Note: This is an open letter directed to Sarah Bettens, her management, her record label, her road manager and whoever else might be responsible for tour-matters. When we address Sarah personally here, we also mean the whole machine behind her- but since she is the one ‘known’ person to us, we’re afraid you have to stick out your head, Sarah.

Dear Sarah and whomever it might concern,

We want to express with this letter our deepest disappointment about the cancelled gigs in Cologne and Berlin and all the stuff that had been happening- or rather not happened.

We, that is the German K’s Choice fan community. You might not be aware of this, but we actually believe that the German community is one of the best organized, deepest and most faithful community K’s Choice used to have. We have our own German website and a very popular forum, about which –frankly-both sarahbettens.com and kschoice.com can only dream about. Right now there are 125 registrated users on the forum, and a very high percentage of them are actually active users, from all over Germany and Austria.
After the break of K’s the site continued to exist and is as active as ever. As an addition, we opened a German fansite for Sarah www.sarahbettens.com and an own forum for her. Naturally, we’re all very curious about her solo-carriere and follow it very attentively.

German k’s fans haven’t been very spoiled with K’s tourdates in their neighbourhood the past years. However, as probably everybody can tell you, there has hardly ever been any concert in Europe, where there wasn’t a German fan showing up. I think no fan community has travelled so far to see their favourite band than we did. Whenever there was a bigger event, you could bet that some Germans (and Austrians by the way!) could get spotted in the front rows and be seen afterwards.

We’re telling this to make sure, that these aren’t some spoilt fans writing, nor are we usually very demanding. But with this background, you might understand even better, how happy we were that after more than 2 years Sarah would come back to Germany to play some solo-gigs here (besides the two festival appearances)- gigs that by the way were not announced as TBC but fixed. We were all very much looking forward to these gigs, seeing Sarah alone and live in action, presenting her new material and NOT having to drive maybe a 1000km for that. People were already starting to make plans, booked flights and trains. There were actually even people coming over from Scandinavia.

Then suddenly the German tour dates disappeared from the website.

Till this very day we have no idea what happened.
We asked Idol media, we asked several times on the forum, we called the concert agencies, ticket agencies, the venues…apart from a short email from Idol media, that the dates were cancelled (without any further comment, if the dates were re-scheduled…let alone explaining why) we haven’t had any clear information at all.
The venues thought until the day before that the concert would take place. The concert agencies told us they were not sure either and sounded as confused as we were and are.
It was still possible to buy tickets for both concerts until the very day the concerts should have taken place.

Today, we’re still waiting for some kind of official explanation. We also wonder if the dates have been cancelled or re-scheduled.

The website www.sarahbettens.com had no information, neither on the news page, nor on the forum. What’s worse, there was not even any announcement, that the dates were cancelled, they simply disappeared. It would have been a very easy thing to make one sentence on the front and on the tour page, instead people who did not follow the forum regularly or checked the tour page again, eventually stood before closed gates. We leave it up to you to imagine what kind of feelings this might cause, however, we doubt that they encourage buying more CDs of Sarah Bettens.

This whole business is in our opinion unprofessional and shows some poor information management. What’s worse, most fans feel rejected and ‘less worth’ than other countries.
To put it bluntly, we’re pretty angry and disappointed.

Disappointed fans might not stay fans. And ex-fans don’t buy music, don’t go to concert, don’t enjoy the music, all in all, you’re loosing the basis on which you all work.
For us, we’re loosing the fun of it, it leaves a bitter feeling in your mouth.

Sarah, all of us have a deep respect for you both as an artist and a human being. Please do not toy with those feelings, just because we might not be as many and loud as people from other countries.

With best greetings from Germany,

The www.kschoice.de community.

As an addition, we opened a German fansite for Sarah www.sarahbettens.com and an own forum for her

ich finde den brief auch ganz toll forumliert.

With best greetings from Germany

bödi, kannst du newsletter raushauen? oder engholm? oder beide?