Mars Borough receives missing Brew Fest money
Brown Paper Tickets, the online ticketing company that owed Mars $25,000 from the 2022 Mars Brew Fest, deposited the missing funds in the borough’s bank account on Friday, Oct. 21, Mayor Gregg Hartung said.
The Seattle-based company, which handled online ticket sales for the Brew Fest for the past three years, is under scrutiny for owing money to a number of events across the country.
At a borough council meeting on Oct.17, Hartung said that the borough had been notified by the company Oct. 12 that the missing $25,000, unaccounted for since June, would be deposited within a week.
“Now we’ve got every nickel and dime we made from the Brew Fest,” Hartung said.
The borough plans to use Eventbrite for next year’s Brew Fest tickets and does not plan to take legal action against Brown Paper Tickets at this time.
“If we had not received all of it, or received nothing at all, we would have probably pressed charges with the (Washington state) attorney general’s office, but we don’t see a need for that right now,” Hartung said.
In working with the Washington attorney general, the borough learned that Brown Paper Tickets had “overextended themselves” during the earlier parts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hartung said.
He feels that informing the company that Mars had gone public about the issue and being clear that the borough was working with a short timeline helped ensure the money was delivered promptly.
The funds for the Brew Fest benefit the Mars New Year celebration, an event held every two years to celebrate the new year on the planet Mars and promote STEAM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math). Planning for Mars New Year 2023’s kickoff dinner is starting soon, Hartung explained.
“We're in the throes of getting ready to launch Nov. 1 for our Blast Off Dinner for February, so our backs were up against the wall in terms of the event that is coming up early next year,” Hartung said. “Hopefully our pressure moved us getting paid up a little sooner rather than later.”
Some tickets for the event were sold online through Brown Paper Tickets, and some were sold in person. The returned $25,000 made up a little more than half of the total proceeds from the Brew Fest.
