Dear friends come in please let me tell you a sad story about us and DT

[Qifei]

First, thank you for coming in.
Second, If this topic is against the rule please tell me what should I do.

I am a DT's fan from China. And I want to tell you something about the cancellation of Beijing's concert.
I guess most of you guys don't really care the cancellation of Beijing's concert. You may don't even know about that. And if some of you heard about that you might have seen the crazy things we did on Internet. Don't feel surprised. Cause we really feel hurt. 
I think I can represent most people's thought and post those here. If DT can read this it's so great. But if they can't dear friends please tell me what you think.

This is the entire story.

23/Apr DT announced that the concert is canceled. The original statement is "Unfortunately the local organizers of the show were not able to secure the necessary working visas in time for the Band to properly enter the country."
This is true. The organizers and we fans are all really sorry that we didn't offer the visa in time. It's our fault. DT do have the right to cancel the concert. They are totally reasonable and right. But we are not that late. 
We offered the visa on 24/Apr, which is only one day late. I think the main reason why it took so long is the evaluation system of our culture office. Every time you want to have a big public show. You need to submit the materials like music, lyrics to let the government judge if you are allowed to perform. It usually takes 40 days.
The organizers already tried their best to get all the process through faster and paid extra money to be able to get the visa faster. And once they got all the things done. They rushed to Japan and talked to DT immediately.
But it's already 24th. On that day the organizer had all the things DT needed. And it only required DT to waste 20 minutes to get the official Visa. But DT just denied doing that. 
They would not leave Japan until 30th.  At least in my view they totally have time to work with us and get the visa. Why the great Mr. Petrucci has time to write that fake apology on facebook but couldn't just spent 20 minute to make our all Chinese DT's fan's dream come true?
I understand that we didn't follow the contract. We didn't offer the visa in time. We didn't obey the rule. So we did deserve to be out of game. It's business. But it's the great Dream Theater's music business!! I am not a Christian. But will god blame the Christians because they fail to get to church in time? DT was like one of the gods in our music mind.  Once we heard that DT was goanna come the China. Everyone was like crazy! They would come from all around the country to Beijing and watch Dream Theater. Even though the whole expense could be their one-month's salary. They don't care! Even though they have to drop the classes to be shouted by their bosses. They don't care! But you know what is the saddest thing? DT don't care either. This time this god falls down.

Get rid of the sentimental stuff. I know DT just don't really care the market in China. They don't even sell CD there. And we really didn't pay them that much. The organizer didn't tell us the specific number. But it could not be more than 100K USD. We even might not be able to get that 100K back now. And the local organizer lost almost 1 million RMB this time. 1 million RMB is almost the same as 1 million USD in States. My point is DT is so businesslike now.

My English is pretty bad. I don't want to write anymore. But dear DT you know what? Even when the organizers told us the detail of this "accident" the first reaction of us was not angry but sadness. Cause we love your music so bad.

Li
From China
Thank you for reading~~

[jonny108]

I understand that we didn't follow the contract. We didn't offer the visa in time. We didn't obey the rule. So we did deserve to be out of game. It's business. But it's the great Dream Theater's music business.

You've just explained yourself. The logistics of running a tour is incredibly complicated.  If the visas are even a day late it complicates things even more.  They have to stick to a specific order for everything to work out and China didn't do that!!  How can you say that they made fake apologies?  I'm sure that they are sorry it didn't work out and they will try their best to make it happen next time.  They are just as sad as you.

[Qifei]

Hi! Thank you for replying~
Since the tour is pretty complicated why can they just add one more show in Tokyo while can't wait us one more day?
I just can't stop thinking they don't care the market here.
The reason why I say it is fake is because the expression is so official and cold. Maybe native speaker can feel more. This could be a problem
Have a good night man! Staying up is not good for u!

[Setlist Scotty]

Hi Li

I'm sure that many others will express the same feelings as I do, in that we really do care and feel terrible that this has happened. I'm guessing that if I was living in a country were there weren't as many freedoms and very few concerts, I would have been anticipating DT's visit at a feverish pitch. When the show was canceled for reasons that seem trivial when considering all the efforts to still make things happen, I too would be extremely upset and frustrated, especially if I had spent a large amount of money to travel and attend the show.

That being said, there are a lot of factors that go into going out on tour, especially when traveling to other countries. By no means do I know what all these things are, but when you consider the large number of crew members needed to put everything together, it is obvious that a lot is involved. On top of that, the larger the show (and needed crew), the more things need to be planned ahead of time and need to be done. I don't know exactly what happened and why in the end the band felt it necessary to cancel the concert.

On the surface, it seems that the band should have considered trying to meet halfway, when the promoters and others were doing everything they could to insure that the show could still happen. Like I said, I do not know all the details of what went on, but I do know the band members personally, and I also know both the band's manager and tour manager; all 7 of these men are great guys and are not selfish people only looking to do what is needed - they go the extra mile and bend over backwards. So whatever the reason was for them to cancel the show, I believe the decision making was well thought out and the final decision to cancel was completely legitimate. Keep in mind that your perspective is limited - as I said, there is a lot that goes on behind the scenes that we fans don't know about. So until any one of those men choose to speak up and explain in detail exactly why things happened the way they did, please take it on faith that it wasn't a trivial reason, but that there was something more to it than meets the eye.

Again, I'm sorry things happened the way they did, and I hope that you and all other fans in China get another chance to see our favorite band in person. Best wishes to you all.

[Qifei]

Thank u! Scotty!
What u wrote really comfort me! And this is why I like American forums. People are all nice!
We do understand that this big band has big plan. but what we want is just a real explaintion. Why the one day late cause this big result. Not that cold official 20 words statement.
I do believe that they are good people. The first time their announcement came out. I just trust that it is our organizer's problem without any doubts. But later I read the post of the organizer. It changed a little bit.  So I hope I can hear the honest voice from them. And we all look forward that.
And don't worry we can get the ticket refund.
By the way Scotty you know what? This cancellation is like those things happen in <final destination>. All the tiny little things make that one day late. Their passports arrived several days late at first. And then when we got the permission from government. It was Friday! We have to wait a weekend. Otherwise we can offer the visa in time. Interesting

[Setlist Scotty]

I'm glad to hear that at least you will be able to get a refund! It won't take away the disappointment of not seeing them, but at least it's good to know you'll still have your money (so long as you haven't traveled from another city and incurred flight and hotel costs).

As for DT or their management giving a detailed explanation, they may give one, but they may not either. I do recall one experience that happened that really made the band look unappreciative of their fans when they arrived at the airport in Mexico (on tour with Yes in 2004); it was only because I coincidentally happened to be interviewing the tour manager soon after that I found out exactly what happened, and it was a series of things that happened which ended up with fans feeling offended when they were there to welcome the band. I would not be surprised to see something similar happen in this case too, where there were a number of issues that came up that led to them canceling the show.

The promoter explained his side of the story - how truthful he was is hard to say. Even if he was truthful, I'm sure that there was some bias when explaining what happened, which is to be expected. That said, the promoter has a lot to lose if a band were to cancel the show, and so I wouldn't be surprised if the promoter posted things in such a way as to make himself look good at the expense of the band, especially if he knew he screwed up and there was no way to properly resolve the issue.

As for why DT did not give an in-depth explanation for what happened when they announced the cancellation, I don't know, but I would imagine because it's usually not wise to air "dirty laundry" in public, and it benefits no one.

[Mladen]

Never doubt your heroes, Qifei.

Never doubt your heroes.

[goo-goo]

Well one day late means you may have to rebook flights for all band members and crew, pay for one extra hotel night for band and crew, pay for transportation and storage for one more day, meals, etc...all of this in China or Tokyo, while awaiting the visa. Also, if it the visas were to be delayed again for 24 hrs, same thing...it will cost money. Maybe the visa was not guaranteed to be given in the next 24 hours. All these expenses come from the band so they are loosing more money (which in the end, its all about the money). A delay can get very cost prohibitive.

Also, don't lose your hopes. DT is a band that tries to go to new countries and territories. They have played in Russia, Australia, Mexico, Chile, and other cities and countries were DT doesn't play. You might get to see them next time around, with a new album.

[2Timer]

And keep in mind, if they wrote a 'cold apology', they may not have even written it themselves, and if they did, the coldness was probably directed toward the government that made it so difficult to make a concert happen in the first place. I'm sure they know how excited you all were for this experience, and believe me, that makes them want to play for you that much more, so they were let down at least as much as you were.
I'm sure you will get your show, and trust me...when you do, it will far exceed your expectations.

[Nick]

https://www.dreamtheaterforums.org/boards/index.php?topic=32025.0

And let's be clear that the "entire story" is the promoters rant on the subject, which makes it one half of the story.