A strange interview with the money-drop man: 'We do a lot in the shadows'

When interviews go from bad to worse to ... WTF?

• Here’s an interview with the man behind that woeful money drop in Aotea Square. It’s from February, for a story that never got published, about a concert that didn’t go ahead, but this might help explain the mindset of someone who thinks sending fake $5 bills flying from the sky is helping people out….

Andrew Thorn has been in the headlines a lot lately, and not for anything good.

The Safety Warehouse owner has spent the past few days trying to defend the indefensible, a desperately awful money drop event on Saturday in which $100,000 was promised to be dropped from the sky, only for fake $5 notes containing coupon codes to arrive. People were injured, angry and upset. It wasn’t good.

David Farrier’s already had his own encounter with Thorn, something he’s written about on his excellent newsletter Webworm.

But, earlier this year, I had my own strange interaction with him.

On February 8, an event called Future Rock Fest - a Spark Arena concert that promised to be “second to none” - had been advertised. The Facebook page had more than 11,000 likes, which is nearly enough people to fill the venue.

But tickets were never sold, no headliners were announced, and Spark Arena was never booked. The event didn’t go ahead.

I wanted to know what happened, so I tried to find out who was behind it all.

You guessed it: it was Thorn. He was promoting Future Rock Fest, along with many others, on a website for Silverback Events, a promotions company that billed itself as “Australasia’s most ambitious, innovative entertainment entity”.

On that website (which is offline, but the Facebook page remains active), there were tickets being sold to all kinds of things: music festivals planned in Wellington and Queenstown, a monster truck show in Auckland, a car rally in Christchurch, and something called “Kids & Rigs” on Auckland’s North Shore.

The website listed two dates for Opulence 19’, a “forum for entrepreneurial minded individuals, executive individuals, high worth individuals and others whom wish to meet, share experiences and offer support in a more formal business setting” in Melbourne and Sydney. Tickets cost $379.99.

A black tie event called Tauranga 19’ promised “the ultimate networking event of New Zealand”. Guests would be transported to the venue via luxury vehicle and helicopter. Ticket prices ranged between $2500 for general admission to $5000 for VIPs.

That’s a lot of money! I wanted to know about Future Rock Fest, and Kids & Rigs, and Opulence 19’, and all the rest of it, so I called Thorn up to ask him.

Things got weird. An argument erupted. Legal threats were issued.

At one point, he told me: “We do a lot, per se, in the shadows.”

At another, he said: “I know how journalists operate.”

He also warned me: “If we get misconstrued or you say the wrong thing, well, that will be that.”

Here’s what happened…

An interview with Andrew Thorn (transcript edited for clarity)

Me: I just wanted to talk to you about Future Rock Fest. Did you have anything to do with that?

Andrew Thorn: Ahh we do, and did, yep.

What happened? Did it go ahead?

Nah. So, long story short, we're still negotiating with pretty big players. The whole festival was going to be pushed out for New Year's. So the situation … is that the Facebook event got locked out by the dates, so the dates couldn't be changed. So, one would say, we've been trying to communicate with Facebook to say, ‘Hey, let us action and edit the event’. At this moment (we’ve had) no reply. It will be nice when we get that re-done, and then obviously the event will be pushed out to a New Year's festival, and then game on. The line-up will be released in the next couple of months.

New Year's next year? Or 2020?

2020, that's the date, only because we were going to aim for a March event, just because we've been negotiating with two large parties, we've got one over the line, the other we guarantee we will. It's just like, nup, let's lock it in for New Year's.

Did anyone show up on Saturday night? Did you have anyone asking what happened?

No. We actually had a lot more people saying, ‘Where can we get some more tickets?’ But obviously the event page was set up so they could only register, not actually get physical hard copy tickets.

So you haven't sold tickets yet?

No, absolutely not. The event page would have changed as soon as we released the line-up, then we give them access to actually be able to buy hard copy tickets, or e-tickets, etc. We made sure that no one could pre-order anything.

What kind of festival are we looking at it? What kind of bands, what kind of line-up?

I can't tell you the line-up but I can tell you there are going to be three genres, three stages. We will do a media release … we're really aiming for a two-day festival with a seven-day tourism aspect of the whole event. We're looking at hosting it in Mackenzie Country (sic). I don't know if you know New Zealand very well...

The event page says Spark Arena in Auckland?

Yeah. Disregard that. It's all going to be changed. Spark Arena's just sitting there because it's the capacity of people. So the rock festival's going to be inclusive of two other stages, two other genres. There’s going to be camping for about seven days, three days before there's a whole tourism aspect, people can go around … Queenstown, Wanaka, do stargazing, treeplanting, all sorts of stuff.

Right.

Then there's two days of festival, and then two days after the festival they can carry on and still do other tourism activators. So really the festival's not just a pump and dump, as we call it, where people literally just turn up, promoters spend hundreds of thousands, and just leave the community behind. We really want to embed ourselves and keep it rolling for years to come.

Tell me about some of the other events you've got on your website. There's a bunch of things: there are car rallies, and there's a jet ski thing...

Yep, those are all pre-done, event management plans are in place. We're just, at the moment, bidding and tendering for the majority of those series to come to New Zealand. Putting our money where our mouth is, negotiating with those overseas parties, and really trying to lock them in and say, ‘Look, the jet ski series should be hosted in New Zealand.’

What have you put on so far?

A few things. We put a hard-style DJ, Angerfist, last year which was really just to help out that smaller niche genre because they don't really get much love. We obviously did a festival in Christchurch with a three-week marketing campaign. That was in the Christchurch Red Zone. So that was derelict land. That was a case study really of the bureaucracy around events in New Zealand and to find our feet as such.

I see some of the events have tickets for sale. There's one in Tauranga that has tickets for sale for $5000.

Which one are you looking at mate?

Tauranga 19 I think it's called.

Nah it won't be called that. Are you talking about Opulence? You're probably looking at the super yachts. Networking for high end parties.

You're doing a bunch of different stuff - you've obviously got big dreams?

I wouldn't say dreams. We've got ambitions. We're backed by a private investment fund. We own about 12 other companies, so we're not just an event promoter, we also own commercial construction companies, and obviously have our own alcohol brand and quite a few things. Events really just slot in with the whole entire eco-system.

Where are you based?

Auckland, Melbourne and Christchurch.

Oh, you're all over the place.

I bounce around a bit.

With Future Rock Fest, when you announced it for Auckland, did you have a venue locked in, did you have headliners locked in, was anything locked in?

No, it was purely organic.

Right. Okay. Alright.

We believe, when we go full noise … we're taking quite a different approach in regards to how festivals are.

In what way?

In New Zealand, we'll advertise it as a festival. Overseas, we'll be releasing all our marketing as a tourism hot spot. People will come and spend New Year's in New Zealand because of New Zealand, not because, per se, of the headliners playing music.

Are people buying tickets through your website currently?

You'd hope not because there's nothing I believe that should be available. Everything should be, ‘time to be determined,’ or, ‘venue to be determined’.

There are tickets available for most of the events on there. You can buy them through PayPal.

I'm just having a look, because obviously I'm more on the top end, and I'll talk to the operations team, but if they did buy them they'd be instantly refunded. It wouldn't make sense either if you're buying a ticket to something where you don't know what time it is or where the venue is.

Yeah, right, okay.

We'll have a look at that. It's quite easily blocked. I wouldn't expect many people would go to our website. As I said, we're a pretty undercover operator. We do a lot, per se, in the shadows. That's why we're doing the prep for the festival. It's a huge undertaking.

When are you looking to make all of this live?

Within the next eight weeks.

Everything on that website you want to have launched and be selling tickets for in the next eight weeks?

No. The Rigs & Kids, that probably will have to be pushed ... we were trying to do … look at boys with … um … what are they called? … big toys. What is it called?

Big Boys Toys?

We're looking to try and partner up with them. Haven't even had that discussion yet, that boat may have sailed, but we want to do a similar concept but a wee bit different as well. Opulence, that would easily happen, it's whenever I feel like pulling the trigger. It's a boat called Ghost II , from Melbourne to Sydney, it can host 80 to 150 people. You don't need big lead ups for that sort of stuff.

I was interested in Future Rock Fest. Are you okay if I write a story saying it's planned for later in the year?

Yeah, absolutely, I would appreciate the content being sent to me to make sure we can add further comment.

No, that's not something I can do and have never done, sorry dude.

Well I don't personally mind but if you say something wrong I'll quite happily instruct my barristers and QCs real quick. We're a private investment fund and if we get misconstrued or you say the wrong thing, well, that will be that. It would be in everyone's interest if you're going to write a simple article about a generic music event coming up … you would have thought you'd send it to us.

That's not how journalists operate, at all.

It depends. I know how journalists operate. I deal with them regularly. If it's a civil matter or criminal, or a bit of hype on something, sure. You're writing about a music event. I don't know why you wouldn't send that to someone to proof.

It's just policy. You'll find that with every single journalist, every newspaper in New Zealand, no one sends out stories for approval.

I can re-correct you right now, I get drafts all the time. Regularly. Trust me.

I've done this for 15 years and I've never, ever sent anyone proofs.

Bizarre.

So what should I call you, what’s your title?

Whatever I want it to be.