Freedom Fest, Toby Keith Performance Abruptly Cancelled

SCHAUMBURG, IL — The Freedom & Dignity Festival in Schaumburg, which was slated to take place this weekend and included headliner and country music star Toby Keith has been abruptly cancelled. Organizers for the festival, put on by the Dan Gibbons Turkey Trot Foundation, decided to call it off after problems arose with the company responsible for organizing the fest, Imagn Events, according to a post on the Freedom & Dignity Festival Facebook page.

Funds raised from the festival were meant to benefit Cafe Liberty, a Wheaton-based culinary training program for veterans, which offers free culinary training to help unemployed or underemployed veterans find gainful employment in the culinary industry. The Dan Gibbons Turkey Trot Foundation has spearhead fundraising efforts to benefit veterans and their families over the past 35 years.

In 2018, Imagn Events, which is "comprised of veterans," offered to organize the festival. The Schaumburg Boomers, a supporter of veterans and their families, agreed to provide the venue for the music festival for the Aug. 10 event.

"Over the past week, it became clear that no one would see the music festival as planned," Dan Gibbons wrote in a Wednesday post on the festival's Facebook page. "Problems that arose led to significant concerns that those materially supporting the event would not be compensated and that Imagn Events was unable to deliver on its obligations to provide an enjoyable event for all attendees and performers."

On Aug. 6, Gibbons' foundation terminated its agreement with Winfield-based Imagn Events. Despite this, Imagn Events continued to sell tickets to the festival. Imagn Events website, which is no longer live, claims the company specialized in marketing, E-commerce, and events.

In recent days, the Foundation and officials with the Schaumburg Boomers worked tirelessly to salvage the music festival "with each entity considering taking on or continuing to take significant losses to adjust matters," according to Gibbons.

But the "operational hurdles" remained and Gibbons' Foundation also faced financial hurdles due to the loans made to Imagn to book performers for the fest.

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"The Foundation has the best interests of veterans and their families as its central mission," according to Gibbons. "When Imagn Events failed to perform and told the Foundation that it was unable to perform, the Foundation realized not only its longstanding reputation was at issue but also that the circumstances posed risk to hard working people, law enforcement and ticketholders."

The Foundation is directing those looking for ticket refunds to call Mike Birt of Imagn Events at 630-414-6219.