Seeking advice about a yearly event at which I perform. It's a convention, the apex of which is a dance that is attended by about 1000 people over the course of the night.
Background:
The guy who is officially in charge of the musical entertainment is constantly getting in the way of the show. He is so incompetent and useless that the first year we played this show, he didn't actually know who was bringing the sound system or when they would be there - or really much of anything. The guy couldn't even hook up and troubleshoot any of the gear - after several hours, he sheepishly relegated himself to being a gofer after it was repeatedly established that he didn't know what to do, nor what to tell everyone else to do. When his old ex showed up at the event, I kid you not, he spent the day hiding from her in his hotel room while I and my assistant ran the sound board and did his job for him.
During the actual dance, he decided right before the show started that instead of sticking to the schedule, he was going to cut our slot down to 30 minutes so he could bring in his goth buddies (who were not scheduled to play, he just brought them in) and give them the choice times. About 10-15 minutes after our set, the crowd was about to riot unless we got back on. He tried once again to put his buddies back on... same thing again.
The next year (did I mention he booked himself for the choice slots even though he couldn't beatmatch?), he forgot to bring his music with him. Yes, he left his binder of CDs in another state and did not notice it until setup. All he had were some goth / 80s / adult contemporary out in his car. A friend and I had to give him two CDs to play. Unbeknownst to anyone at this event, his whole first set was just playing sequential tracks from my CD. When he ran out of our tracks, he ended with the 80s stuff from his car (this is normally a high energy event with a lot of hardstyle, electro, hardcore, etc.). This time he also booked no one but goth bands (he books the bands too) and goth DJs. The only reason it wasn't a complete travesty was that he had my CD with appropriate music (he kept the CD and played it at several other shows). There was a ton of backlash against the all-goth lineup, so you'd figure he learned his lesson, right?
Nope! The next year, it turned out that he never passed along our contract nor had it signed by the official staff (so everything from our handler to our badges was nonexistent). He didn't bring any new music - he downloaded a bunch of popular dubstep the day of the event and told us he was gonna just play that... whereas we had a massive selection of genres that go over well (dubstep kills the energy at this event after two songs - it's mostly a hard dance and electro show). He eventually agreed to bow out and just take the closing slot. Buuuuut then he set up his gear center stage, acted like he was playing during our set, and brought in a last-minute goth buddy (who didn't really even want to play, as he seemed to understand that this was a douche move and not his kind of gig) to take a chunk out of the timeslot we had agreed on.
Current issues:
This event has never had lighting, aside from maybe two little moonflowers and some stage washes, so this year I decided that I'd bring in a VJ and a lighting crew with a ton of lasers, strobes, etc. for our set. It's going to be a bigger year than ever - we're playing with Heavygrinder in a 600-person ballroom, and expecting record turnout - and I want to show the staff that (a) they need pro lighting to complement the pro sound, big room, and talent; and (b) that my crew goes beyond the call of duty, doing what the current joker is supposed to be doing and then some.
The problem is that this guy is cockblocking us on the lighting - he's trying to bring in his own awful VJ from Sheeprape Arkansas who only does creepy goth visuals (I think we have established a pattern here), and won't give us a straight answer on whether there will be real lighting or just some washes. Honestly, I think he knows that we're going to make a bid to provide everything from booking DJs and bands to lighting and visuals this next year (in fact, we already approached the event committee with our credentials, and they said we would be the obvious choice for next year), and is just grasping for ways to keep us out of the loop and out his goth buddies in any position he can.
The only reason this guy is in the position he's got is that he made a low bid for providing sound the year before we showed up, and he got buddy-buddy with some of the staff. From what I have heard from some staff, he is wearing out his welcome (he got "demoted" from core programming staff to just running the nightly music stuff, due to incompetence), but he has his supporters, and organizations like this tend to prefer stability to fixing non-critical things
The other DJ in my crew is telling me I should just get this guy's screwups out in the open so that his name is mud, but I don't want to cause drama, and I want to present the event staff with solutions, not issues. I feel like I should have just let him faceplant the year he forgot all his music, but one the other hand that would have let down the crowd. Some way, though, this guy has got to go before he starts ruining this otherwise great event. I can't bail him out of everything, and at this point he is preventing us from fixing things that desperately need to be dealt with (e.g., lighting).
I am not a man who is into subterfuge and brown-nosing, so I am a bit out of my element going up against this cocksucker.
tl;dr, I'm looking for the best way to oust this guy without a lot of fallout.
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Originally Posted by sephi
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