Seminole Tribe of Florida Forces Cancellation of Harvest Nights Music Festival, Local Charity Suffers $3 Million Loss
Fort Myers, FL- April 17, 2025- The highly anticipated Harvest Nights Charity Music Festival, set to be Southwest Florida’s biggest music event of the year, was abruptly canceled just days before it was scheduled to begin. The three-day festival, planned for January 10–12, 2025, at the John Jimmie Rodeo Grounds in Immokalee, Florida, was expected to draw thousands, featuring headline performances by Def Leppard, Brad Paisley, and Train.
The cancellation has devastated the event’s organizer, The Charity Pros, a Ft. Myers-based nonprofit, and has resulted in an estimated $3 million in losses. “Due to the gross negligence and egregious actions of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, The Charity Pros were given no choice except to cancel the Harvest Nights Charity Music Festival,” said Megan Maloney, Founder and President of the organization. “We were completely blindsided, and it has cost us dearly.”
The Charity Pros were invited by the Seminole Tribe to host the event at the rodeo grounds and had received approval to use the venue, where they worked closely with the Tribe’s staff for several months, coordinating details with the Tribes venue manager and Contract Administrator. However, on the morning of January 6, just hours before set-up was scheduled to begin, they were notified by email and phone from the administrator that the Tribe's legal department had not completed its final lease review and were told the dates needed to be moved or the festival would need to be canceled.
“Changing the dates in the final hours was a clear impossibility for the bands, vendors, sponsors, and fans,” Maloney said. “We had repeatedly requested the final lease review for months to obtain special event cancelation insurance, always with a response that it was coming soon. We were never advised that the event would be canceled if the Tribe didn’t finish their work.”
The cancellation wiped out more than a year of preparation and $2M in non-refundable payments to artists, plus substantial investments in staging, production, contractors, marketing, and sponsor commitments. “We worked tirelessly for a year, raising funds from special events, donors, and financial partners to produce this charity festival—and now everything we built is gone,” said Maloney.
The sudden shutdown followed a series of troubling events. Just a few days earlier, on January 1, they were summoned to a meeting with the Casino’s VP of Marketing, where they were unexpectedly handed a $270,000 production quote dated from August from the Tribe’s in-house company, Seminole Media Productions (SMP). The VP demanded that The Charity Pros pay $200,000 by January 3 or risk losing production support; the festival would be canceled without it.
In a prior meeting, the Casino had committed to providing production through a sponsorship agreement with The Charity Pros and never shared estimates or overages. “From the July meeting until January 1, we didn’t receive any documents, estimates, budgets, quotes, or cost projections,” Maloney explained. “We had no reason to think there were any cost issues.”
Despite the short notice and holiday weekend, The Charity Pros scrambled to raise the funds and were granted a brief extension. By Monday morning, they had secured the money. But before they could make arrangements to make the payment, the Tribe’s Contract Administrator notified them the event had to be canceled due to the Tribe not completing the lease review, therefore taking a position that there was no lease. “We trusted the Seminole Tribe to operate in good faith—and they failed us miserably,” Maloney said.
The Charity Pros later learned that SMP had outsourced production to third-party vendors, significantly increasing the cost. “There was never an agreement for The Charity Pros to pay any production costs; the Casino gave SMP a budget, and apparently, they blew it,” Maloney added. “To be handed an old quote, not an invoice and not in the name of the Charity Pros, with a 48-hour demand or else was extortion-like tactics. We were surprised to see a quote in the eleventh hour and shocked at how they tried to pass it on to us.”
The Seminole Tribe of Florida is a multi-billion-dollar organization that owns and operates seven casinos in Florida, including two Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casinos. The Tribe also owns Hard Rock International, a Hotel & Casino business in 76 countries, and is preparing to open the new billion-dollar Hardrock in Las Vegas in 2027.
The Tribe had heavily promoted the festival at the venue through its Casino in Immokalee and Seminole Tribe Tourism channels, including slot machine and video gaming ad graphics, video boards, social media, websites, and emails to over 90,000 Unity members. “If their position is that no agreement existed, their marketing may be considered fraudulent,” Maloney said, noting the situation could warrant investigation by the Florida Gaming Commission.
The major fundraiser event, supporting local Immokalee and Collier County nonprofits, was to feature fourteen national acts, a festival entertainment village, a food truck rally, dozens of retail vendors, and an on-site campground. The Charity Pros provided over two thousand complimentary tickets per day to local veterans, first responders, healthcare workers, and teachers in honor of their local service to the community.
Tickets for the event were only available by making a non-refundable, tax-deductible donation to help support the cost of the festival. Despite the legal terms, The Charity Pros believe that ticket holders should have an opportunity to get their money back. “Most of them have been successful in getting returns.” Maloney said. “We asked the Tribe to consider donating to help compensate the ticketholders, but they have refused.”
“Though the Tribe’s sovereign nation status shields them from legal action, we believe the public deserves transparency. The documented facts are all on our side; the truth will be told,” continues Maloney.” It will be a real challenge for us to survive this loss financially; however, with our team of volunteers, dedication, and commitment to the children and our supporters who believe in our mission, we hope to overcome this setback.”
END of Press Release
MORE INFORMATION REGARDING THE CANCELLATION - Note- The Charity Pros have dozens of emails, text messages and documents supporting their claim 100% of everything written in the above press release.
ANNOUNCEMENT- April 22—The Charity Pros have officially requested that the Seminole Tribe waive its immunity that is preventing legal action by the Charity Pros. If the Tribe believes they had no wrongdoing or nothing to hide, they should be happy to waive the immunity and allow a hearing.
Documents- Click to see Emails with Susana Tromp, contract administrator for the Seminole Tribe
Click on the document link above- Page 1, is the email from the Tribe administrator on the morning of January 6, (the day Charity Pros was to move onto the site to begin set up). Subject marked Urgent- Susana Tromp claims the draft is still in legal, and asks if the date can be changed. She then calls Maloney and explains that the event has to be moved or canceled. Maloney responds by email, as Tromp requested, acknowledging that the review will not be done in time and advising that the date can not be changed. Additional documents include the pleading from Charity Pros to Tromp, for an entire week prior, asking for completed documents in order to get the special event/cancellation insurance. Tromp promises on Dec. 24 that docs are almost ready and will be sending. On Dec. 30, Tromp claims that she should have it to legal "today". Jan 3, Tromps says the docs are at legal and will have update. Jan. 6, Tromp advises legal will not have a window to complete, and requests date to be changed. Maloney responds by email acknowledging the phone call from Tromp. Note- The Charity Pros requested the documents multiple times by email over the 5-month period. Even the Risk Management department informed Tromp that we both needed the documents months before the cancellation.
More information regarding the Harvest Nights Charity Music Festival-
Tribe Immunity- As a federally recognized Indian tribe, the Seminole Tribe of Florida possesses sovereign immunity, meaning it is not subject to lawsuits unless it voluntarily waives its immunity. The Charity Pros are asking the Seminole Tribe of Florida to waive its immunity so they may proceed with legal means against the Tribe for their actions that forced the cancellation of the Harvest Nights Charity Music Festival. The Tribe has claimed they were not responsible; if they stand behind that claim, the Tribe should not hide behind immunity, waive the right , and allow the claims to be heard in public court.
Meeting Requests- On January 8, we were contacted by the Tribe’s venue manager, whom we had worked with from day one. He explained that Chief Osceola, along with Councilman Howard and Councilman Osceola, had been made aware of the actions of the Tribe staff that had resulted in the cancellation. He said there would be an internal investigation and “heads would roll” over this. He also made us aware that the Tribe was a sovereign nation and was protected. The next day, we emailed the leadership to request a meeting. After multiple requests for a meeting with the Chief and Council and not receiving a reply, we hired an attorney. It was only then that the Tribes legal team responded, with a claim that they are not responsible.
Venue Approval- The Seminole Tribe of Florida sponsored our 2023 Charity Concert in Fort Myers. After the event, the Immokalee Reservation invited the Charity Pros to look at the grounds to use for concerts or festivals. We met with the Tribes Venue Manager and agreed to move forward with the Rodeo Grounds to have the Harvest Nights Charity event. All protocols were met, including the paperwork submission of “The Use of Land Trust Application” and “Seminole Tribe Special Events Application.” We were notified by the Tribal member (venue manager) on June 3, 2024, that the Tribe’s Councilwoman had approved the application, and we could move forward with the event. Everything required was submitted, and there was never any notice that the event could be cancelled should the Tribe fail to complete their review.
Failure of Tribe- Over several months, The Charity Pros sent multiple emails to the Tribes contract administrator, copying the request to many other Tribe departments for a copy of their review. This document was needed for the Charity Pros to obtain special event and cancellation insurance for the festival. The failure of the Tribe to complete the request on time resulted in not only the Tribe demanding the festival cancellation but also preventing The Charity Pros from securing cancellation insurance that would have covered much of the losses.
Previous Sponsorship- The Charity Pros trusted the Seminole Tribe, as they were a major sponsor of the 2023 “Hurricane Heroes” concert in Ft. Myers. The sponsorship included the Tribe’s production company, Seminole Media Production, to provide Video Production for the event. The Seminole Casino Immokalee hired SMP for that event. The Charity Pros were not involved in any payment or fee, quote, budget, discussions, or invoice with the Casino/SMP agreement. Harvest Nights was structured the same way, the Tribe hired SMP, they gave them a budget, and the Charity Pros never received anything from them for 6 months until the “quote” was delivered with the demand for payment.
Def Leppard- Seminole Hollywood- Yes, it is true that two weeks after the cancellation, Def Leppard announced that they would be playing a show in August at the Seminole Casino Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida. Many of you have inquired why they have a date with the Tribe property after what has happened, and if the Harvest Nights tickets would be accepted. No, the Tribe will not accept the Harvest Festival Tickets. We have been told by band agents that the date was already scheduled before the Harvest Nights’ cancellation, but not publicly announced. We still hope Def Leppard will give us a makeup date at another venue when they work on planning a future tour.
Artist Refunds- All of the national touring artists were paid in advance per contract, roughly $2M was paid out in full. The artist contracts were standard, stating no refunds of the payment due to any cancellation. Bands were asked if they would consider making a charitable donation to help offset the loss of donations and costs. At this time, the requests have been denied.
Donation Refund—Tickets to the festival were only available through a tax-deductible donation. As stated on The Charity Pros website, the ticketing company site, the donor’s receipt, and on each ticket, donations were non-refundable under any condition. All donated funds were used to cover the cost of the festival. Despite the legal terms, the Charity Pros believes that the cancellation is unfair to the ticketholders and others, and has tried to help facilitate donation returns and recover funds. Before anyone knew the facts behind the cancellation, the vast majority of all ticketholders were able to access the return of their donation by filing a chargeback with their credit card company.
Fort Myers, FL- April 17, 2025- The highly anticipated Harvest Nights Charity Music Festival, set to be Southwest Florida’s biggest music event of the year, was abruptly canceled just days before it was scheduled to begin. The three-day festival, planned for January 10–12, 2025, at the John Jimmie Rodeo Grounds in Immokalee, Florida, was expected to draw thousands, featuring headline performances by Def Leppard, Brad Paisley, and Train.
The cancellation has devastated the event’s organizer, The Charity Pros, a Ft. Myers-based nonprofit, and has resulted in an estimated $3 million in losses. “Due to the gross negligence and egregious actions of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, The Charity Pros were given no choice except to cancel the Harvest Nights Charity Music Festival,” said Megan Maloney, Founder and President of the organization. “We were completely blindsided, and it has cost us dearly.”
The Charity Pros were invited by the Seminole Tribe to host the event at the rodeo grounds and had received approval to use the venue, where they worked closely with the Tribe’s staff for several months, coordinating details with the Tribes venue manager and Contract Administrator. However, on the morning of January 6, just hours before set-up was scheduled to begin, they were notified by email and phone from the administrator that the Tribe's legal department had not completed its final lease review and were told the dates needed to be moved or the festival would need to be canceled.
“Changing the dates in the final hours was a clear impossibility for the bands, vendors, sponsors, and fans,” Maloney said. “We had repeatedly requested the final lease review for months to obtain special event cancelation insurance, always with a response that it was coming soon. We were never advised that the event would be canceled if the Tribe didn’t finish their work.”
The cancellation wiped out more than a year of preparation and $2M in non-refundable payments to artists, plus substantial investments in staging, production, contractors, marketing, and sponsor commitments. “We worked tirelessly for a year, raising funds from special events, donors, and financial partners to produce this charity festival—and now everything we built is gone,” said Maloney.
The sudden shutdown followed a series of troubling events. Just a few days earlier, on January 1, they were summoned to a meeting with the Casino’s VP of Marketing, where they were unexpectedly handed a $270,000 production quote dated from August from the Tribe’s in-house company, Seminole Media Productions (SMP). The VP demanded that The Charity Pros pay $200,000 by January 3 or risk losing production support; the festival would be canceled without it.
In a prior meeting, the Casino had committed to providing production through a sponsorship agreement with The Charity Pros and never shared estimates or overages. “From the July meeting until January 1, we didn’t receive any documents, estimates, budgets, quotes, or cost projections,” Maloney explained. “We had no reason to think there were any cost issues.”
Despite the short notice and holiday weekend, The Charity Pros scrambled to raise the funds and were granted a brief extension. By Monday morning, they had secured the money. But before they could make arrangements to make the payment, the Tribe’s Contract Administrator notified them the event had to be canceled due to the Tribe not completing the lease review, therefore taking a position that there was no lease. “We trusted the Seminole Tribe to operate in good faith—and they failed us miserably,” Maloney said.
The Charity Pros later learned that SMP had outsourced production to third-party vendors, significantly increasing the cost. “There was never an agreement for The Charity Pros to pay any production costs; the Casino gave SMP a budget, and apparently, they blew it,” Maloney added. “To be handed an old quote, not an invoice and not in the name of the Charity Pros, with a 48-hour demand or else was extortion-like tactics. We were surprised to see a quote in the eleventh hour and shocked at how they tried to pass it on to us.”
The Seminole Tribe of Florida is a multi-billion-dollar organization that owns and operates seven casinos in Florida, including two Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casinos. The Tribe also owns Hard Rock International, a Hotel & Casino business in 76 countries, and is preparing to open the new billion-dollar Hardrock in Las Vegas in 2027.
The Tribe had heavily promoted the festival at the venue through its Casino in Immokalee and Seminole Tribe Tourism channels, including slot machine and video gaming ad graphics, video boards, social media, websites, and emails to over 90,000 Unity members. “If their position is that no agreement existed, their marketing may be considered fraudulent,” Maloney said, noting the situation could warrant investigation by the Florida Gaming Commission.
The major fundraiser event, supporting local Immokalee and Collier County nonprofits, was to feature fourteen national acts, a festival entertainment village, a food truck rally, dozens of retail vendors, and an on-site campground. The Charity Pros provided over two thousand complimentary tickets per day to local veterans, first responders, healthcare workers, and teachers in honor of their local service to the community.
Tickets for the event were only available by making a non-refundable, tax-deductible donation to help support the cost of the festival. Despite the legal terms, The Charity Pros believe that ticket holders should have an opportunity to get their money back. “Most of them have been successful in getting returns.” Maloney said. “We asked the Tribe to consider donating to help compensate the ticketholders, but they have refused.”
“Though the Tribe’s sovereign nation status shields them from legal action, we believe the public deserves transparency. The documented facts are all on our side; the truth will be told,” continues Maloney.” It will be a real challenge for us to survive this loss financially; however, with our team of volunteers, dedication, and commitment to the children and our supporters who believe in our mission, we hope to overcome this setback.”
END of Press Release
MORE INFORMATION REGARDING THE CANCELLATION - Note- The Charity Pros have dozens of emails, text messages and documents supporting their claim 100% of everything written in the above press release.
ANNOUNCEMENT- April 22—The Charity Pros have officially requested that the Seminole Tribe waive its immunity that is preventing legal action by the Charity Pros. If the Tribe believes they had no wrongdoing or nothing to hide, they should be happy to waive the immunity and allow a hearing.
Documents- Click to see Emails with Susana Tromp, contract administrator for the Seminole Tribe
Click on the document link above- Page 1, is the email from the Tribe administrator on the morning of January 6, (the day Charity Pros was to move onto the site to begin set up). Subject marked Urgent- Susana Tromp claims the draft is still in legal, and asks if the date can be changed. She then calls Maloney and explains that the event has to be moved or canceled. Maloney responds by email, as Tromp requested, acknowledging that the review will not be done in time and advising that the date can not be changed. Additional documents include the pleading from Charity Pros to Tromp, for an entire week prior, asking for completed documents in order to get the special event/cancellation insurance. Tromp promises on Dec. 24 that docs are almost ready and will be sending. On Dec. 30, Tromp claims that she should have it to legal "today". Jan 3, Tromps says the docs are at legal and will have update. Jan. 6, Tromp advises legal will not have a window to complete, and requests date to be changed. Maloney responds by email acknowledging the phone call from Tromp. Note- The Charity Pros requested the documents multiple times by email over the 5-month period. Even the Risk Management department informed Tromp that we both needed the documents months before the cancellation.
More information regarding the Harvest Nights Charity Music Festival-
Tribe Immunity- As a federally recognized Indian tribe, the Seminole Tribe of Florida possesses sovereign immunity, meaning it is not subject to lawsuits unless it voluntarily waives its immunity. The Charity Pros are asking the Seminole Tribe of Florida to waive its immunity so they may proceed with legal means against the Tribe for their actions that forced the cancellation of the Harvest Nights Charity Music Festival. The Tribe has claimed they were not responsible; if they stand behind that claim, the Tribe should not hide behind immunity, waive the right , and allow the claims to be heard in public court.
Meeting Requests- On January 8, we were contacted by the Tribe’s venue manager, whom we had worked with from day one. He explained that Chief Osceola, along with Councilman Howard and Councilman Osceola, had been made aware of the actions of the Tribe staff that had resulted in the cancellation. He said there would be an internal investigation and “heads would roll” over this. He also made us aware that the Tribe was a sovereign nation and was protected. The next day, we emailed the leadership to request a meeting. After multiple requests for a meeting with the Chief and Council and not receiving a reply, we hired an attorney. It was only then that the Tribes legal team responded, with a claim that they are not responsible.
Venue Approval- The Seminole Tribe of Florida sponsored our 2023 Charity Concert in Fort Myers. After the event, the Immokalee Reservation invited the Charity Pros to look at the grounds to use for concerts or festivals. We met with the Tribes Venue Manager and agreed to move forward with the Rodeo Grounds to have the Harvest Nights Charity event. All protocols were met, including the paperwork submission of “The Use of Land Trust Application” and “Seminole Tribe Special Events Application.” We were notified by the Tribal member (venue manager) on June 3, 2024, that the Tribe’s Councilwoman had approved the application, and we could move forward with the event. Everything required was submitted, and there was never any notice that the event could be cancelled should the Tribe fail to complete their review.
Failure of Tribe- Over several months, The Charity Pros sent multiple emails to the Tribes contract administrator, copying the request to many other Tribe departments for a copy of their review. This document was needed for the Charity Pros to obtain special event and cancellation insurance for the festival. The failure of the Tribe to complete the request on time resulted in not only the Tribe demanding the festival cancellation but also preventing The Charity Pros from securing cancellation insurance that would have covered much of the losses.
Previous Sponsorship- The Charity Pros trusted the Seminole Tribe, as they were a major sponsor of the 2023 “Hurricane Heroes” concert in Ft. Myers. The sponsorship included the Tribe’s production company, Seminole Media Production, to provide Video Production for the event. The Seminole Casino Immokalee hired SMP for that event. The Charity Pros were not involved in any payment or fee, quote, budget, discussions, or invoice with the Casino/SMP agreement. Harvest Nights was structured the same way, the Tribe hired SMP, they gave them a budget, and the Charity Pros never received anything from them for 6 months until the “quote” was delivered with the demand for payment.
Def Leppard- Seminole Hollywood- Yes, it is true that two weeks after the cancellation, Def Leppard announced that they would be playing a show in August at the Seminole Casino Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida. Many of you have inquired why they have a date with the Tribe property after what has happened, and if the Harvest Nights tickets would be accepted. No, the Tribe will not accept the Harvest Festival Tickets. We have been told by band agents that the date was already scheduled before the Harvest Nights’ cancellation, but not publicly announced. We still hope Def Leppard will give us a makeup date at another venue when they work on planning a future tour.
Artist Refunds- All of the national touring artists were paid in advance per contract, roughly $2M was paid out in full. The artist contracts were standard, stating no refunds of the payment due to any cancellation. Bands were asked if they would consider making a charitable donation to help offset the loss of donations and costs. At this time, the requests have been denied.
Donation Refund—Tickets to the festival were only available through a tax-deductible donation. As stated on The Charity Pros website, the ticketing company site, the donor’s receipt, and on each ticket, donations were non-refundable under any condition. All donated funds were used to cover the cost of the festival. Despite the legal terms, the Charity Pros believes that the cancellation is unfair to the ticketholders and others, and has tried to help facilitate donation returns and recover funds. Before anyone knew the facts behind the cancellation, the vast majority of all ticketholders were able to access the return of their donation by filing a chargeback with their credit card company.