Conflict involving two Ybor promoters erupts via social media

A dispute between two local gay promoters, Florida Entertainment Group (FEG) and JAM Promo (JAM), erupted via social media during Gasparilla Weekend. And the tension created was still on display at February's GaYbor District Coalition meeting at Gaspar's Grotto on Feb. 10. Toward the end of the meeting, JAM producer Jose Garboza stood up and apologized for introducing a negative topic.  

â┚¬Å”Florida Entertainment Group has engaged in unethical business practices,â┚¬Â said Garboza, before GaYbor Coalition president Carrie West interrupted him.

â┚¬Å”We've issued a response on that,â┚¬Â West said, and abruptly adjourned the meeting.

West later explained that he was protecting the organization from legal action that could result when members attack each other publicly. â┚¬Å”We can't open ourselves up to that,â┚¬Â he said.

But Garboza was merely introducing the rainbow elephant in the room: the feud that has been hanging over Ybor's gay west end since Gasparilla. During the three-day weekend, Garboza's JAM Promo presented its annual Gancho Tampaâ┚¬â€a series of ambitious circuit events at different Ybor venues. At the same time, FEG worked to maintain business and divert Gancho attendees to their successful nightclub venues: G. Bar, Honey Pot and the Ybor Social Club. Methods and motivations are at the heart of the conflict. It comes as no surprise that JAM and FEG see things very differently.

Uproar in GaYbor
While more than 400,000 revelers enjoyed Tampa's annual Gasparilla pirate invasion the weekend of Jan. 27-29, a less joyful battle was unfolding in the way gay west end of Ybor City, dubbed â┚¬Å”GaYborâ┚¬Â nearly five years ago.

Through a flurry of vitriolic social media, text messages and e-mails, nightlife-loving gays and lesbians bore witness to the bitter rivalry that has developed between two promoters with deep roots in the community. JAM accuses FEG of targeting their dance party, marketed as a fundraiser for Metro Wellness and Community Centers, with misleading promotions and personal attacks. FEG counters that JAM is not a 501c3 non-profit organization, and that so-called attacks just constitute aggressive marketing on their part.

Who fired the first shot? The answer depends on whom you ask.

According to JAM principal Tony LaColla, who co-produced Gancho with life partner Garboza and business partner Manny Alvarez, FEG instigated the conflict by targeting Gancho with an ad for a â┚¬Å”Circus, not Circuitâ┚¬Â party at Steam Fridays that appeared on The Honey Pot's Facebook page.

â┚¬Å”It ticked me off,â┚¬Â the normally soft spoken LaColla said. â┚¬Å”It was a direct attack on us. It was funny and cute, but we knew there was a message to usâ┚¬â€about Gancho. There was no other reason to call it that other than to dig at us. That's when it was obvious they were coming after us.â┚¬Â

But Steve Donahue, a partner in FEG along with Steve Moss and Ernie Webb, disagrees. He said the ad was a response to attacks on social media from the Gancho organizers.

â┚¬Å”Their [Facebook] posts constantly talked about, â┚¬ËœWhy would you go to the same club, listen to the same music and do what you normally do on the weekend when this big event was coming in?'â┚¬Â

FEG felt targeted, according to Webb. â┚¬Å”It's unfair to be criticized for doing what we do every single week,â┚¬Â Webb said.

Just competition?
Competing events throughout the weekend were all held in close proximity, at clubs on or near 7th Avenue. Both JAM and FEG claim their parties were a success. But LaColla said FEG's efforts impacted Gancho's momentum.

â┚¬Å”I noticed Friday's crowd (at The Amphitheatre) thinning and even saw some friends leaving,â┚¬Â LaColla said. â┚¬Å”I learned later that they went to Honey Pot because they got texts offering free drinks and no cover.â┚¬Â

LaColla believes they came from Moss, and that his affiliates did some quick reconnaissance at the Gancho event. It's a charge Moss denies.

â┚¬Å”A friend and customer of ours said it was lame at Gancho,â┚¬Â Moss said. â┚¬Å”So I texted him and said if he came back I'd buy him a drink and he could tell me about it. I don't know how that turned into a mass text. I want to see that text I supposedly sent out on a mass scale, because I didn't send one.â┚¬Â

Both sides agree there was an online post the next day inviting ticket holders of Gancho to enjoy free entry to FEG's bars on Saturday night. The post talked about the â┚¬Å”extremely low turn-outâ┚¬Â at Gancho.

â┚¬Å”We feel badly for those people who purchased Gancho tickets and were so disappointed,â┚¬Â it read. â┚¬Å”Although we are not affiliated in any way, we believe you should have an awesome Gasparilla weekend.â┚¬Â It offered free admission at both G. Bar and Honey Pot for anyone with a Gancho ticket stub.

Donahue admits to posting that message, and described it as competition.

â┚¬Å”I posted one time about Gancho tickets being good with our bars,â┚¬Â Donahue said. â┚¬Å”I call that good business. They say they want to compete with us, but when we compete with them they scream â┚¬Ëœvictim.'â┚¬Â

LaColla and Garboza say they have no problem with competition, but how an organization goes about it can raise ethical questions.

â┚¬Å”They attacked us publicly, and we have to defend ourselves,â┚¬Â Garboza said. â┚¬Å”Contacting people while they're at an event to get them to leave and come to your bar is unethical. And saying that we're â┚¬Ëœpretending to be a charity' or that Gancho â┚¬Ëœdoes nothing' for Ybor is what bothers me the most.â┚¬Â

Garboza clarified that JAM has committed a percentage of profits to Metro Wellness. He added that in its second year Gancho has yet to break even.

â┚¬Å”We still gave them $800 this year,â┚¬Â he said.

Getting personal
Some say the feud boils down to personal animosity between FEG's Moss and Donohue and JAM's Alvarezâ┚¬â€all big personalities with loyal followings. Moss and Donohue are local nightlife visionaries and entrepreneurs who have been involved with many successful bars in Tampa Bay. Moss has been in a relationship with Erasure's Andy Bell for the past two years.

Alvarez is a developer, real estate agent and promoter who is also a partner in Liquid Lounge. He grew up in Ybor, where his connections run deep.

Moss told Watermark that he could support Gancho if changes were made, but not while Alvarez participates.

â┚¬Å”He can't be involved for me to support it,â┚¬Â Moss said. â┚¬Å”And I don't agree with their comparing Gancho to the White Party or the Charity Party and other circuit events that are 501c3 organizations. Those are all volunteer organizations with 100% of the proceeds going to charity, not just a few hundred dollars raised from an inflated ticket price.â┚¬Â

LaColla said he and his JAM business partners simply want to bring a large-scale circuit party to Ybor City during Gasparilla, and that Gancho is an effort to raise money for charity and nothing more. He added that efforts to characterize it otherwise have hurt him personally.

â┚¬Å”Through Facebook, texting and free drinks, a business is trying to sabotage an event that benefits Metro,â┚¬Â LaColla said. â┚¬Å”I find it surprising that a business would stoop so low. It tarnishes Ybor and Tampa.â┚¬Â

Moss said he has never hidden his feelings with LaColla and Garboza, and that being competitive is just smart business.

Alvarez deferred to his business partners to comment on the feud, adding only that, â┚¬Å”It's not a Manny Alvarez issue.â┚¬Â

â┚¬Å”They're tying to make it a personal thing with me,â┚¬Â he said. â┚¬Å”It's a community issue and the bottom line is it's about competing fairly with other businesses.â┚¬Â

Coalition politics
The dispute between JAM and FEG has fueled rumors and created awkward feelings within the GaYbor District Coalition. Founded four-and-a-half years ago to promote economic success and acceptance of LGBT businesses in the historic district, the coalition now has more than 265 members and has been recognized by the City of Tampa for its contribution to the resurgence of the Ybor City Historic District.

Coalition president West acknowledged that the conflict has placed him in a tough spot.

â┚¬Å”I'm just part of the puzzle here,â┚¬Â he said, seated at the Laughing Cat Restaurant, directly across the street from the MC Film Fest store he owns with partner Mark Bias. â┚¬Å”I'm stern, reasonable and I like everyone involved. But in every family, the siblings fight.â┚¬Â

West and Bias are co-founders of the GaYbor District Coalition and remain a force within the organization. Bias is co-secretary, along with Moss. Prior to the February GaYbor meeting, JAM members sent e-mails asking GaYbor to either discipline Moss or remove him from the board due to a perceived conflict of interest.

â┚¬Å”When all of this came out on Facebook and through e-mails, we asked the board not to respond,â┚¬Â Bias said. â┚¬Å”We needed to form an official response, so we waited until Thursday [the night of the meeting] to issue one.â┚¬Â

Signed by the entire board, it states that the coalition does not condone the squabble and characterizes it as a â┚¬Å”First Amendment issue.â┚¬Â

â┚¬Å”Our responsibility as a business league is to drive business to private enterprise, not to instruct private enterprises how to run their business,â┚¬Â the letter reads. â┚¬Å”In any business community there will be business conflicts. It is in the best interest of all parties to move on.â┚¬Â

Coalition member Al Ferguson agreed, pointing out that similar circuit-type events have been a boon for promoters and bar owners in Orlando, Miami, Palm Springs and other cities.

â┚¬Å”It's perfectly natural to see competition lead to these types of situations,â┚¬Â said Ferguson, whose ALandCHUCK.travel was a sponsor of Gancho. â┚¬Å”It takes leadership to manage all the issues and move them to positives for both businesses and the entire community.â┚¬Â

West believes this impasse will not impede the progress he sees in GaYbor and surrounding Ybor City. He says no one has left the coalition as a result of the recent uproar.

â┚¬Å”The bottom line is that Gasparilla will continue to happen every year,â┚¬Â West said. â┚¬Å”If it's not Gancho, something else will come in that weekend. Our members don't like the fighting, and our elected officials don't like the fighting. It casts a bad light on GaYbor. No doubt.â┚¬Â

Bias clarified that he and West have not taken sides. â┚¬Å”The key factor here is weâ┚¬â€Mark and Carrieâ┚¬â€aren't a club, bar or restaurant. We're Switzerland.â┚¬Â

But LaColla and Garboza think the coalition should take a more active role in helping the parties settle their differences.

â┚¬Å”Something needs to change,â┚¬Â Garboza said. â┚¬Å”GaYbor needs to update its by-laws or create a new position to handle these kinds of disagreements. I believe in GaYbor and what it has done so far, but it should respond when a business acts negatively. They shouldn't let this behavior go unchecked.â┚¬Â