"Boycott EFNW" - MLP Convention Head goes on Twitter Rampage

Twitter users from around the world are calling for a boycott of Everfree Northwest today, after a series of over 100 tweets from the head of the convention, Kyle Elliott. Going by the Twitter handle "TheBigKyle1", the President of the Board that runs Everfree Northwest engaged in a dispute with fandom artist Midnight Premier who was removed from the staff of EFNW, following the situation at Crystal Mountain Pony Con. The resulting "turmoil" as the Vice Chair @ColeDaigneault described it, left the EFNW Executive team "shocked". They were not alone.

Midnight Premiere - MidPrem - was one of several vendors who pulled out of Crystal Mountain Pony Con following the firing of the head of vendor relations. Following the convention, she received word that she was removed from the staff of Everfree Northwest's art team "for no given reason".

Scott Kinnersley, who was on the Crystal Mountain Pony Con board, also serves as the chair of Everfree Northwest according to his own Twitter account. MidPrem sent messages to the board president of EFNW - "Big Kyle" - seeking an explanation for her removal from the staff.

"Scott took the events at CMPC as a reason not to trust me, which is not something I can really change (and there's not much I can do to prove I wasn't leaking information other than give my word)" Premiere wrote.

Meme created during the exchange

Kyle told MidPrem that she was removed because "Scott no longer trusts" her "to be privy to sensative [sic] information", but also claimed that it was not about her being suspected as a source of the leaks from CMPC.

Scott Kinnersley: center

Note: MidPrem has contacted us out of concern that showing Scott's face would result in him being bullied by readers. We will not be removing this image because he is a public figure who broadcasts himself often so his identity is not a private matter, but we believe it is worth noting that MidPrem has expressed this kind of consideration.

Kyle proceeded to tweet this text to MidPrem, which  was deemed by others to be "threatening", "bullying", and "disgusting".

It was speculated by some that this account may be a fake account made by someone who was impersonating Kyle. As for the authentication of this twitter account being the head of EFNW's parent company, there's several pieces of evidence. First, would be the fact that the official EFNW twitter account actively follows the account.

The accounts first follow is from the embattled con chair himself.

Second would be a few tweets from the vice-chair of the convention acknowledging the issue and asking for calm.

The account is new, which implies that Kyle created a Twitter account for this purpose. In the several hours after the initial tweets, the account sent 135 other messages to MidPrem and other Twitter users. These tweets were deemed by many accounts to be shocking and "unprofessional".

He told some concerned parties that they were "not welcome at EFNW", and told others "Don't come" while repeatedly claiming that those raising concerns about the situation and his handling of it were "abusive" and "bullies".

Meme created during the exchange

Kyle's cries of "abuse" and "bullying" stem from his assertion that MidPrem did not honor a purported agreement made to wait 1 week for an answer from Scott as-to the justification of her removal before going public with her concerns. MidPrem holds that there was no agreement, rather a suggestion.

The public argument drew the attention of many, some of which proceeded to call for a boycott of Everfree Northwest in 2019. The tweets even caused some EFNW staff to respond. One design team member wrote "count me out" and "I don't know if it will make it past 2019".

Horse News attempted to get an official statement from Everfree Northwest and the Vice Chair.

The EFNW Twitter Account said this:

"Our Exec team is honestly shocked by the events of the past several days. There's a great deal of recovery and correction to be done. We'll have an official, professional, response before long."

The Vice President said this:

"For the time being, EFNW is unable to give an official response. I understand that that is not a satisfying answer. Please believe me that it is not at all satisfying for me either. Right now all of our Department Heads are working hard to address things internally, and we're humbly asking for the community's patience while we work things out.

There will definitely be a public official response from us in the near future. I sincerely apologize but it really will need to wait, hopefully no more than a few days. Thanks for your understanding.

Thank you for your patience and thank you for reaching out."

It's unclear at this time what, if anything will happen as a result of Kyle's actions.

See how the scrolly bar goes all the way to the top? Yeaaaah there's nothing else up there.

Editor's Note: Midnight Premiere was never one of our sources for the CMPC article. In fact, our first direct communication from her came on September 15th, over a month after the initial post. Anyone who believes she was involved in our coverage in any way is a fucking idiot.

We've attached a number of the associated screencaps below.

Official Statement from Kyle

***NOTE: THIS IS STILL AN ONGOING STORY AND SUBJECT TO CHANGE AS MORE INFORMATION COMES IN***

How indeed.

Update 26.09.2018: Everfree Northwest has released an official statement, which can be read in full by the following links. We have also copy and pasted it in full below.[Original][Archive]

As promised, the executive team for Everfree Northwest 2019 would like to publicly address recent events involving our convention. We sincerely appreciate the community’s patience while we (continue to) work through this internally. We’re dedicated to continue providing a safe, welcoming, and magical convention.

We know people are upset, and we are actively working to reconcile directly with those involved. We understand the community is passionate about this (a good thing!), but it's much easier to resolve these issues directly with affected parties instead of publicly on Twitter. And to that end, we want to acknowledge our own part and mistakes.

This issue began as a private staffing matter when Scott/Thornwing, the Everfree Northwest 2019 Chair, removed an artist from design staff after consulting with executive and design department management. The artist was understandably upset upon receiving notice of the decision to remove them from staff. Without receiving an immediate response to a different email inquiry, the artist took to Twitter to voice their concerns in public. This action was followed soon after by questions sent to the @EverfreeNW Twitter account asking for information concerning the board of directors of Pegasi Northwest, the 501(c)(3) company that manages Everfree Northwest. Kyle Elliott, the President of the Board of Pegasi Northwest, made contact with the artist and certain arrangements concerning the matter were discussed. Very soon after that meeting, the parties involved split in disagreement on how things should proceed. The situation escalated in the public view as Kyle fiercely defended the convention and its staff. Many things were said on all sides of the argument both in public and through Twitter direct messages to Kyle, including anti-semitic slurs, intentional lies and half-truths, and even a death threat. The response to those posts resulted in issuing of attendance bans.

As a rule, we only ever ban people for egregious violations of our Code of Conduct, and we can assure the community that "mass bannings" will not be happening. If you are wondering if you have been banned, it is more than likely that you have not been. Due to the inherently private nature of individual attendance bans, we do not maintain a public “ban list”, and we will refrain from commenting on these issues publically. If you are personally unsure about your standing with the event, please contact us at chairs@everfreenw.com. Out of respect for each individual’s privacy, we cannot respond to third-party inquiries about whether specific people have been or may be banned.

Another factor to recognize is that while confronting this issue, Kyle has been dealing with critical health complications due to his diabetes this past week leading up to his hospitalization and diagnosis that his deteriorating condition contributed to his volatile mood. In other words, he was already under immense medical stress when all this happened, and he regrets that those complications may have affected the situation in any way.
Additionally, subsequent attempts to further mediate and reconcile privately with involved parties are currently stalled by the individual’s hesitance to discuss the matter further. In the current state, we are open to further talks to resolve as much as we can.

We value every individual involved with Everfree Northwest, be they VIP, community guest, vendor, artist, attendee or staff. Not only is everyone welcome, but everyone is important. Putting on an amazing event for our community is our number one priority. Everfree Northwest would not be the same without the dedicated vendors, staff, and attendees that support us each year.

While there were good intentions and mitigating medical circumstances underlying the initial blow-up, we still acknowledge our role in this and ask for forgiveness as the entire Everfree staff moves forward with our mission of bringing Equestria to Earth for Three Days. We hope to see you in May!


Signed,
The Everfree Northwest 2019 Executive Team



Update 27.09.2018 - Kyle has since then released an apology letter, due to the communities backlash of the initial one from Everfree Northwest itself. [Original][Archive]

I am sorry.

I have been dedicated to supporting Everfree Northwest for many years now. I am currently the President
of the Board of Pegasi Northwest, and I oversee all of the financial aspects of the convention as well as
appoint the Convention Chair. This does not give me the right to act the way that I did, and does not
excuse my actions. There are no excuses for the way I behaved. I want to take full responsibility for
everything that has resulted from the way that I lashed out at members of our community, and I apologize
for letting rage guide my actions and responses to people seeking answers.

Again, I am sorry. I humbly ask forgiveness for my mistakes.

I want to make it clear that throughout all of this, everyone on my team, including Scott, tried to talk sense
into me, but I would not listen. It took time for me to cool off, step back, and see the damage that I
caused. Now it’s time for me to attempt to make things right.

No one deserves to be treated the way I spoke to members of our artist and vendor community. No one
should or will be banned from attending Everfree Northwest for taking any part in this. After reviewing my
actions, I know that I went overboard in my defense of Scott. I was blindsided by anger, and used my
position of power to make impulsive attendance bans. These are all invalid. To demonstrate this, our
team will not enforce any of these bans (even if they came from legitimate violations of our Code of
Conduct), in an effort to move past all that has happened. Simply put, no one will be banned for any
actions taken in relation to this matter.

I will not be stepping down from my position as President of the Board at this time... but in days to come,
it will be a consideration I will be pondering with the same fervor these actions were taken with. For now,
however, I will return to my place behind the scenes managing the convention’s finances, and let the
executive staff of Everfree Northwest do what they do best. I have also deactivated my Twitter account
permanently.

Furthermore, we are in the process of establishing bylaws to separate duties between board and
convention authority and power, thereby creating a stronger check and balance system.

Please have faith in Everfree Northwest - it is a good and honest convention full of dedicated volunteers. I
ask that you not let my mistakes reflect poorly on the convention or its staff and executives. I hope that
the community can forgive me and look forward to Everfree Northwest 2019 with excitement and
optimism.

I apologize for my actions and humbly ask for forgiveness. Please allow me to grow and learn from this
mistake by giving me a second chance.

Sincerely,

Kyle Elliott
President of the Board
Pegasi Northwest


Editor's Note: Any further updates to this article will be posted below. We would also like to hear your thoughts on the matter on how you find this official response to be below in othe comments section.