In Wednesday’s vlog, we reported that John Hebard from Hebard’s Travel and most notably, the RV Nomad Movie (which we also reviewed), announced that he and his wife would be departing the ENTV family. At the time, all that was released was that it was to focus more time on their travels and so that John could focus on a book he has been working on.

Last night, rumblings on the ENTV / Epic Nomad boards about financial issues within the ENTV leadership started to run rampant.

The official word…

This morning, a post to ENTV boards as well as an email to members confirmed the rumors:

ENTV IS CLOSING DOWN Friends and fellow nomads,In 2018 we produced an incredible documentary that depicts much of the mindset driving the full time RV movement. The 82 minute movie, now watched more than 150,000 times on YouTube and Vimeo, was premiered at the sold out NomadFEST 2018. It was an event to be proud of. And a movie product that represented some of the best work many of us have ever been involved in. It was also one of the most difficult years many of us have ever experienced. The movie ran over budget and created a negative financial scenario that we unfortunately have never been able to come back from. We felt this enormous financial pressure after NomadFEST last October. The demand was out there for more content like this, and for another event to follow it. While we could have thrown in the towel in November, we knew that the first movie and event were seemingly impossible, yet we accomplished them both. So we decided to give it a go. There was and is so much more to the powerful story of the RV Nomad and we wanted to share it. It was a huge risk. Couple that with the fact that we made the first movie available for free so that as many people as possible could experience it and we suddenly found ourselves in a terrible situation. One that no one wants to go through. One that has us heart broken on all fronts. Over the past several weeks we’ve sought out any and all possible options to somehow pull this off. We firmly believed, even as late as this past week, that we would be able to host NomadFEST 2019 and make it a success. But reality began to hit home a few days ago. Some of us are now personally and financially gutted as a result of the hardships of the past year and a half. We gave it all we had. And then some. But unfortunately, it just wasn’t enough. It is with deep regret that we must announce today that EPIC Nomad TV is closing down. And with that NomadFEST 2019 is officially cancelled. The Epic Nomad Life app and platform will also close out over the weekend. It will no longer be accessible on both mobile app and desktop versions.  Words cannot possibly describe how devastating this is for us. Our mission has always been to be positive and inspiring in everything we do. To project that in the way we live as nomads and through the stories we develop through this platform. Knowing that some of this hardship has created a negative impact on some leaves us feeling absolutely awful. But the truth is we cannot sustain this. We cannot go on. All NomadFEST ticket holders will be contacted on Monday with an update about the upcoming refund process. Including those waiting on DVDs. Our new mission is to make everything right with our customers to the best of our abilities. Please know we have no full time employees. There have never been salaries here as we’ve never been able to afford such luxuries. So we’re working on process to help manage this transition and we’ll be communicating this with our customers.  We’re going to do everything we can to facilitate the refund process and we hope you’ll be patient with us as we work through that. We’re sorry that it has come to this. And we’re forever grateful for the love and support so many thousands of nomads have shown us throughout this project. You’ve all been incredibly inspiring to us. Your stories are amazing and we’ve all made friends that will last a lifetime through this journey. We wish you all the best in 2019 and beyond.Thank you, – EPIC Nomad TVCopyright © 2019 Nomadic Life Media, LLC, All rights reserved.  You’re receiving this message via your relationship with EPICNomadTV.com.  Our mailing address is:  Nomadic Life Media, LLC5715 Highway 85 NCrestview, FL 32536-9003

We are incredibly sad to hear this news. We were among the many hundreds (if not thousands) of people that had already signed up to attend NomadFest in October this year.

How EPIC Nomad / ENTV handles the returns for the people that have paid remains to be seen, but as they noted in their communication above, we should know something by Monday.

Can it be saved?

Its understandable that they felt compelled to put together another movie to release during NomadFest. The financial frustration to complete this monumental task. Could they look at the success of events like RTR and realize its not about the glitzy movie? Get back to the heart of why people are drawn to the RV lifestyle and we would all still gather. Could they not still proceed with the event with a different event schedule?

We’ll keep you posted any further developments…

Safe travels,

Russ & Kerry

Update: 02/16/19

In an email to followers, Eric Odom from ENTV continues the conversation and gives a glimpse of hope. He states there might still be time to salvage the app – and perhaps NomadFest? He mentions people have offered to help (financially). Let’s see what this community can do!

Update: 02/19/19

Following his email on Saturday, Eric Odom released another update. There are ongoing efforts to try to make NomadFest 2019 happen! The remaining leaders of ENTV (Morton’s on the Move also announced their withdrawal last week in addition to Hebard’s Travels) have been in talks with the city of Wellington and have promised an update by Wednesday or Thursday later this week. Here is the text from the most recent communication: 

NomadFEST Guests,

On Friday we announced significant changes to NomadFEST 2019 and have been working all weekend on getting ready to begin working with you all on next steps. As mentioned in Friday’s announcement, it’s likely that NomadFEST will be fully cancelled. And in the event of a cancellation we will begin phasing in refunds for NomadFEST 2019 guests. 

Is it possible NomadFEST is still going to happen? Yes. And if it does it will be much bigger than we had planned. With a lot more support and infrastructure. And far more speakers than ever before. 

This is a big if. You see, the outpouring of support we received Friday evening and throughout the weekend was rather profound on many levels. We’ve had multiple entities offer to come in and help keep it all on schedule. There are hundreds of nomads out there who don’t want to see it cancelled and this is encouraging beyond words!

We’re in discussions with a lot of folks right now, including the city of Wellington and with today being a holiday it was difficult to reach full resolution. We’re going back into the negotiations tomorrow and Wednesday and will let you all know where things stand in a few days. 

Like many of you we too want to save the event! But we want it to be done right and we want it to be EPIC! If we can’t do this we will begin the refund process. 

Thank you for the tremendous support. Thank you for being patient as we work through this and stay tuned for updates!

– The NomadFEST Crew

UPDATE 3.13.19

Check out our VLOG 87 for the latest update: https://theroadsweroam.com/2019/03/13/news-03-13-19/