It could have been amazing, a new summer music festival for the city with big name-performers and 12 concerts throughout the season. The 2011 BlackCreek Summer Music Festival held a lot of promise.

It featured artistic direction by Garth Drabinsky, the former showbiz powerhouse out on bail from his 2009 Livent fraud conviction.

But the dream deflated as poor weather, cancelled concerts and sluggish ticket sales stymied efforts to develop a place among the other great Canadian music festivals. It fell into the shadow of Drabinsky’s conviction and appeal process.

And despite well-received performances from Placido Domingo, Diana Krall, Helen Mirren and the London Symphony Orchestra, the tale of an ambitious new festival has instead become a saga of bounced cheques and broken promises.

More than two months after the last performance, local performers and businesses said the festival owed them more than $100,000 in overdue payments. After months of complaints, unanswered queries and finally a call from the Star, a representative for BlackCreek now says some of the cheques are in the mail. They began arriving Monday for chorus members.

The festival started so well, said Carrie Loring, a member of the 80-member BlackCreek chorus.

The chorus had five shows scheduled at the 20,000-seat Rexall Centre. The first was with renowned tenor Domingo. The chorus was paid promptly. The second was in early July, a Broadway-themed concert hosted by Martin Short. Again, all of the chorus members got their money.

But after two of the three remaining shows in August were cancelled, some members of the chorus walked out.

Singer James Baldwin said BlackCreek owes the singers a cancellation fee as well as payment for theatrical release of the Domingo show, which was recorded and shown in movie theatres during the festival.

“The sad part was a lot of people had turned down other work,” said Loring.

Loring stayed for the final performance with the London Symphony Orchestra led by famed conductor Lorin Maazel. “The concert was amazing,” she said. They played Beethoven’s Ninth.

Chorus members say they are owed around $500 each for rehearsals and that final performance.

“I don’t know if I’ve ever run into a situation where I’ve never been paid,” said Loring. She describes herself as a single mother with bills to pay.

All payrolls were processed this week, according to Kevin Albrecht, who was described in festival news releases as CEO of BlackCreek Limited Partnership. The renowned sports agent, one of the masterminds behind the Battle of the Blades TV show, says he’s only an investor with the festival.

He said he is personally financing the payroll and that the people owed were given a full explanation for the delay: slow ticket sales; the fact that the credit card processing company held funds from ticket sales; and the need to find new financing.

“Arts festivals take time to become mainstays,” said Albrecht.

“It has been a first year full of challenges and we are working hard to conquer those challenges. Some people will understand that and be patient and some — and it is the minority — won’t.”

Conductor Robert Cooper, who assembled the chorus for BlackCreek, said his fee is three months overdue. He met with Albrecht in September to discuss the issue.

Albrecht gave him a cheque, which Cooper deposited a few days later. It bounced. Cooper hasn’t heard from him since.

Albrecht told the Star the cheque was returned because of corporate and account changes.

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“I will reiterate our promise that everyone will be paid and we apologize for the delay,” he said.

Phone numbers associated with the festival have all been disconnected and emails bounce back to the sender.

“At the moment it’s a situation somewhere between very tardy and dishonourable,” said David Perlman of The WholeNote magazine, whose publication sold and ran advertising space for the event. He said they are still waiting for payment.

Some vendors are relying on the courts to get their payday. Michael Bickerton, a partner in e-marketing firm JBM Interactive Ltd., said it is suing BlackCreek for $25,000 in unpaid bills in small-claims court.

In addition, about 60 instrumentalists, all members of the local musicians union, say they weren’t paid for their work in the July Broadway concert. They claim they are waiting for almost $65,000 in total fees from BlackCreek.

Victor Ghaloosian co-owns L’Atelier Grigorian, a specialty classical and jazz music store. Festival organizers hired him to sell CDs and DVDs during the Domingo concert with stock from his store. He said he entrusted his products to them with the understanding he would be paid after the fact.

He said he is owed between $4,000 and $5,000.

Albrecht wouldn’t discuss the specific amounts owed to musicians and vendors.

Despite the anger about unpaid bills, Douglas Miller, a BlackCreek chorus member, said the festival itself was a joy to be part of.

“The festival had a lot of artistic value. I think the programming was excellent, and the quality of the performers and performances was second to none.”

The way the festival ended is unfortunate, said Cooper. “There was a lovely dream and vision and I think that’s why we all bought into it. It was going to be a new level of artistic engagement in the Toronto community.”

BlackCreek may have the chance to try again next summer. “Should refinancing be successful, which at this point we are confident of, there will be a BlackCreek festival next year,” said Albrecht.