Vendors left unpaid after Country Life Music Festival

PUNTA GORDA, Fla.- Florida Tracks and Trails and Blu Entertainment Group pulled off Country Life Music Fest without a hitch. However, the companies tell WINK News it took a lot to keep the festival going.

“Florida Tracks and Trails was to split some revenues from the event and at the end of the day when we tried to do the final accounting, we never got paid what was owed to us,” said BJ Rosinus, the vice president of Tracks and Trails.

Now, there’s a battle brewing over unpaid bills. Tracks and Trails says it covered the $150,000 tab for headliner Reba McEntire.

Brad Maloney, concert promoter for Blu Entertainment says they were supposed to split roughly $300,000 of food and beverage sales with Track and Trails. Maloney says Blu’s half of that was supposed to cover Reba.

“I remind them, ‘hey listen I’m going to need the $150,000, our share of food and beverage to pay Reba,” said Maloney.

Rosinus says Blu still owes them tens of thousands of dollars, but Maloney wants proof.

“I said you give me the accounting, you give me the liquor invoices and the leftover inventory numbers and we’ll continue to talk. Well, he never sent them to me,” said Maloney.

Rosinus said, “As far as anything we owe them we provided them with all the invoices, everything that we did all our costs, food and beverage cost, we provided everything.”

While the companies sort this out, vendors are still wondering where their cut is.

“It appears that everybody else that wasn’t part of our deal aren’t getting paid. I don’t know what to tell these people because their contract wasn’t with us – yet they’re calling us because we’re the venue,” said Rosinus.