Last Saturday Mark Farina booted from the decks, literally. Management informed him that he played "too much house" for the crowd. Marquee then replaced Mark with another DJ who performed a generic set.
It was a crazy move that you rarely read about, but it happened. It was embarrassing for the artist and the outpouring support makes the whole situation uncomfortable.
When Mark Farina sounded off on his twitter non other then the controversial DJ Sneak offered up his advice. Unfortunately Mark was unable to make things happen because the "Bottle Service" was complaining too much.
Bottle service people have to be the worst people in a nightclub. Just a bunch of doofus' that think they can do anything in the nightclub because they are pissing away $1500+ dollars. you know those assholes that smoke in boston nightclubs even tho its illegal? Newsflash...
...your cheap euro-trash white shoes and bottle service aren't getting you laid, nor is your lack of open mindedness to chicago house.
Earlier this year, Dennis Ferrer suffered the same fate at a performance at Mansion, when he was yanked in favor of someone playing a more generic setlist. There was an outcry then about mansions move that spread far beyond south beach. You'd think Vegas would have learned a lesson.
Funny part of this whole mess is Mark Farina is booked to play the same venue for EDCBiz this week. I wonder who will be "booted" this time around: artist or venue?
As usual its the fans that suffer!
Keith Evan, the opening DJ had this to say on 128andup.com:
"Well I just got home last night from an incredibly long weekend and what a weekend it was. I guess the first thing I want to say is this recent episode of events that took place in Las Vegas was an unfortunate one for everyone involved. I am confident something POSITIVE will stem from this.
To be clear this was not one of my events. I was solely booked to play at it. Regardless this is the first time in my career that I have personally witnessed something like this with my name on the bill. Being a liason for the deep house community to Las Vegas and the rest of the world, I feel it is important to shed some light here.
I want to encourage everyone to research the history of the deep house movement in Las Vegas and its progression which I am proud to say have played a pivotal part in its pioneering over the past 12 years.
Like alot of you, I feel the frustration when something like this occurs. Try 12 years of it dedicating my life on a day to day basis educating and performing for a city which thrives on commercialism and "bottle service". We hold our “sound” and the COMMUNITY of it very close to us and our passion can be heard. Like a lot of you I also am very protective of what we all LOVE. So believe me as disappointed some of you are, I hope you can imagine how disappointing this is for me.
The obvious is nobody deserves what happened, nor did Jazzy Jeff or Dennis Ferrer, nor Mark in this case, but pointing fingers and making haste opinions without the facts will not promote POSITIVE change. Of course in a perfect world we know there is no excuse for what happened. The bottom line is if 4000 people were coming in support for our line-up this wouldn't have been an issue.
As a result of what took place I am relieved to inform you I have already been contacted by Marquee and they have extended a written apology and have assured me they “want to fix this.” That in itself is a testament of the POSITIVE evolution of Las Vegas. That type of humility should be acknowledged and believe me I am all eyes and ears.
Las Vegas doesn't "suck". It is what it is. Sometimes I felt that way too. Having lived there for 12 years I’ve had my moments. I realize my appreciation for Las Vegas might differ aas my invested interest there is my “life work” in a lot of ways. My journey has witnessed the reality of “corporate” Las Vegas opening its doors to me/us and offering their beautiful venues including all the “bells and whistles” as a platform for us to create and interpret what we do as deep house/global soul music ambassadors.
I offer to share with anyone my story so you can better understand its evolution and Las Vegas itself. One thing I want to mention about Las Vegas in its defense and why I believe in that city so much and have put my effort and dedicated a large part of my life there is because we have the opportunity to reach so many people at one time whom visit there from all over the world on a daily basis. I see tremendous value in that for our music. Unfortunately there is a dark side challenging our commitment and that is the price I/we pay and together we all have to witness at times with all the dynamics involved in these types of environments.
I don’t know all the facts yet but there seems to be a lot of speculation from reading posts and articles. From what I heard at the event and from what I witnessed, my guess is the decision by Marquee management to not have Mark play had a monetarily driven motive and unfortunately in these types of environments we put ourselves at risk of this on that type of stage. It’s rare when it happens but it happens. This had nothing to do with Mark, nor Miguel, nor Julius, nor myself. As disrespectful it feels and as bad as it looks, it didn’t surprise me this happened because I know that’s the nature of their game.
I felt inclined to share this and I am hopeful their {Marquee} response to what happened will be a POSITIVE one. Lets hope what happened serves as a platform for “what not to do” within their policies. I always feel like with the right communication these types of situations can be avoided even if it was a decision driven by money. Sometimes it takes moments like this for a change to begin.
I wish everyone to see in their hearts to not give up on “Vegas” or any CITY for that matter that is harboring a music scene for all of us to enjoy. There are really great things going on in Las Vegas and there is a great community of people in support there and their dedication is one of equal. Las Vegas is not alone with these types of situations. They/We can’t survive without you and We all need each other’s support because WE are all part of the same COMMUNITY world wide. Thank you for reading. Keith"
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