EVERGREY: Israeli Festival Cancellation Is Organizer's Fault

EVERGREY guitarist/vocalist Tom Englund has issued a statement in response to an Israeli promoter's explanation for the cancellation of the group's appearance at at the second annual Metalist Festival, set to be held August 26 at the Hangar 11 venue in Tel-Aviv, Israel. Englund's statement reads as follows:

"To clear things up.

"When the Metalist management contacted us about doing this festival we were VERY excited to be able to see Israel cause it is a country that we never had visited before, so when the oppurtunity came we jumped on it in a second.

"I will now spill out ALL the facts comcerning this trip.

"We agreed to play for 700 dollars (which is an amount we never ever play for normally) in order to please our fans in Israel and then the organisers would also pay for hotels and flight tickets.

"We would travel from Gothenburg where we live on Wednesday to Tel-Aviv. We would stay there until Friday in order to get home in time for our production rehearsal with the choir and stringquartet that we have to do in order to make the DVD and this was THE only weekend we have free before the gig , all other weekends and weekdays we are doing shows and/or promotional work for the new album.

"So everything was set and agreed on in CONTRACT (which if I need to can post as proof as well).

"This last Thursday we went on tour in Germany and STILL had not received the flight tickets. When we finally received the flight times for our outgoing trip, it was booked from Stockholm ??? which is about a 6-hour car drive from here instead of Gothenburg where we have like 10 minutes to the airport. So we told them that they had to rebook the tickets so that they wuld leave from Gothenburg instead. This was impossible for them to do since they already had paid the tickets so then we told them that in that case they had to pay for a car driving us to Stockholm with all of our gear.

"After a lot of discussion and being very close to cancelling they finally said that they would pay an extra 1000 dollar in order to get us there. THIS HAPPENED THE SAME DAY AS WE HAD TO DRIVE TO STOCKHOLM!!! This money were suppose to cover the car rent, a driver and also the flight tickets that we needed in order to get back to Gothenburg in time for our production rehearsal starting on Friday night. That money of course never covered even a 3rd of those costs B U T us in EVERGREY decided we would do this gig ANYWAY, even though it meant A LOT of lost money for us personally, I will specify exactly how much in the end of this letter.

"So then finally at 24.00hrs Thursday night we jumped in the car with all of our gear and went to Stockholm Airport about 530 km away we arrived at 05.30. We went to get the tickets from the ticket office cause the only thing we received from Metalist Festival was a bookingnumber for the tickets. Our soundguy came back with the tickets saying that we would not be able to go since the return flight was booked back on SUNDAY!!! This was not an option!

"So we tried to get other tickets but they were non-refundable and new tickets costed 9744:- DOLLARS impossible and the festival would not want to pay that money either. So that left us with the only choice that we had to call our management at 06.00 in the morning telling him the facts, he tried calling someone in Israel but they didn't answer so we had to cancel. So we had to buy new flight tickets home since the car left already. We immediately told Metalist Festival that they had to post a explanation that the error was THEIR error not OURS. We spoke to our distributor in Israel and he also would make sure that EVERYONE would understand that this is N O T!!! our fault at all.

"Here is what money WE lost on this trip without even going!

Car rent/gas: 584,65 dollars
Driver: 259,00 dollars
Soundguy: 300,00 dollars
Flight tickets: 909,00 dollars
Taxi from airport to our studio: 70,00 dollars
Overweight (on the flight back): 565 dollars.

Total Amount: 2187,65 Dollars

"We are truly sorry for your dissapointment and understand that you also put a lot of money into this and are extremely upset at the moment with all right.

"BUT for those of you who are doubting our story, won't believe our intentions, despite the obvious loss of a severe amount of money for us pesonally, and rather believe in the organisers, who still not have posted the facts, which they agreed on, that this was ALL their fault.

"To all of you we just want to say that we are happy you shown your real faces and proved that you never ever were true EVERGREY fans anyways."