We’d heard a few rumors and they’ve been confirmed: CLE Rocks is officially off this year. The event, which was again to be hosted by Drew Carey, will allegedly live to fight another year, but we’ll see about that,

This notice was posted on the CLE Rocks page today. Refund info is at the bottom.

Dear Cleveland,

This is a difficult letter to write, so I’ll get straight to the point: Cleveland “Rocks” New Year’s Eve 2015 is officially canceled.

It all comes down to simple math. With the coming convention and other special projects vying for funds from a finite pool of resources, we were unable to secure the corporate and other donor support to host a NYE event that would be on par with past productions and up to the level of excellence that Cleveland deserves.

There is a thin line between having faith and being naive. As much as I hate to undo the pro bono work that my amazing team has put in over the last year, I’m not willing to subject us to deficits that would be detrimental to our long-term goals of investing in our city and its people.

I apologize to everyone who has volunteered, sponsored, or partnered with us—including Drew Carey, who once again agreed to participate for no fee. I know that this is disappointing news and that you may encounter some of the flack that will likely flow from this cancellation. It is my hope that your efforts will be remembered—we could not have come this far without you, your skills, your drive and your faith in this big, abstract, creative and civically meaningful dream.

I also extend my apology to the 10,000-plus past supporters of CLENYE, many of whom were preparing to brave frigid temperatures and join us again. For those who have already purchased tickets, refund processing will begin today. Please visit CLENYE.com for details.

As we move forward, please be assured that Ohio Homecoming remains committed to Cleveland and making Cleveland “Rocks” New Year’s Eve a sustainable legacy event for our city. We look forward to the return to Public Square next year, and will share the plan for making that happen at our first meeting of the new year.

While today’s announcement is disappointing, we won’t let it undo the immense goodwill and commitment CLENYE and the Ohio Homecoming Movement have generated for the city.

This is a fall but not a defeat.

Humbly submitted,
Alonzo

Alonzo Mitchell III
Managing Partner
www.clenye.com
alonzo@ohiohomecoming.com

All online ticket buyers will receive a email message by tomorrow morning with refund instructions. All buyers will have the money released tomorrow and will be back in their accounts in 3 – 5 days depending on the bank.

This article appears in Dec 9-15, 2015.

Vince Grzegorek has been with Scene since 2007 and editor-in-chief since 2012. He previously worked at Discount Drug Mart and Texas Roadhouse.

8 replies on “CLE Rocks New Year’s Eve Event Officially Canceled”

  4. Funny! Can’t say I’m surprised that the moron organizers goofed up so badly they now have to call the whole thing off at the last minute. I flipped my TV channel over to last year’s event a few times and it looked awful. The music acts were completely terrible and there were technical problems galore. I found out later the fire department was ticked because Machine Gun Kelly nearly caused people to get trampled to death. Wouldn’t that have been great for Cleveland’s image. One attendee posted afterwards that she indeed was nearly trampled and felt like she had gotten beaten up. Cleveland should dump the losers behind this event and put something together for next year that is not embarrassing to the city. (And, no, I won’t go there regardless. Smart people know that New Year’s Eve is pretty much the worst night to hit the city to party.)

  5. Shame on this city, a embarrassed to say this is my hometown. You spend all that money on ruining public square and building a bridge that we don’t need. The politicians have screwed us again.

  6. Public hall is too expensive a venue . The first one we did on the square was by far much better and it really didn’t impact downtown traffic during the day as most people had the day off. I had to deliver& setup gear for ch 19 and the entire area was a ghost town except for the crew. And it was cold, hi temp was 17, and it was snowing. The stage crew had some issues as some of the gear came up from a show in florida where it had rained, and was frozen into the road cases, lol. There were no crowd control or security issues either, although times have changed… It was also a free show and most workers got paid. There’s a pretty decent video of the show online as well. And since it was outdoors, 15 minutes of fireworks!

  7. The fact that this was posted 24+ hours ago and there are only 6 (now 7) comments speaks volumes…no body cares!

  8. I went to the first one they did and it was a awesome time!!!! I heard mgk was going to come for the second one so I figured I shouldn’t go. What do you know he has the fire depot get ticketed and people trampled. Nothing like that happened before. Some people just know how to ruin a good event

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