<p>Brothers Ron Benjamin, left, and Vaughn Benjamin form the nucleus of Midnite's rootsy heavy sound. Hailing from St. Croix, Virgin Islands, the band weaves the cultural lyrics of old-school roots music with modern day experiences. Midnite performs from 10 p.m. to 1 a.m. Friday, July 25.</p>

The Northwest World Reggae Fest does not approach its 10th anniversary in grand, celebratory fashion, or even on stable ground. It is, at best, a re-set. At worst, it is a last chance.

Over the last three years, while located in Veneta, Oregon, the event has been plagued by myriad issues, including bungled scheduling; multiple, prolonged audio and visual outages; and artists refusing to perform after being denied payment.

Festival owner Douglas Carnie does not dispute that billed acts did not play last summer when he was unable to meet his financial agreements.

In the end they couldve played, and they just chose not to, Carnie told me. They chose the fact that performing to their audience is not as important as the money they were making.

After failing to honor his word on payment, I found Carnies deflection of blame onto the artists unfair and incredulous.

Ive been in this business a long time, he went on. And trust me: All the hippie bands, they didnt care if there was money there; they went and performed for their fans. And they got their money later.

The reason Carnie couldnt honor the set terms, he said, is because a rash of counterfeit tickets were sold on or near festival premises.

We used to send out really fancy passes to all the vendors and volunteers and stuff so they could have a little keepsake thing, Carnie said. And thats what got copied last year. Somebody took it upon themselves to go to the printshop and have 200 of them ran off and sold them in front of the event. And we didnt have any idea about it. Nobody told us it was happening. The guy was pretty stealthy.

Rather than apologizing to fans who did pay, however, Carnie passed the buck.

We had some issues with the management team, he said. We had people who were not having our best interests at heart and pulled some shenanigans on us over the last two years. It took me a while to weed it all out.

Carnie hopes that after firing three-quarters of (his) management team and moving to the North Coast, he will get a fresh start. He also believes that scaling back the size of the festival will smooth the operation.

Its one of the problems when you get bigger, he said, you have to get more people just to keep everything going. And weve come back in to just the family doing the shows this year. Its more difficult in some respects, but at least we know that its our show.

Indeed, the Northwest World Reggae Festival boasts a few solid, even venerable acts. Scheduled to perform are Midnite, deep, trancelike roots reggae from St. Croix, and the Jamaica-based Don Carlos, who was once a member of the storied Black Uhuru.

Both Midnite and Don Carlos have performed the festival multiple times in years passed, and those preexisting relationships may explain their booking in 2014 as storms of poor festival reviews abound on Facebook and reggae-related message boards.

Despite the efforts of Carnie, who deleted a number of posts on his own Facebook page, artists claiming non-payment ring loud alarms. Carnie said, though, that the clamor comes from those who are jealous that they want what he has.

You start to run the gamut, he said. Every festival owner Ive talked to, everybody has had the same issues at one time or another. Theres always a group of people that want to do what youre doing and some of them will actually be proactive about making your life harder.

Regardless of blame, damage has been done. KBOO, the 90.7 FM community radio station in Portland, refuses to let Carnie and the festival advertise, or even give away free tickets on the air.

Numerous online commenters feel slighted enough to urge a boycott, based not only on the 2013 debacle but also on poor experiences prior to last years festival. One cant help but wonder if the fest is moving to the North Coast because Carnie exhausted the goodwill in the valley.

I asked Carnie if he took any personal responsibility.

You know what, he said, I really dont. I only do to the fact that I was stupid enough to not see it happening and not understand what was really going on. Theres nothing that I have really done other than the fact of working 16-hour days, months on end, to make sure that (the festival) happens. Outside of me being blind to what was going on, I dont know what else to say about that.

Its like I tell people: If somebody breaks into your house and steals all your stuff, well whose fault is that? You have a responsibility, but maybe you didnt have good-enough locks? And thats how I see it. I feel like I didnt have good-enough locks. I was too trusting of people that I thought had our best interests at heart when they really wanted to do what they wanted to do.