Fans at Wintersalt Festival in San Francisco this weekend got a glimpse into some behind the scenes drama between djs (or rather, between djs managers). For those not present, Wintersalt was headlined by Zedd, Dillon Francis and Paper Diamond. On Stage 1, there was a brief intermission after Dillon Francis. On Stage 2, Revolvr began his set. Obviously, a majority of festival goers went to stage 2. But just after starting, the sound was cut off intentionally by stage managers. This was done by order from the manager of Travis Barker – apparently, they thought Revolvr should stop and delay his set until Travis Barker had begun his own. Confused by the complete silence from stage 2, the crowd dispersed back to Stage 1 where Barker launched into a drum solo.
“I started my first track, energy was amazing…then seconds later to silence. They just told me I wasn’t allowed to play until Barker finished his drum solo. At first I thought it was a joke,” stated Revolvr in a press release.
Lemme go out on a limb and say – you should just BE READY when its your turn to get on stage. Intermissions are obviously going to lead to the crowd leaving the area, especially at a festival with other talent. But what blows the mind here is that the sound was just yanked without any explanation to the artist, then “oh yea hey, you can't DJ yet because Barker wants more of the crowd. Sorry.” Clearly, it would have been more polite to request that Revolvr delay — or, just do what a truly talented big name artist would do – play better music on the mainstage. No matter how famous someone becomes, they should always legitimately compete for crowd attention – sneaking behind stage and cutting off sound in order to gain fans? Not cool. Comments on Barker's facebook page are a Public Relations nightmare…
And Revolvr and Barker have been having some words via Twitter.
In the meantime, promoters/stage managers at Wintersalt have released a statement taking the blame.
Barker, formerly the drummer from Blink 182, didn't seem apologetic and when he ‘found out' wasn't empathetic either. His position can best be summarized by his tweet below:
