Updated 4/4/18 – 16:40 CST
Did you know that there is a Power Rangers convention happening this weekend in Sydney, Australia? An exclusive event with only 1,000 tickets and over a dozen Power Rangers guests? An event that was in the works for well over a year?
Guess what? It isn’t.
This event was created by Edward Townsend, who runs Townsend Media & Marketing. A marketing company I wouldn’t trust, just by looking at what they produced for this event. These banners posted on the event Facebook page are a few examples of their ‘skills’ and both are cut off. The one with their name looks like bad cut and paste graphics.
At least he actually gives some credit to the creator for the decent looking graphics he used on most of his announcements, but unfortunately that is all the graphic artist actually received as compensation. Mr. Townsend ceased communications with the graphic artist and never did pay him for the good artwork used in the celebrity announcements.
Tickets
Tickets were available at Moshtix and Eventbrite, both list the weekend of April 7 and 8 for 2018. Moshtix even had a location listed – SHARKIES – Cronulla Sutherland Sharks Leagues Club. However, when I emailed the facility to ask if it was even looked at as a possible venue or possibly even booked, I received a response of “Definitely not here!”
The event was listed before they even had a guest or a venue. It was all speculation as names were listed on Facebook under the guise of asking what the fans wanted to see. Tickets went on sale and fans purchased them, in eager anticipation. Then finally, the names and announcements started rolling out.
This event listed guests such as: Michael Copon, Blake Foster, Christopher Khayman Lee, Robert Axelrod, Roger Velasco, Selwyn Ward, Melody Perkins, Adam Tuominen, and Jorgito Vargas Jr.. If you are familiar with Power Rangers, then that is a pretty impressive list.
Even some of the celebs themselves were good to go, judging by their own posts:
Australia! Get ready, I will see you at Power Down under in 2018! #powerdownunder #letsrocket #powerranger #turbo… https://t.co/cCGy3Y02kO
— Roger Velasco (@TheRogerVelasco) August 16, 2017
However, it seemed that most of those announcements were made while the contracts were in negotiations. In fact, some of those announced names never even saw a contract. There were some contracts signed, but the organizer is in violation of those contracts, as he never paid their retainers/and or guarantees as required by the contracts. Others he used their names without permission.
Everything started to fall apart halfway through 2017. Admittedly, there were some ‘contract’ issues as agents, reps and actors battled it out over contracts and fees, but even once those were resolved, there were issues.
Many contracts were not returned to the agents and communications fell off. Then in October:
“No further updates will be issued due to behind the scenes dramas that are delaying the event the continue production. At this stage the event will go ahead, dates are likely to change due to the technical issues.”
In December:
“No confirmation of venue and dates will be sorted until the new year.
For all those with concerns who are contacting agents and actors, please be mindful that these people are trying their best to provide information whilst things are being sorted behind the scenes to see this event go ahead.
New dates and a new venue will be put forward mid January after the holidays.”
Since then, nothing. No dates, no new announcements. The events are still up and, as of today, you can even still buy tickets on EventBrite.
There are a lot of people that are out money. Per the organizers own words on July 29, 2017, “So far we’ve seen a great number of tickets already purchased.”
Some of those people got their money back by filing disputes with the ticket sellers and/or Paypal, but there are still a lot of people out there with tickets for a dead event, at a location that was never booked.
On top of that he is in violation for the contracts that were signed. Those contracts come with guarantees and/or retainers, as far as I can tell, no one received money. He also illegally used names and images to promote his event, the ones without contracts, never gave permission for him to promote them.
I have reached out to Mr. Townsend and Townsend Media & Marketing and have gotten no responses, so I can only assume that there are no plans to carry through with this convention.
If you have tickets, I suggest you contact your credit card company, EventBrite, Paypal, Moshtix and anyone else involved in the transaction and fight for your money.
