Terptown sacks Hardy
Spencer Selectmen notes "racial comments”, business partner is “disgusted”
(Keith Kerrigan and Philip Hardy in happier times, photo from Hardy’s facebook page.)
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This week, Terptown Throwdown, a cannabis music and arts festival being held in August at the Spencer, Massachusetts Fairgrounds dropped a co-owner.
The news broke after Terptown’s licensing permit was placed back on the agenda, a topic of discussion, for all the wrong reasons at this week’s Spencer Board of Selectmen hearing.
In April 2019, Telegram & Gazette noted that Philip Hardy and Keith Kerrigan were “co-owners of Terptown Throwdown LLC” and that Hardy “is the former music chair for the Massachusetts Cannabis Reform Coalition, which puts on the Boston Freedom Rally.”
Ralph Hicks, Chairman of the Board of Selectmen explained it this way, “The problem is, this is a dicey matter, alright, I want to thank the gentleman that brought this to my attention. It appears as though Mr. Kerrigan’s partner, Mr. Hardy has posted some racial comments on the internet and as such, probably isn’t suitable for being involved in this.”
Hicks without quoting them directly called Hardy’s comments, “unacceptable.”
Hardy’s partner, Kerrigan speaking at the hearing, “I’m just as disgusted as everybody else in the community. I have removed Mr. Hardy from absolutely everything.”
The Select Board then voted to remove Hardy from the Terptown permit, re-issuing it solely to Kerrigan with Hicks warning Kerrigan that it would be difficult for him if they found out later that Hardy hadn’t actually been removed from the festival’s ownership.
Midnight Mass has filed a FOIA request to the town administrator for a copy of the documents referred to in the discussion of Philip Hardy and the Terptown Spencer Fairgrounds permit. If we receive them, we will be sure to share them with you.
Keep us in the loop on this... thanks as always for the hard work!
Wow, still a dirtbag company as they just proved!