The Over the Rainbow Gay Expo was supposed to take place at Center on Halsted, 3656 N. Halsted, July 25—but was supposedly cancelled at virtually the last minute, costing vendors money. However, a member of the center’s staff said that the cancellation was warranted after the event’s organizer did not respond to the facility regarding contractual elements.
Windy City Times initially received a Facebook message from an associate of expo organizer Scott Booker, the president of Elegant Touch Events. The message read, in part, “Scott ‘says’ he was not aware it was canceled until one of his vendors called him. I want to make sure this was not a scam pulled over on our community. All vendors paid $150.00 each. We were sooo excited and spent hundreds of dollars on flowers for arrangements and bouquets which was a total loss.”
Center on Halsted Director of Information Technology and Operations Tim Klein e-mailed Windy City Times that ” [n] on-response to repeated attempts to reach the organizer of the expo concerning the fulfillment of the rental contract caused the cancellation of the event.
“We were excited about the opportunity to house a wedding expo but without a signed contract, deposit and, more importantly, without hearing from the event organizer regarding event details we could not provide the venue.”
In a subsequent conversation, Klein told Windy City Times said “we didn’t know who was scheduled to be here” when asked about vendors.
Zach Freedman, the assistant director of information technology and operations—who worked directly with event organizer Scott Booker, president of Elegant Touch Events—added that only four vendors showed up July 25. “I never heard a response [although] I’d get occasional e-mails a day or two late,” Freedman said. “He didn’t show up for the two meetings we had scheduled. … I told him I needed to hear from him by 12 noon on Thursday [July 23] ; otherwise I would assume the event [was] not going to take place. I didn’t hear from him until he stopped by on Friday night [July 24], which was after the fact, but I’m not here on Fridays. … Nothing was covered, [such as] insurance, so it couldn’t go on.”
Attempts to contact Booker were not returned by the time Windy City Times went to press.