The fallout from the Burger Records sexual misconduct accusations continues, as Burger Boogaloo promoters, Total Trash Productions, have now severed ties with the label. According to Pitchfork the event will still continue, although it will be held under a different name to further distance the company from the Burger Records brand.

In their statement the organizers wrote that Burger Records never saw any ticket profits from the event, although they did help with promotion and held a merch booth on the venue’s premises. They claim their partnership was “fairly superficial,” beyond the label lending their name for the festival.

“Burger Boogaloo, which has always been an independently-produced festival run by Oakland’s Total Trash Productions, has severed ties with Burger Records, and will henceforth be changing the name of the festival,” the organizers wrote in a statement on their website. “The label’s involvement was always fairly superficial, and Burger Records never profited from ticket sales; They simply lent their name to the festival, boosted the festival via social media, and were given a merch booth on the premises. Total Trash Productions is horrified to learn of all the allegations, and a more detailed statement on the matter; what the festival will be doing to further ensure the safety of its attendees, can be found in the full statement below.”

This latest announcement follows Alice Bag’s recent decision to drop out of the event in regards to the sexual misconduct allegations. The label has also parted ways with co-founder Lee Rickard, who divested all interests with the company, while the label undergoes major restructuring, including a name change to BRGR Recs. Their other co-founder, Sean Bohrman, has moved into a transitional role with the label.

The Growlers and SWMRS drummer Joey Armstrong, who were both affiliated with the label, have each responded to their own allegations of sexual misconduct. Another group involved with the label, The Buttertones, were dropped from their label in response to their sexual misconduct allegations.

Read their full statement below:

Burger Boogaloo, which has always been an independently-produced festival run by Oakland’s Total Trash Productions, has severed ties with Burger Records, and will henceforth be changing the name of the festival. The label’s involvement was always fairly superficial, and Burger Records never profited from ticket sales; They simply lent their name to the festival, boosted the festival via social media, and were given a merch booth on the premises. Total Trash Productions is horrified to learn of all the allegations, and a more detailed statement on the matter; what the festival will be doing to further ensure the safety of its attendees, can be found in the full statement below.

FULL STATEMENT:

In light of the recent allegations against Burger Records and several of the bands on their label, Total Trash Productions has made the decision to end our long-standing partnership with Burger Records. We want to express our heartfelt support for the brave women who have come forward to share their stories. We also want to sincerely apologize to anyone who has ever been victimized or harassed at any of our events. As the organizers of Burger Boogaloo, we accept responsibility for what happens at the event, and while we have always worked to take swift actions in removing individuals from the event or our line-up who have acted violent or inappropriate, we know that we can always do better. We owe that to our fans and our community. As many of you know, Total Trash Productions has been organizing shows and music fests here in the Bay Area for well over a decade. We are made up of a small group of staff and volunteers who live and work in Oakland and the Bay Area, and we have always strived to create a positive, fun and safe experience for our community through our shared love of music. Total Trash first became acquainted with Burger Records booking tours for their bands, and that led to the festival. The festival at Mosswood has always been produced by our Northern California production company, and we’ve hired Burger to do the promotion. While we personally had an overall positive experience in working with Burger Records, and had no knowledge of the allegations that came out this week, we understand that there are many young women and others who have suffered traumatic experiences at the hands of certain bands and individuals associated with Burger Records. We are disturbed and disgusted by the allegations that have come out, and we stand with the survivors.

Last night we severed our ties with Burger Records. Our production company was founded 10 years ago by a couple who have both been victims of sexual assault, and it would never be our aim to put people at harm at our event. Moving forward without Burger, our event will now continue solely as a Total Trash Production. At Total Trash Productions, we recognize that we too, are not perfect. Organizing a music festival is not an easy task and we have definitely made plenty of mistakes along the way. Even after all these years, we are still growing and learning how we can do things better. But we want you all to know, that we see you, we hear you, and we’re listening to you. We are currently working to implement additional safeguards for our events to help ensure the safety of all of our attendees. This includes working on ways to make it easier for people to report abuse they experience or witness at our events so that we can act more swiftly in removing offenders and reporting them to the proper authorities, creating a stricter vetting process for bands and individuals on bands’ guestlists, further restricting backstage access and employing more security, continuing to diversify our line-ups with more acts that include women, LGBTQ and BIPOC, and working with local groups in our area to learn about actions we can take to help victims of sexual assault. These are just a few of the ideas we are currently discussing. We will keep you all updated on our progress as we continue to flesh out our plan of action. Of course, we are always open to any other ideas or suggestions you may have of further actions we can take. We will be updating our website and social media in the coming days and appreciate your patience and support as we make this transition.

And to our male allies, please let’s all do our part to help keep the music scene safer for our female, LGBTQ and POC friends. If you see something, say something. Report it to the proper authorities. Do not let this shit go unchecked. We at Total Trash will do our part to be better, but we need the men in our rock ‘n roll scene to do better as well. Please take care of each other, we love you all.

Sincerely,
Everyone at Total Trash Productions