Visa Issues for Bands

[Kathy]

Going to Prog Power in Atlanta next week. This festival has been around for 20 years.
As they put it a 'government agency who shall not be named' delayed the process so much 2 bands are unable to appear (1 is one of the ones I really wanted to see). 2 others barely made it. These bands that had difficulty are from Italy, Japan and Finland - real hot beds of terrorism.
Just an FYI when you buy tickets for a concert with a band(s) from outside the US - in these times it may not work out.

 

[Excalibur]

Going to Prog Power in Atlanta next week. This festival has been around for 20 years.
As they put it a 'government agency who shall not be named' delayed the process so much 2 bands are unable to appear (1 is one of the ones I really wanted to see). 2 others barely made it. These bands that had difficulty are from Italy, Japan and Finland - real hot beds of terrorism.
Just an FYI when you buy tickets for a concert with a band(s) from outside the US - in these times it may not work out.

A friend of mine has a startup agency representing bands mostly in the metal genre. Due to his history he has plenty of connections and picked up some fairly well-known acts early on. I helped him prepare an O-1 visa application for a Canadian guitar player to play on an album being produced by Warren Riker (look him up). Five years ago an application like this would have sailed through. This time there were multiple requests for further info that delayed the process significantly. Ultimately he got the visa, but Riker nearly pulled the plug because he was so frustrated.

 

[Kathy]

A friend of mine has a startup agency representing bands mostly in the metal genre. Due to his history he has plenty of connections and picked up some fairly well-known acts early on. I helped him prepare an O-1 visa application for a Canadian guitar player to play on an album being produced by Warren Riker (look him up). Five years ago an application like this would have sailed through. This time there were multiple requests for further info that delayed the process significantly. Ultimately he got the visa, but Riker nearly pulled the plug because he was so frustrated.

The problem here was that they kept asking for more info over what was ever requested before. They started the application process 6-9 months ago. This festival was sold out last October or November. The info from the US didn't arrive in time for the bands to get the visas stamped into their passports in time to make the Festival.
Ironically, the 2 bands that almost didn't make it are here because Blumenthal"s office helped out - guess they have helped in the past.
Guess I'll just have to keep traveling to Europe like I did in July to see these bands play.

 

[Mano]

 

[John]

They're trying to keep out the real talent so Brett Michaels will have a fighting chance