DEATH IN THE FOREST Festival Organizers Announce New Location

TJ Morris of Watchers Entertainment, one of the organizers of the Death In The Forest Festival — set to take place May 20 in upstate New York — has issued the following update regarding the festival's current status:

"First and foremost: Death In The Forest is still on. DITF was never off. We have been in the process of relocating, for a few reasons, which will be addressed shortly.

"Death In The Forest has been moved, less than 20 minutes, to the Catskill Mountain Ranch, located just outside of Wurtsboro, New York, in the town of Mamakating.

"The date is still the same: May 20th, 2006. The times are still the same. We will still have the same brutal bands, and still have the same great vendors. Only the location has changed.

"Catskill Mountain Ranch is literally in the middle of the woods (how perfect) and features a full-service paintball field (bring your own guns, the rentals will surely sell out) a pretty large skate park, and on-grounds camping. With the camping, you can come in the night before, have yourselves a little beer-b-que, see the greatest metal show to hit the tri-state area, and then have another bigger beer-b-que, all for less than the cost of one hotel room.

"As for the people who do have hotel rooms already booked in Middletown: CMR is less than 20 minutes away, and easily located from the middletown, new york area. We have made every attempt to relocate this event to an area within a reasonable distance to the Orange County Fair Grounds, and we feel that a 20-minute drive up the road is reasonable.

"You can Google the Catskill Mountain Ranch to call and book a spot for your tent, RV, or camper. They do have an online reservation feature, but we have been asked not to utilize this, as it is not so reliable.

"Now, as for the relocation. Let me start by saying that yes, in fact, we did feel it necessary to relocate from the OC Fair due to weather. The grounds at the OC Fair have been ill-kept, and only see action once a year for the annual fair. Our stages weigh about as much as a fully loaded semi-trailer, and anyone who knows about trucks knows that they sink in mud. That's not good for a multi-million dollar stage. Additionally, two of the stages would have located outside, so if in the event (and highly probable, in fact) that T-storms did hit the area, as forecasted, we would have had large metal structure swaying in the rain, while the equipment got soaked. not good. A decision had been made, even with the fairgrounds' approval, to relocate the stages.

"Now, for the bullshit. We did not tell everyone the bullshit between our company, Watchers Entertainment, and the Orange County Fair Grounds. And for good reason, we are not slanderers, and we have nothing to gain from brining to light thier business misdealings. However, when backed into a corner, there is no option except to attack. The OC Fair has a long history of extortion, both with our company, and with several others. We have been paying grease money (several thousands of dollars in cash) to the company that manages the Fairgrounds, ABS, or Associated Building Services.

"I will not name names of the employees, as we are involved in legal action against these individuals and thier parent company.

"We were told to come up with an additional $5,000 grease money on Monday or there would be no festival. I told them that there terms were absurd, and I was told to fuck off, and get them thier money. Well, I, with a lot of help from alot of people (ticket sales, personal loans, etc... Thanks Nick Roman, JP, Alex, Matt, Skylar, and the boys from Death Sick!!!) came up with the money overnight. not a small feat. We called the OC Fair back, and let them know we had their money. They said that they didnt want it, and that the fest wasn't going on... they were just gonna can it altogether.

"The OC Fair canned a different show last year a week before the event, with no solid explanation.

"Well, that's a breach of our contract, which is why we are suing them. That's as far as I will get into that.

"I will say that the people who run the races at the fair, namely the head of security, Jim, were angels, and were great to do business with. Good people, not enough of them. Thanks, guys.

"Now, for the accusation that we are broke, and have no money: Yeah, that's pretty damn close. Who else do you guys know that throws $120,000 of their own money at a dream? There's a only a few, I am sure, and it's hard to disrespect that. We are getting close to broke. The several thousand dollars that we have paid to the OC Fair as grease money hasn't helped. As for a bounced check, we put a stop on that check at our bank, not your business, but you guys should know. The only people that knew of this were us and the OC Fair. This proves that not only are they malicious, but they know how to use Blabbermouth.

"I have maxed out my own personal credit cards, diverted funds from other projects, and overall stuck my neck out for this event. But it will be worth it, if even one-tenth of the expected crowd shows up. Fuck, even if there's only three of you guys out there sreaming, it will still be phenomenal.

"So in short: There is still a Death In The Forest Festival. There always was a DITF. It has only moved. Directions and further info will become available within the next few hours on www.deathintheforest.com.

"I personally want to thank everyone who has helped Watchers Entertainment out over the past few days, weeks, months, and years. We are nothing with you guys, and we are nothing without the fans. A sincere thanks, indeed."