ALBANY, NY (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — The New York State Comptroller's office has voided a contract that the state's Department of Agriculture and Markets had signed with Triangle Talent, to book entertainment for the New York State Fair.
Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli rejected the contract with Triangle, claiming that the proposal "did not conform perfectly with the terms and conditions outlined in the RFP." The comptroller advised the Department of Agriculture and Markets to consider a a one-year single source agreement with Triangle, an unusual request considering that Triangle's original contract was only for a single year with options.
The dispute between the comptroller and the Department of Agriculture and Markets does not appear to have much impact on Triangle. In a statement released Tuesday by the Department of Agriculture, they took pains to state that the contractual snafu doesn't put any booked dates on the hook.
"At no time during this approval process have the announced concerts been in jeopardy. The current concert schedule will remain unchanged and all purchased tickets will be honored." the statement said.
Triangle had been awarded the contract when they came in with a $48,500 bid against competitor Live Nation's $370,000 bid. Since then, Triangle has been hard at work booking talent for the Fair's Grandstand and Chevy Court, and has already confirmed a number of performers, including Kenny Chesney.
"We worked through this, there must have been some internal misunderstanding [Between the comptroller and DAM] and I have never felt that our agreement was in jeopardy. We continued to work on booking talent for the fair and made several offers today," Triangle Talent's Dave Snowden told CelebrityAccess.
Live Nation profitably booked the Fair last year but it charged the state of New York more than $650,000 to do so. Furthermore, the 2008 contract was awarded to Live Nation without a bidding process, leading to criticism and legislative scrutiny of the process. – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
