Blueprint Music Festival organisers pay some bands

A NUMBER of bands have secured payment following the failure of the Blueprint Music Festival in Ararat last month.Ballarat bands Epicure and Matheson were among those affected when festival organisers amassed a debt of $500,000 leaving them unable to pay.However, Premier Artists, which booked about nine of the more than 50 acts, confirmed yesterday it had received payment for 90 per cent of the bands.The Courier believes there is still money outstanding for certain acts, as well as for contractors, security and publicity agencies.Brothers Tristan and Aaron Gray from Croydon organised the three-day event that featured a number of big Australian bands, such as The Panics and Jebediah. The Courier revealed yesterday the pair had disappeared after the festival failed to make enough money to cover costs.In an email to their publicist, Chrissie Vincent Publicity and Management, on October 2, Tristan said attempts to recover money would be unsuccessful as the pair had no assets."Unfortunately, the festival lost nearly $500,000 and all attempts to recover money and find investors has failed," he wrote."Aaron and I had best intentions when entering into this, however, the music industry being as s*** as it is every single person out there has tried to take advantage of us which is one of the reasons we are in this mess.". . . we will never be doing this again and Aaron and I are moving on, I must insist you do too."