check to JME. 

JME has the money from your ticket. 

This makes the paper trail harder to follow. If anyone has the paper trail, I'd be happy to clarify and post said information. 

Now, of course, SF in their email to me stated that SPS had control of the SPWF account, but that is also not verified. There is a lot of "they said" in this whole money trail. 

Confusion (re: NC and JM)

While many of us are in mourning for the loss of a friend, JM sent the following email to (redacted): 

Date: March 19th, 2021 at 1:02 AM 

All right, chaps - 

Can I send the text below, reasonably unaltered, to *redacted* to throw some documentable shade at one of their rare semi-support allegations of welshing... where they claim I owed Niki's dad money for unspecified services for which I had no bill, and having not thought of it for years, it suddenly came up. I STILL offered to pay out of my own pocket, and Nikki (you and likely Google Nikki Cohen Owl's Eye)- Nikki claims that I stiffed her dad for a big ($2000?) invoice that nobody can find, for services nobody can prove happened. 

What think you? 

See posts here (Chat log published March 2019) and here for details. 

Then on March 20th, JM posted to his Facebook (public post): 

PERSON: You monster, you stole X money from Y person, and I can prove it by having ZERO receipts, ZERO invoices, ZERO proof, ZERO information, and also you can prove that you paid that person.

 

 

As far as I know, NC has not brought this up again. I'm not sure why JM did. I'm also not sure why JM decided to bring this up as our community has lost a friend. (Please also note that this is something JM has done before: attacking someone else when a pillar of the community has passed. I do not have all the screencaps, and I cannot find the posts, but JM went after GC when Hugh passed away). 

Steampunk World's Fair page updated and emails

 

The image below states: 

Current State of Affairs, Feb. 2021

The Steampunk World’s Fair is currently on hiatus and plans to begin anew once the global pandemic has calmed down and large physical gatherings are safe once again. Stay safe until then!

Please note that the SPWF has not been affiliated with Jeff Mach Events since the rights were sold to Tammy Shipps in March of 2018. For more information, please read this article on the Daily Beast and visit here for more in-depth backstory.

I also have below a screencap of an email from JM to TS regarding SPWF: 

This reads: 

Hello Jeff. Lovely to hear from you. 

Firstly, I'm going to assume that, once again, you failed at communication and did not mean the Evil Expo. Proofreading is your friend.

Unfortunately for you, I am actually using the IP and have been for a while. I've got software in development for SPWF, Wicked Faire, and Glimmerdark, going on a year underway. We've been active in the Facebook communities, too. (If you'd done your research, I think you'd have noticed that it has not been 3 years since the IP went dormant. Need proof? https://www.reddit.com/r/steampunk/comments/hjezp9/input_requested_i_own_the_ip_for_spwf_and_have_no/ 

I do see that you trademarked an in-use name, and I have begun opposition paperwork for it. The trademark office does make mistakes from time to time. Good thing there is a remedy for those! 

And, lastly, AGAIN, please contact me only via lawyer. I'll be forced to file for a harassment protection order, otherwise. (Consent is important, is it not?)

On Mon, Feb 15, 2021 at 1:28 AM Jeff Mach <jeff@jeffmachevents.onmicrosoft.com> wrote:

Dear Tammy, 

In additional to popular failure, breach of conduct, and quatter's right as you've avoided the event for years, I demand all access to Evil Expo documentation, social social media tools, and the website itself. I demand them immediately, today, or I will be forced ti take this  both to court, and the court of public opinion. Rest assured I have large amounts of proof on my side. 

The above is just part of what you owe me;and I am about my respect for the law to begin discussing it ASAP. 

Meanwhile, this is JM's interpretation: 

Steampunk World's Fair update:

This is only my opinion/interpretation of the email she sent, but to my understanding, she basically said: while she is not attempting to fix the damage she caused or help the people whom she harmed through the cancellation of The Steampunk World's Fair, she will attempt to take aggressive action against anyone who tries to help the people who WERE harmed.

I feel like she may no longer be upholding the hypothetical SPS values of trying to help vendors, performers, and attendees of SPWF.

Again, that's my interpretation of her wording. But I wanted to keep you in the loop as this continues.

Make of it all what you will.  

 

 

 

 

Just more reminders (SPWF)

SPS Q&A Feb 26th, 2018

IP transfer paperwork signed March 18th, 2018

SPWF Cancelled Update 3/22/18

"Conflicting Words" update, Feb 5th, 2021 (from someone close to JM & SPS)

From what I know, which is clearly not everything in this regard, because I was not there and not involved, JM/Widdershins, does not own the intellectual property to Steampunk World's Fair or to Wicked Fair. They gave it to TS in March 2018. However, JM does have some sort of patent/trademark on the phrase "The Steampunk World's Fair" as of 2019*. 

Silver Phoenix Society did not run a SPWF in May 2018 because they could not. There was conflict with the hotel and there was confusion over money. I don't know who actually had access to those funds, or even if there were funds at that point. 

I would love to be able to clarify further, but I do not have further information. 

Again, I want to remind everyone to please be safe, especially when it comes to public gatherings. Please wear masks (N95s or KN95s are best) and wash your hands. Or better yet, don't go to public gatherings. 

We isolate now

So when we gather again

No one is missing

Many of us have already lost people. Please be safe out there. 

*Which, sidenote, is odd because originally Watch City in Waltham, MA was supposed to be the Steampunk World's Fair, but JM claimed it instead. P.S., Watch City is always a fun time! It looks like they are doing a virtual event in May 2021. 

UPDATE re: conflicting words

 A year ago I posted Conflicting Words and I sat on the information out of respect for the person who had contacted me. Since they did out themselves, here is some of the information that they sent to me. I still paraphrased from their email because I did tell them I would not post verbatim. 

Re: SPWF

The night before SPWF was cancelled; there was a meeting at the Embassy. The plan was to get rid of the Midway state, since it was always iffy anyway. New vendors were found, with people understanding the risks of an inexpensive booth and a small busking stage.  

The next day, MW cancelled SPWF on FB Live.

Supposedly there was a vote, but (OP) was not aware of one. 

Which clarifies who actually cancelled SPWF. 

Regarding money:

There was money in the account, and more in vendor invoices still owed (approx $70k). There was more money which went to Wicked, SPWF marketing, and staff salaries. Ticket and vendor money had been coming in since the previous May (some of it in cash which never made it to the company account). 

JM was locked out of that account intentionally by SPS so he didn’t know how much money was in it. All of the refund messages went to Jeff, but he had to email SPS members to approve or disapprove them. 

Regarding the IP transfer: 

There had been a buyer lined up for SPWF, instead of the IP transfer. There was one agreement originally and that one was replaced with what was finally signed. 

Generally summing up: 

It’s not going to go away even if Jeff goes away because it was never *just* Jeff. In fact, it was largely a *lot* of ex-staff, and almost all of them are still working in the event communities, especially the kink ones, or adjacent to them.