From the Traverse City Business News
There won't be a third-annual Traverse City Comedy Arts Festival this winter. In a letter posted to the festival's web page [4], Filmmaker Michael Moore says the festival is not compatible with another event scheduled downtown that weekend.
The reason? Moore says he doesn't want drunkards interrupting famous comedians.
Organizers of the laugh fest and the group that puts on the T.C. Winter Microbrew & Music Festival both wanted the same February weekend. Porterhouse Productions had voiced his willingness to share the weekend with the Comedy Fest, but also refused to move the date of the beer fest.
Both festivals say they have reasons for holding on to the second weekend in February. Comedy Fest organizers say, any earlier and it would interfere with Sundance Film Festival, attended by many involved in the comedy fest. Porterhouse doesn't want to compete with either the Super Bowl or larger microbrew fests in March.
The two groups have clashed before over the Traverse City Film Festival and an event called Paella in the Park. In that case, the groups did agree to share the first weekend of next August.