On July 2, 2002 at 12:00 a Walworth County Sheriff arrived while Ranger Cheesehead was preparing the Dancing Shadows site for SynchroniCity. The Sheriff declared the entire event an "illegal rave" and stated the site was not in compliance with local zoning. The Walworth County District Attorney followed that on July 3, 2002 with the filing of an injunction to force the event to cease at that site.

For their part, the County decided to selectively enforce their ordinances (no other such gathering there had been forced to shut down). Ranger Cheesehead valiantly served as their attorney since none was available to go to court on such short notice. This is a deliberate tactic used by LEOs nationwide to bankrupt promoters of alternative events, with the last-minute injunction giving no time for response.

The group did everything in their power to fight this dissapointment, on phones, in court, and in the clouds for a day and a half trying to make this work. Unfortunately on July 3, 2002, following an unsuccessful defense in Walworth County Court, an announcement went out that the event was cancelled.

The landowner had never contacted County officials as promised to make certain the gathering would be compliant with local law. A temporary restraining order was granted to because Dancing Shadows did not have the proper permits required. While this was not done intentionally by Dancing Shadows, it was still enough to give the County Sheriff the technical grounds he was seeking to remove our opportunity to hold the event.

All of this information came to light beginning around 11 a.m. Tuesday morning and the final motion to over turn the injunction was denied around 3 p.m. Wednesday afternoon.

SynchroniCity offered to ban amplified music during the event, to allow Law Enforcement to come walk through our event as they wished, to purchase the permits and change the parking structure to comply with the needs of the county, but the county was not interested in compromise.

The event was moved 20 miles south to Bong Recreation Center in Wisconsin.

The organizers of SynchroniCity highly encourage anyone who is considering patronizing Dancing Shadows or the town of Alpine Valley, WI to reconsider.

No Comments | #1005

Unless noted, all content on epistolary.org is © Copyright 1999-2008 to Rob Carlson with all rights reserved. All information is verified when possible, cited as appropriate and applied in the real world at your own risk. Send all feedback to rob@vees.net.