On the Water Fest Cancelled, Promoter SGE Dissolves

Huntington Beach’s own Dirty Heads were on the bill of the next On The Water, which has been cancelled.

Earlier this week, Synergy Global Entertainment (SGE) announced that the Orange County-based music promotion company has shut down. This news comes just days after last weekend’s Real Street Fest, a two-day hip-hop concert the company produced at the Honda Center in Anaheim.

Although the festival was successful (it was the biggest outdoor event to ever take place at the venue), it seems as though SGE didn’t have such luck with other events this year. According to The Wrap, the company racked up more than a fair share of losses this year, including the undersold Disrupt Festival Tour and a cancelled festival that was supposed to take place in Massachusetts last month. In fact, it turns out that SGE withdrew as a financial partner for Real Street Fest just weeks before the event. However, they did still help produce the festival, despite not being able to financially support it.

The company, which was started by John Reese in 2005, also had a few events scheduled for the upcoming months, including Ohana Festival in Doheny Beach and On the Water Festival in Huntington Beach. Live Nation has confirmed that Ohana is still set for next month, as they had only hired SGE on as the production team for the event.

On the other hand, it currently looks as though On the Water Festival will be cancelled this year. The festival website has announced that fans can expect refunds to be credited to their original method of payment within 7-10 days after they are processed.

As for Reese and the rest of SGE, the future remains unclear. Los Angeles-based promoter Danny Wimmer Presents has agreed to hire on a large portion of SGE’s staff, but it’s difficult to imagine what might happen the rest of SGE’s annual events in Orange County, including Back to the Beach Festival, Sabroso Craft Beer, Taco and Music Festival, and the Musink Tattoo Convention & Music Festival.

Independent promoters such as Reese are few and far between. With SGE, he was able to throw one-of-a-kind events featuring some of the biggest names in hip-hop, punk and even pop music. There’s no doubt that, without them, the Orange County festival circuit is in for a change.

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