Texas Pinball Festival is Cancelled. TWIPYs and deeproot...

Cary Hardy·video·9m 17s·analyzed·Mar 13, 2020

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.021

TL;DR

Texas Pinball Festival 2020 canceled due to COVID-19; TWIPYs still happening

Summary

Kerry Hardy announces the cancellation of the 2020 Texas Pinball Festival (scheduled for March 27-29) due to COVID-19 pandemic concerns, travel restrictions, and vendor/exhibitor withdrawals. He reads the official statement from organizers Paul Kim and Ed, expresses empathy for their difficult decision, and clarifies that the TWIPY Awards will still proceed despite the cancellation. Hardy also indicates his willingness to attend the Deep Root Pinball VIP launch in San Antonio now that TPF is canceled.

Key Claims

Texas Pinball Festival scheduled for March 27-29, 2020 has been officially canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions
high confidence · Official statement read from organizers Paul Kim and Ed announcing cancellation
The cancellation was triggered by vendor and exhibitor withdrawals prompted by travel concerns related to COVID-19 and Trump administration travel restrictions from Europe
high confidence · Official TPF organizer statement: 'many of our vendors and special guests have contacted us in the last 24 hours to notify us that they will not be coming to TPF due to the concerns of the COVID-19 threat. In addition, exhibitors have begun canceling.'
Tournament entries will be refunded and merchandise will be mailed; general admission tickets are expected to be transferred to TPF 2021
high confidence · Official TPF organizer statement regarding refund and ticket transfer policy
The TWIPY Awards will still happen despite TPF cancellation, with details being finalized
high confidence · Kerry Hardy: 'the answer to the Twippies is that, yes, the Twippies are still a go. Jeff officially announced that today also on the Internet.'
Kerry Hardy was planning to showcase his Getaway pinball restoration project at TPF that he had been working on for several months
high confidence · Hardy stating he was 'looking forward to showing off my getaway that i've been working on for the past three months'

Notable Quotes

“Our hearts are broken to have to announce that the 2020 texas pinball festival schedule for March 27th through the 29th is canceled.”
Paul Kim and Ed (TPF organizers)@ 0:43 — Opening line of official cancellation statement, establishing emotional tone and severity of decision
“The World Health Organization has declared that COVID-19 virus, a global pandemic, and the safety and security of our guests is our top priority.”
Paul Kim and Ed (TPF organizers)@ 1:02 — Primary justification for cancellation citing WHO pandemic declaration and guest safety priority
“Without the exhibitors, there is no show.”
Paul Kim and Ed (TPF organizers)@ 1:38 — Core reason for cancellation: vendor/exhibitor withdrawals made the event non-viable
“this was not an easy decision for them to make at all. This was not what they wanted to do... they're heartbroken.”
Kerry Hardy@ 2:47 — Hardy's insider perspective on the emotional impact on organizers and defending their decision-making process
“There's no way that we can just postpone an event of this size. hotel reservations and special guests and working things out with vendors and all that stuff again is not an easy task”
Kerry Hardy@ 5:15 — Clarification that this is full cancellation, not postponement, explaining logistical impossibility of rescheduling
“the Twippies will still happen. So I think that's all I really wanted this video to have was basically giving the info about TPF.”
Kerry Hardy — Confirmation that TWIPY Awards will proceed and stating main purpose of video

Entities

Texas Pinball FestivaleventPaul KimpersonEd VanderveenpersonKerry Hardyperson Jeff TeolispersonTWIPY AwardseventDeep Root PinballcompanyRobert Gagnoperson

Signals

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business_signal: Major pinball industry trade show experiencing logistical collapse due to pandemic; vendor and exhibitor withdrawals made event non-viable
high · TPF statement: 'many of our vendors and special guests have contacted us in the last 24 hours...exhibitors have begun canceling. Without the exhibitors, there is no show.'
?
event_signal: TWIPY Awards will still proceed despite TPF cancellation; organizers working on alternative format details
high · Kerry Hardy: 'the Twippies are still a go. Jeff officially announced that today...Amoto, myself, and Jeff are all in the talks. We're making plans on how we're going to go about doing this.'
?
event_signal: Texas Pinball Festival 2020 officially canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic, vendor/exhibitor withdrawals, and international travel restrictions
high · Official cancellation statement from Paul Kim and Ed; Kerry Hardy's confirmation and insider detail about progressive cancellation decision
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community_signal: Kerry Hardy reconsidering Deep Root Pinball VIP launch attendance in San Antonio now that TPF conflict is removed
medium · Hardy previously avoided San Antonio trip due to proximity to TPF setup responsibilities; now willing to attend for coverage once TPF confirmed canceled

Topics

COVID-19 pandemic impact on pinball eventsprimaryTexas Pinball Festival 2020 cancellationprimaryTWIPY Awards contingency planningprimaryCommunity sentiment regarding event cancellationssecondaryDeep Root Pinball announcements/releasessecondaryHot Wheels pinball machine coveragesecondaryPinball restoration projectssecondary

Sentiment

negative(-0.75)— Disappointing event cancellation with sympathetic tone toward organizers. Kerry Hardy expresses personal disappointment while defending the organizers' difficult decision and encouraging community empathy over personal refund concerns. Overall somber but measured tone reflecting pandemic impact.

Transcript

youtube_groq_whisper · $0.028

what's up guys it's a kind of a gloomy day for me as most of you already know and if the title of this video didn't already give it away texas pinball festival has officially been canceled and before you start suspecting that i've got the coronavirus no i do not this is ridiculous amounts of sinuses horrible i'm not in pain or anything like that so the showrunners paul kim and ed released a statement today and if you have not already read it i am going to read it for everyone here it states our hearts are broken to have to announce that the 2020 texas pinball festival schedule for March 27th through the 29th is canceled. This decision was not an easy one to make, and we know many of you are as disappointed as we are. The World Health Organization has declared that COVID-19 virus, a global pandemic, and the safety and security of our guests is our top priority. What affects us even more directly is that President Trump has suspended travel from Most of Europe and many of our vendors and special guests have contacted us in the last 24 hours to notify us that they will not be coming to TPF due to the concerns of the COVID-19 threat. In addition, exhibitors have begun canceling. We've said it before many times. Without the exhibitors, there is no show. We cannot express how devastating this is to TPF and to us personally. We are asking everyone to give us a few weeks to develop a plan as we work with the venue and our merchants. We hope you can Carl Weathers the storm with us and be patient. We promise to do everything we can to save the Texas Pinball Festival. Initially, tournament entries will be refunded and purchased merchandise marked as pickup at the show will be mailed. We expect to be able to transfer general admission tickets to TPF 2021 We want to thank everyone that stood by us offering their help and support You don't know how much that means to us. We will be in touch. Paul, Kim, and Ed. As some of you already know, I'm a little bit more on the inside track and know a better deal on what's going on behind the scenes and how this was slowly progressing into the cancellation. And what I can say is that this was not an easy decision for them to make at all. This was not what they wanted to do. This is not easy. I do not and would not want to trade places with them right now because they're heartbroken. They have spent months planning, working, getting things ready to make the show the best as they do every year for us. And now it's been snuffed away. and that's just I think it's maybe it's because I'm a little closer to them than a lot of you are and I guess this is a little more of a passion for me than some of you but it's just I guess some of the comments that I've seen on Pennside and whether it be Facebook or whatever where people are so concerned about making sure that they get their $30 or $50 back from their passes. It's your money. I mean, and if you get it, you get it. That's, that's, it's whatever. I don't know. For me, it was one of those things where it's like on the outside looking in, And yeah, I could see how easy it would be to just be worrying about your $50 and making sure you're okay. Whereas if you were to look at it from a much broader standpoint of the hundreds of people that were involved and all the people that are going to be affected by this and are currently being affected by this including the people that put all this time and effort into putting this show together for us Then maybe you might be whistling a different tune. I know that there are some of you out there that had hopes that maybe this might be just a postponing for a month or two and that they would be able to just have it then. But no, this is a pure cancellation, not a postponement. There's no way that we can just postpone an event of this size. hotel reservations and special guests and working things out with vendors and all that stuff again is not an easy task that's why it takes months of planning so yeah in a nutshell this does suck this is something that i personally do look forward to me and the family look forward to every year i don't know i know that there are some of you that are out there saying oh yeah it's just a show there's always next year there's other shows and stuff like that and yeah these are all facts life does go on so it's not like it's you know made my life unliving or anything it's just that i guess it is an event that i definitely look forward to every year i get really excited about it because it's i've got a lot of passion in this hobby and i look forward to meeting a lot of people and seeing a lot of people that i only see this time of the year i've got plenty of friends that i only see at tpf due to the distance between us i was really planning and looking forward to showing off my getaway that i've been working on for the past three months a lot longer than that but three months to basically in my video series and i was looking forward to having everybody play it but it looks like that won't happen until next year so I will try to keep it cleaned up for that long and we see how it looks next year maybe it might even look better I don know We see So as far as TPF goes we know that canceled As far as the Twippies go this is a question I know that a lot of you have on your minds And the answer to the Twippies is that, yes, the Twippies are still a go. Jeff officially announced that today also on the Internet. But Amoto, myself, and Jeff are all in the talks. We're making plans on how we're going to go about doing this. And nothing's concrete yet on how it's going to go down. But the Twippies will still happen. So I think that's all I really wanted this video to have was basically giving the info about TPF. And I guess a little bit of my thoughts on that as well as giving you a little bit more information about the Twippies that that is still a go. I've recently been shown better footage of Hot Wheels. I may make another video on that. Maybe. I do plan to go down to the Deep Root unveiling. If that is still going down, I'm waiting to hear back from Robert. Let me check my email right now and see if he has responded. and nothing yet, but I didn't plan on going down to San Antonio for the VIP launch, because it was like right before TPF, and at that time TPF was still a green, so I basically backed away from going to San Antonio, because I wasn't going to make that drive, as well as help set up the show and all that stuff, but with TPF being a no-go, I am more than willing to go down there and get all the information and videos and pictures I possibly can of what Deep Root is cooking for us. Just waiting for that response back and we'll see how that goes down. When I know something, then I'll be sure to let you guys know something. But yeah, I think that's pretty much what all I wanted to put into this video. I'm hoping it's a short one. But until next time, guys. Peace out.