Decibel Fest director Sean Horton has expressed doubts about the feasibility of holding this year's event if significant funds can't be raised by mid June. It was hoped that tonight's concert at Triple Door would earn enough revenue to allow the organization to maintain its world-class program. However, ticket sales for the show have been far below projected figures. Below, Horton details Decibel's precarious situation.

It's no secret that the majority of Decibel's funding comes from personal credit cards, which the credit crunch has cut in half over the past year. In an effort to fund the festival through other avenues, I recently applied for a home equity loan, only to find out my house is worth less than I owe on it (I've owned my home for over 5 years btw). The application was denied.

It's easy to blame the slumping economy, but similar festivals (i.e. MUTEK, DEMF and Communikey) are showing an increase pre-sales and attendance. Perhaps Seattle's tastes have changed or the city is suffering from the ecomonic slump more than Montreal, Boulder or Detroit, but I find that hard to believe. So far 2009 hasn't been a very good year for Decibel in terms of attendance at our one-off events, which isn't a good sign for the 2009 festival. Not sure what to make of it, but if we can't raise the necessary money by the middle of June, the 2009 festival program will be cancelled.

We were hoping to raise community awareness outside of the electronic music community through events like tonight's fundraiser at the Triple Door, which features classic music, visual art and incredibly accessible music in a dinner theater environment of the highest caliber. After 6 years of promoting events of all types (educational workshops, panel discussions, film, A/V installations, dance, hip hop, experimental, dub, indie, ambient, etc) we had hoped to be able to attracted city officials, sponsors and supporters along with the regulars that come out to our events. As it turns out, tonight's funderaiser is likely to lose money, which a huge embarrassment. If your fundraiser events are losing money, that tells you something.

I've put more blood, sweat and tears into Decibel than I care to recount, as has our staff, all of which volunteers their time to make the festival happen (nobody gets paid). The last thing I want to do is cancel the festival, but if it's going to cost me my job, my house and my creative passion, I'd rather put it to rest and get back to composing music, which is ultimately what got me into promoting in the first place.

Tax-deductible donations to Decibel can be made to its fiscal sponsor Shunpike (www.shunpike.org) at 3518 Fremont Ave N, #118, Seattle WA 98103, or via Paypal to iamnordicsoul@hotmail.com.

(Photo by Sami Khoury via Horton's MySpace.)