The Gatlinburg Convention Center has issued a statement to defend against charges levied at them for conditions at a convention of professional Santa Claus’ held last month. Rumors of fraud and corruption aimed at organizers of the Celebrate Santa Festival held in Gatlinburg, Tennessee have circulated online since the close of the convention last month. The organizers, Jolly Old Elf LLC operated by “Santa†Joe Moore, blamed the convention center for the problems. Today’s statement shares that bills from last year’s Celebrate Santa festival have not been completely paid even before the 2010 event began and that the convention center was forced to save this year’s show to keep the Santas coming to Gatlinburg.
Here is the text of the statement provided by the Gatlinburg Department of Tourism:
We were recently apprised of comments that have made regarding the recent Celebrate Santa Celebration in Gatlinburg, Tennessee and the Gatlinburg Convention Center’s handling of the event.
Let me begin by addressing the comment that the Convention Center made significant changes in the price of services already ordered.
On March 10, 2010, we were informed that, despite numerous promises over the past year, funds were not available to settle the balance for the 2009 event, which had an outstanding balance of over 60% of the amount that was agreed to and billed. We were also informed at that time that funds were not available to pay any portion of the cost of the 2010 event and would not be available until later in the year. Our contract clearly states the terms of payment required and they were not followed.
We were left with two options. The first option would be to cancel the event due to non- compliance of the financial requirements of the contract. The second option, which was the one that was taken, was to allow the event to take place, which would dramatically increase the costs that the Convention Center would incur.
There really was only one option. We had 400 people coming to our community expecting to attend a Celebration and from our perspective “The Show Had To Go Onâ€. We did not feel that it would be fair to the people who paid their hard earned money to come to our City just to find out that the event wasn’t going to take place.
The price changes that took place were a reduction in all fees for everything except food which were kept at the originally stated prices. The meeting planner asked that we serve the meal for the Ball, which we agreed to do even though no deposits were received to cover the cost. As of this date we have not received any deposits or payments for the 2010 event.
The other comment that was brought to our attention was that the parade route was changed at the last minute. The fact of the matter is that the parade route was changed back to the original parade route that had been agreed upon months prior to the event, which placed individuals that were in the parade gathering in a parking lot along the street rather than in the street. This allowed us to keep the traffic flowing in that area of the City.
We would like to thank those of you that were aware of the situation that we were placed in with this event and have defended the City.
To those individuals that attended the event and were dissatisfied, I would like to extend my sincere apologies. We tried to make the best of a bad situation.
We have met some wonderful people over the past two years through our dealings with this event and we hope those relationships continue into the future.
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I as a Santa want to apologize for what has happened, I myself think that the City of Gatlinburg, did a great job. All I can do is say I am Sorry.
I am not supprised that they short changed you. They even kept
moneys paid to them for plaques and other things from 2009 and we were told the vender didn’t come through and there was nothing Joe could do.
That and the way most of the santa that tried to work with Joe last year was the reason serveral didn’t not returne this year.
Batlinburg was a great convention site, now we have been told that although the attendence this year was smaller that 2009, Gatlinburg is just not big enough for the future conventions and they would be moveing to Nashville.
All I can say all the Santas that know the truth are sorry for the way you were treated and lies told about you.
I will not returne for one of his conventions in the future.
This saddens me to know that I took part in this conference and I am now finding out that fellow Claus’s have been so unworthy of the title. I hope that this does not hinder all of us. There are many who are honest and can be trusted. Gatlinbrug and the surrounding area are beautiful and I hope that this does not hurt their tourist industry in any way. I am sorry this occurred and hope that it will all be straightened out respectfully and that the parties involved have the decency step up to the plate on this and take care of it.
I am sorry to hear what has happened.this was my first year at CS and my wife and I really enjoyed ourselves,learned some things and met a lot of new friends and I also must say that Gatlinburg did a great job in continuing with out payment.I am with Santa Lester in saying I am also sorry.