AOL Cuts Summer Music Fest Sponsorship

America Online has informed organizers of the Loudoun Summer Music Fest that it would no longer provide funding for the event. During the past four years, founding sponsor AOL contributed upwards of $80,000 annually to fund contracts with the event's nationally known acts.

Tracey Parent, president of the Loudoun Foundation, which organizes the concert series to raise money for area charities, was surprised to learn of AOL's decision.

"Six months ago we were told this was in their 2008 budget. I guess the reality is there have been many more changes since then, and AOL has mostly moved out of Loudoun County," Parent said.

AOL, the county's largest private sector employers, moved its headquarters operations to New York earlier this year and then cut approximately 400 jobs at its Loudoun operations complex in October.

AOL's Community Investment and Business Development teams had partnered with the Loudoun Foundation to launch the community concert series, which brought such popular acts as Lynyrd Skynyrd, Pat Benatar, Blues Traveler, The Black Crowes, Peter Frampton to perform in a field at the Belmont Country Club in Ashburn. The series has become a community favorite where families may enjoy a day outdoors, listening to music while local and national vendors worked to provide funding, food and beverages, amenities and volunteers to make the event a success.

A statement released by AOL Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications Anne Bentley said, "While we remain focused on Loudoun County, we have reevaluated our Community Investment activities for 2008 to reflect our growing global business strategy. We wish the Loudoun Summer Music Fest continued success." Attempts to seek further comment from the company were unsuccessful.

According to Parent, she contacted AOL in July to begin putting together a plan for the 2008 concert season. Her contact at that time assured her that the funding for the concert series had been allocated in AOL's 2008 budget. Parent said she communicated with the new contact only after repeatedly leaving messages and finally contacting senior AOL personnel, including CEO Randy Falco.

"Usually they are very proactive about this and they are very involved in all the details," Parent said. "The understanding was that if AOL couldn't participate we'd have ample notice, so that's the kind of relationship we had. I could tell clearly the new person's approach wasn't at all like what we experienced in the past."

After further attempts during November to communicate via phone messages and e-mails, Parent received an e-mail stating AOL would no longer be participating, she said.

"They called to try to smooth it over. They wanted me to have a good feeling about all this and if I'd known this was going to happen six months ago, that would have been fine. I can't feel good only having 30 days notice. The woman I spoke on the phone with said 'we wont be guilted into doing this' and I knew that we should get off the phone at that point," Parent said.

Normally, AOL would transfer funds to the foundation by Jan. 10, to allow ample time to put down deposits on musical acts. Parent and other members of the foundation are now scrambling to find replacement sponsors to cover the significant loss in funding. "In January, every contract we have will fall through if we don't have that money. We can negotiate contracts 'til the cows come home, but until you have that deposit they're not going to put their act on stage," Parent said.

It is unclear at this time whether the Loudoun Foundation will be able to make up the funding with a single sponsor or with smaller contributions from a few entities. What is certain is that organizers don't want the event to disappear. "We don't want to lose the momentum we've built up to this point," Parent said.

"When this happened I was really upset...I felt like we deserved more than that, but it is what it is. We're no different then the other AOL personnel that got laid off. I have a hard time feeling sorry for myself. We'll figure something out," Parent said.

"I am grateful we had that past relationship. They were passionate and they were supportive of everything we did. In the end it didn't go down in the most professional way, but I really feel someone else will step forward and fill that void."