Updated Wednesday, March 13, 2024
“I was a witness to the Apocalypse.” Those were the words of one participant at the Wicked World’s Fair (WWF), a self-described “Steampunk/Polygenre Festival” that took place Feb. 23-25 at the SureStay Plus hotel in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Participants described scenes of overcrowding, lax security, and, in one case, ceiling tiles that crashed near a vendor’s table. Some vendors said they were shortchanged on spaces they had paid for. The crew hired to provide sound and lighting for music performances left early because they hadn’t been paid. Participants reported that attempts to get refunds through Eventbrite were declined.
Some participants from the event have joined forces in a new Facebook group, Disgruntled Wicked Vendors, which now has more than 100 members.
At the center of it all was festival producer Jeff Mach, a controversial figure best known as the organizer of the Steampunk World’s Fair in New Jersey.
The Steampunk Explorer spoke with many WWF participants, including volunteers who assisted Mach in planning for the event. We recorded more than six hours of interviews via Zoom and received additional eyewitness accounts via email and Facebook Messenger.
We also offered Mach a chance to respond. We posed our questions and received his responses via Facebook Messenger. This was the platform he used when he asked us to cover the event in advance. We declined to do so.
Some questions remain, and we plan to continue following this story. Here’s what we can report so far.
Vendors Overbooked
Many problems seen at WWF had a single root cause, our sources said: Mach signed up more vendors than the space could realistically accommodate. He also lost the services of his vendor coordinator, Kim Lewison, who had been working for him as a volunteer since May 2023.
Lewison said the areas that she originally designated for vendors could hold a maximum of 65 spots. Most of these, she said, were in the Hanover Grande Ballroom. By Jan. 13, she said, the event had sold 80 vendor spaces and she told Mach that it was overbooked. According to her account, Mach told her that it wasn’t overbooked and that he would assign the vendor spots.
As of Feb. 10, two weeks prior to the opening, the vendor count was 85, she said. That same day, she said, she told Mach that she would step down as the vendor coordinator—an unpaid position—after the event closed. Mach, she said, immediately cut off her access to internal communication channels. He now says that she was fired. She did not attend the event.
Mach was also assisted by Maria Daggett, a volunteer whose responsibilities included logistics and operations. She, too, is no longer involved with his events, but unlike Lewison, she stayed on board for the duration of WWF.
This set the stage for the festival’s opening on Feb. 24.
Daggett and other sources told us that vendors were placed in rooms originally designated for other purposes, such as panels and musical performances.
For example, two meeting rooms originally set aside for panels, Muhlenberg and Cedar Crest, “became cram-them-in vendor space,” Daggett said.
A hotel bar known as The Bar With No Name, she said, was originally slated to be a vendor-free area with a performance stage. But then vendors were placed here as well.
Some vendors were also placed in hallways. Daggett said the original plan called for a small number of authors and artists who would have tables in a wide hallway outside the Grande Ballroom. But with the overflow of vendors, some were placed in a second hallway that was narrower.
This hallway was so crammed, sources told us, that attendees had to walk single file to get through. Some said the arrangement was likely not ADA-compliant because there was insufficient room for mobility equipment.
Multiple sources reported seeing a vendor operating from a coat closet. “She only came out to take pictures of people, and then she’d go back in,” one participant recalled.
Aside from the vendor count, some vendors said they received spaces smaller than what they had paid for.
Prices ranged from $75 for an artist or author table to nearly $500 for a 10x10-foot table with access to electrical power, plus advertising in the WWF playbill. However, Mach would periodically offer discount coupons, Lewison said, which accounts for reports from vendors that they paid varying amounts for similar spaces.
Mach’s Response
Mach disputed the notion that he had booked too many vendors. He told us that the final vendor count was 85, but that the hotel could have accommodated 115.
“Kim and Maria both essentially advocated for the idea that the only place to put vendors was the Grande Ballroom,” he said. “That is a normal sci-fi convention idea, and one we started rejecting a good twenty years ago.”
He said that with vendors in one ballroom, “people tend to visit them once, maybe twice, and not be as motivated to explore all the vendors or sample/purchase more of what they’re selling.”
However, the Grande Ballroom also included the event’s main entertainment stage. According to the schedules posted on the website, it was slated for activities including costume contests, musical performances, and a magic show.
Even here, “the room was packed full of vendors including right in front of the stage,” said one attendee who requested anonymity. “The vendors in the middle of the room had tall screens dividing their space from the vendors behind them, so you could not even see the stage.”
We were shown a video of the room that appeared to support this account.
Leaking Water and Falling Tiles
Lewison and Daggett both gave high marks to the hotel staff. The facility itself was another matter.
One vendor, who requested anonymity, said she paid for a 10x10-foot space in addition to advertising in the playbill. She ended up with a 6x6-foot spot in the Hanover Grande Ballroom.
Shortly after setting up, “we noticed water dripping from the ceiling,” she said. “A couple of hours later, the leak became a steady stream of water.” After she informed Mach and hotel staff, “the hotel gave us a bucket and told us to put it under the leak,” she said.
Then two ceiling tiles fell near the table, one of which narrowly missed hitting her, she said.
After she waited for hours, she said, Mach took her to a series of alternative locations. One was outside the hotel bar, “but this would have blocked traffic into the hotel and was denied as a fire hazard,” she said. She ended up in a hallway outside the Fireside Ballroom.
“When I asked Jeff about a refund for my space and the playbill advertising, since I did not get what I had paid for, I was offered free space in his next show,” she said. When she asked again for a refund, she said, Mach walked away.
This was Mach’s response: “You do know that I don’t own that hotel, right? That we obviously had no idea the ballroom would do that, that we would never want this, and that this also contributed to the loss of two or three vendor spots?”
The Sound Crew
Musical performances at WWF included a set by Dust Bowl Faeries on Friday night and “The Cabaret” show on Saturday night with Durty Rotten Parrots, The Flesh Junkies, and The Chris Cyanide Solo Bass Project.
This required the services of a production crew, so Mach hired LAW Sound & Lighting of East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania to provide the needed equipment and technical personnel for two stage areas, one in the Hanover Grande Ballroom and the other in The Bar With No Name. LAW quoted a price of approximately $6,500, with half due on arrival and the remainder later.
When the crew arrived on Friday, Mach told them that he was having problems accessing funds from the WWF Eventbrite account, and asked them to provide their services for the night as he tried to resolve the issue. That’s according to Daggett, who said she witnessed the conversation and watched as Mach was on his laptop computer using the Eventbrite dashboard. She was able to see the screen, she said, which indicated that the account had a balance of approximately $2,000.
Mach never came up with the payment, Daggett said, and the crew left the following morning. This meant that bands would have to use their own equipment.
Chris Cyanide is the stage name for Chris Vazquez, who said he brought his own gear and allowed The Flesh Junkies to use it. Durty Rotten Parrots said they performed without sound equipment.
Mach did not respond to a question about how much money was available in the Eventbrite account to pay the sound crew or cover other expenses.
We also asked him about Daggett’s recollection of the encounter with the sound crew. His response: “If I don’t have a chance to actually look over the bank records, I’m curious whether Maria was talking about our Eventbrite account or our bank account.” Our question made it clear that we were referring to Eventbrite.
Eventbrite
Many people know Eventbrite as a platform for purchasing tickets to concerts, festivals, and other events. Mach also used it to handle sales of vendor spaces. All monies collected from those sales went into the Eventbrite account. Lewison and Daggett said that they had limited access to the Eventbrite app: They could issue refunds and discount coupons, they said, but only Mach had the ability to withdraw funds.
The Eventbrite app became a central issue as vendors and other participants attempted to get refunds over the weekend of the festival. We’ve seen two screen shots from the Eventbrite app stating that requests for refunds had been declined.
During the event, and to this day, Mach has stated that Eventbrite was to blame for the festival’s inability to offer refunds or cover other expenses. He cited a feature called Instant Payouts that allows event producers to withdraw a portion of event payouts in advance. He said that Eventbrite put a hold on his ability to use the feature.
Regarding the payment to LAW: “LAW did indeed need $3000,” he said. “And I had repeated assurances from Eventbrite that the money would be forthcoming. Why Eventbrite had the account locked down, but refused to tell us, I don’t know.”
However, in a previous message, he suggested that someone had been trying to disrupt his event by convincing Eventbrite that it had been cancelled.
“What I can tell you, and what Eventbrite can verify, is that this was deliberate,” he said. “Somebody had to have contacted Eventbrite and told them the show was off. Think about what that means. Somebody wanted a show I was doing to fail, badly enough that they were willing to screw over an entire event’s worth of vendors, performers, and attendees. That’s not an accident. That’s deliberate sabotage. There’s no other word for it.”
On Wednesday, Mach forwarded what he said was an email from Eventbrite, purportedly offering verification of his claim. It was dated Feb. 26, the day after the festival closed. The email mentions “a report about your event” but has no other details about why the payout was withheld.
Following the original publication of this article, Mach contacted us with numerous complaints about our coverage, some related to the Eventbrite account and his apparent inability to cover some of the event’s expenses. We asked him repeatedly how much money he had in the Eventbrite account, or had available in other accounts, to cover those expenses. He declined to answer.
Update: Eventbrite provided the following statement on Monday, March 11:
“We ticket millions of events each year and strive to ensure our community has a safe and positive experience using Eventbrite. Creators are responsible for managing all aspects of their event, including refunds. In the case of the Wicked World’s Fair, Eventbrite has paid out all ticket proceeds to the event organizer, much of which was paid out in advance of the event date. It’s worth noting that we also offer creators the opportunity to issue refunds through the product even after they’ve received their full event payout.”
In The Bar With No Name
Two participants, Charles and Andi Ward, described a chaotic scene in this venue, where vendors had to share limited space with performers and sound equipment. The Wards said they were assisting a vendor who was first instructed to move to one side of the stage. Then, they said, he was told to move onto the stage to accommodate the sound equipment.
“The sound crew came in and offloaded everything in the middle of the room,” Charles said. “We straight up asked him, ‘Hey, you’re not going to block our displays?’” The reply, he recalled: “‘No, we’re not going to do that.’ The next thing we know, we’ve got one of those giant amplified speakers sitting in front of our display.”
That was on Friday. They described worse conditions on Saturday, when two additional vendors were placed in the room. A crowd came in, Andi said, and “we were lucky the fire marshal didn’t walk around. It wasn’t ADA safe. There was too little room to maneuver. It was just an absolute bottleneck.”
Another issue was security. The Wards said they were told that vendor spaces would be locked down at 10 p.m. to prevent theft of merchandise. But activities in this room were scheduled until after midnight.
“We basically just tried to hide all the extra valuable items under a table, to keep it from being taken,” Charles said.
Mach’s response: “I put each individual vendor in that room myself, and all of them were aware how late the room ran.”
Other WWF vendors also reported that their spaces were not locked down as they had been promised.
The Tea Party
One event originally planned for The Bar With No Name was a tea party. This was a premium event that required a separate $35 ticket.
If otherwise empty, the bar could have accommodated 60 seated patrons, Daggett said, so they decided to make 60 tickets available.
But that was before Mach decided to put vendors in the bar. After considering other options, they moved the tea party to the Fireside Ballroom, also known as the Lehigh Room.
Daggett said this was another room originally set aside for non-vendor activities. But vendors were here as well.
“We did our best to not get in the way of the vendors, but it was impossible,” said one participant.
We’ve heard varying estimates of how many people were eventually seated, ranging from about 35 to 45. But our sources all agreed that ticket sales for the event exceeded the capacity, so some ticketholders were turned away.
Mach said that 88 tickets were sold. As for the capacity, he said this: “Room for only 35 people? Why would I put a 90-person catered event in a room which couldn’t seat them?”
From the Vendor Side
One vendor in the room with the tea party was Lexi Dostal, who founded her company Loving Intentions about a year ago. Her business sells wellness items such as spell jars and lotion bars. She said she paid $150 for a 10x10-foot space without electricity.
Thanks to a coupon, she said, that was $50 less than the listed price. But she ended up with a six-foot table in the Fireside Ballroom.
As the tea party tables were being set up, she said, the vendor tables were pushed back, and some of her products were knocked over. The arrangement, she said, created a barricade that limited space for people to move.
“It was absolutely a fire hazard,” she said.
One of the most striking scenes from WWF was a contentious meeting on Sunday, Feb. 25, in which angry vendors confronted Mach and his associates. One video clip, posted in the Daily Mail Video channel on Facebook, had 1.2 million views as of Wednesday.
During that meeting, Dostal described the chaotic scene at the tea party along with other problems she saw at the event.
“My mind is so blown,” she said at the meeting. “As a vendor coordinator for a much smaller scale, I can’t even imagine treating my vendors like this.”
Her experience at the festival prompted Dostal to set up Disgruntled Wicked Vendors, a private Facebook group. As of Thursday, it had 100 members. Dostal estimated that 30 to 40 percent were actual vendors at WWF. The remainder includes attendees and other interested parties. She allowed The Steampunk Explorer to join to help us get a better sense of what happened at the event.
Positive Experiences
It’s clear that the problems at WWF weighed most heavily on vendors. Some attendees and performers have reported positive experiences. Some have criticized this publication for our previous reporting about the event.
So how could different people come away from WWF with such different impressions?
Dostal suggested that the vendors did a good job of maintaining a positive presence.
“Vendors are professionals,” she said. “You want to stay warm and welcoming as a professional trying to make sales.”
Other vendors were taking the same approach, she said, despite their anger at the show management. “We’re going to handle things as professionally as we can even in bad circumstances.”
Chris Vazquez, aka Chris Cyanide, was one of the performers with a positive take. “I sold merch and had a lot of eyes on my band,” he told us via Facebook Messenger. “Will absolutely work with Jeff Mach again!”
Alfonzo Todd, who performs as DJ Ozno, had two rooms at WWF where he performed and promoted one of his events, Lehigh Valley Itz-A-Con.
“[I] just created a vibe for vendors/attendees through my DJ music,” he said. “We did have some overflow, but they were graciously welcomed and fit right in. Everyone had fun, we had steady traffic, made money, and had an enjoyable three days.”
Todd has been one of Mach’s staunchest defenders in posts on social media.
How Many People?
One question about the event relates to attendance numbers. How many attendees were vendors told to expect, and how many actually showed up?
We posed that question to members of the Disgruntled Wicked Vendors group. Two members said they were promised around 6000. Another said 5000. One said 1000 to 2000.
Mach’s response: “I told people that we were hoping for 1500-2000.”
As for actual attendance? Mach said the number was around 1500, but others put it much lower.
Daggett said that Mach refused to use a device to scan QR codes on the Eventbrite tickets. “We were just looking at their tickets either printed or on their phone, but we were not checking them in to Eventbrite,” she said. “So there is no way to check the attendance totals.”
New Ownership?
The vendor beefs at WWF caught the attention of a local news site, LehighValleyLive.com, which ran a story about the event.
In that story, Mach told the reporter that he had transferred ownership of the event to “another group” that would be responsible for delivering refunds (the story is behind a paywall but can be viewed with a seven-day free pass).
We repeatedly asked Mach for details about this new group and he has yet to respond. Here’s what he said on Monday: “Honestly: I’m waiting on that group right now. It’s genuinely not my place to say anything about them.”
During the contentious Sunday meeting with vendors, a woman named Dawn Marie stood and appeared to speak on behalf of the event. However, it is not clear if she has any involvement with the group that Mach referred to. We contacted her using an email address provided by Mach, but she has not responded.
Update: Dawn Marie responded to our email query on Sunday, March 10, and provided the following statement:
“Jeff Mach Events has seriously created a very bad press situation. There are so many different stories about not paying his debts. I am not interested in buying his company, at all. I had volunteered to help him with the refunds to VIP guests and vendors from the Wicked World’s Fair, but he has not sold the company to me. I had offered my accounting skills, and not my financial wallet to him, and any amounts refunded to vendors were to be paid from the show’s funds.”
We have asked Mach for a response and will post an update if we hear from him.
Update 1 (3/7/2024) – We added information about Eventbrite and Mach’s responses to queries about his account with the service.
Update 2 (3/8/2024) – We added information about how Mach initially approached us via Facebook Messenger. We added details about how vendor spaces were assigned before the event opened. A quote mistakenly attributed to Charles Ward was corrected. It should have been attributed to Andi Ward.
Update 3 (3/9/2024) – We added information about Instant Payouts, the email from Eventbrite, Mach’s objections to our original coverage, and our attempt to get a response from Eventbrite.
Update 4 (3/9/2024) – We added detail about Mach’s response regarding his inability to pay the sound crew.
Update 5 (3/10/2024) – Added statement from Dawn Marie.
Update 6 (3/11/2024) – Added statement from Eventbrite.
Update 7 (3/13/2024) – Clarified quoted price for sound crew services.
