May 2017
Before moving to North Carolina, I did digging on venues and artists then decided to get a early start on setting up a show there in Asheville. Eventually I came up with a new company name “Unified Events”. In May 2017 I finally moved to Marshall, North Carolina. My goal was to have a fresh start, try to do business better & more professional, and host more themed events to unify guests together that all equally enjoyed various nerdy themes. Upon moving, I didn’t have anything to my name nor did I know much about living on my own. I was roommates with my cousins cousin named Keith, and I had no car and the jobs there was extremely scarce. So it was a struggle and I was dependent on payment from events I planned to sustain my rent/phone bill/food (looking back, I was embarrassed and ashamed having to rely on money from shows instead of offering more to the artists and having a better plan).
July 8th, 2017: Spellbound
On Saturday July 8th I had a Harry Potter themed party titled “Spellbound” hosted at New Mountain AVL in Asheville. I chose this theme cause I love Harry Potter, but mainly because I started dating a girl named Irazely from Asheville when I moved to North Carolina that was a huge Harry Potter fan and I wanted to do something fun and special for her. Me and her talked about moving in and having a kid (things got serious quick). Eventually she moved to Florida to be with her family after the hurricane hit that year. I wasn’t asked to go with her cause she told me she would come back but then I found out she was talking to a guy down there then got pregnant & married him. That on top of my dad passing away sent me deeper into drinking heavy from being so depressed. I did not try talking to anyone or getting help when I probably needed it the most. Deciding to keep moving forward with events still regardless of being in a bad headspace, having previously done a Harry Potter themed rave in Maryland I knew it would be a massive success. It even got published in the Asheville newspaper. The event was a great time with a great audience.
August 19th, 2017: Rick And Morty’s Rave Adventures
The follow up event “Rick And Morty’s Rave Adventures” also hosted at the same venue ended up being just as successful as the previous event.
September 9th, 2017: Spellbound
With the rapid success within the local music scene I gained access to host events in Charlotte and I also decided to do another “Spellbound” event in my small town of Marshall scheduled for September 9th. Though the event numbers were big and everyone assumed it would be successful it didn’t draw a big crowd and I ultimately lost a lot of money from that event.
October 13th, 2017: Terrorverse
The following event “Terrorverse” in Asheville was also not successful and put me in a deeper financial bind due to low sales at door, which ultimately caused drama with some of the djs not being paid that night and having to wait 2 weeks for the online sales to process into my bank account, one of the artists Kirby ended up not being paid.
November 17th, 2017 + January 12th, 2018 + January 19th, 2018
Eventually, I hosted my first event in Charlotte, which was Rick And Morty’s Rave Adventures on November 17th. And then another one on January 12th 2018. Both of those being successful, I wanted to also host a video game theme rave titled “Rave Arcade” January 19th which had a decent turn out.
January 26th, 2018: New Show Who Dis
On January 26th 2018 I was co-hosting a event “New show who dis” with promoter & venue manager at the time Hunter. I set up the lineup for the upstairs room and it wasn’t a huge turn out, but it was decent and everyone had a fun time. I was walking around to check out the music in the other two rooms and eventually ran into Kelsey R (posted below). I didn’t recognize her off the bat, and wanted to go talk to her and ask why she ghosted me after the night we hooked up. Scared and nervous not wanting to cause drama in the venue I decided to stay away from her during the show. Eventually at the end of the night I asked Hunter for some of the sales from door to pay the artists that I booked that asked for payment, which he strongly hesitated on giving me any money from what was made. Me and him also had a agreement for him to pay Kirby B $75 from sales that night since I owed Kirby from not paying him after the Terrorverse event. Me, Kirby, and Hunter were all in agreement about this, and later on they both turned things around saying differently. I told Hunter I wasn’t worried about myself getting paid, I just wanted the djs that didn’t ask for much to get paid and to throw my personal payment to Kirby instead.
Eventually “Sorcery” in Charlotte on February 23rd ended up being the final event hosted by my company even though there was several more events scheduled. After the article was created and shared all over I lost all of my opportunities within the music scene as well as the friends I made.
