Workers at KCK holiday pop-up Jingle! allege paychecks withheld: ‘It’s a spit in the face‘
When Kansas City, Kansas, holiday pop-up experience Jingle! temporarily closed without warning on opening weekend after storm damage, Hanah Glimpse had a bad feeling.
Glimpse, 25, was hired as an assistant stage manager at Jingle! Kansas City in early November. Throughout the holiday season, she corralled other contractors and performers between shows at the holiday venue’s stages, submitting her hours each week on the payroll app Gusto.
“I could kind of tell some things were going to leave a distasteful taste in people’s mouths,” Glimpse said.
Throughout December, Glimpse said, she was asked to tell several performers that their hours were being cut without warning. Soon, her hours were cut, and some of her coworkers started mentioning they hadn’t been paid on time.
On January 3, Glimpse joined the majority of workers at Jingle whose paychecks never arrived. The company currently owes her about $800 post-tax, she said.
Later that day, Jingle CEO Mark McKee sent an email to some Jingle employees explaining the organization was “unable to meet its payroll obligations” due to “unforeseen circumstances beyond our control.”
“We understand how distressing and frustrating this news must be,” McKee wrote in the email, which has been widely circulated on social media. “We want to assure you that resolving this issue is our absolute top priority.”
Issues at Jingle! Kansas City
The holiday pop-up event, which ran from Nov. 29 through Jan. 1, was hosted at Legends Field in Kansas City, Kansas, home of the Kansas City Monarchs baseball team. McKee was also the CEO of the Monarchs until January 2024.
Jingle, which also had locations in St. Louis and Springfield this year, ran in collaboration with Enchant Christmas, which operates pop-up “Christmas villages” in several states. A similar event at the same location was held in 2023 under the Enchant name, and was considered wildly successful by most attendees.
This year’s Jingle Christmas village was billed as a “magical experience” featuring live performers, a light maze, light sculptures, an ice-skating rink, five bars, a snow tubing arena and several food trucks and vendors.
But throughout the holiday season, multiple Jingle attendees took to social media to complain about a decline in quality from last year’s event. Some also referenced a pervasive smell of sewage throughout the attraction.
“It was terrible compared to Enchant last year,” Overland Park resident Kyle Tritsarolis wrote on Facebook. “It’s such a letdown and ripoff.”
Then, the alleged payroll problems escalated.
In a statement released Tuesday through Will Gregory Public Relations, Jingle attributed the payroll deficiency to funds lost when the rented ice-skating rink arrived three weeks late.
“The festival’s largest attraction, the ice-skating pond and trail, arrived three weeks late due to a strike at an East Coast shipping port,” the statement read. “... This setback has severely impacted the festival’s financial recovery and caused undue hardship for many vendors and businesses involved with Jingle.”
The statement also said that the company in charge of ticket sales for Jingle “redirected funds originally intended for payroll to cover other expenses.”
Jingle is pursuing damages from the ice rink vendor and has reported the payroll gap to the Department of Labor, the statement said.
After questions about payroll discrepancies arose online, the Monarchs released a statement Saturday saying they were not involved in running the event and that they had also not been paid for the use of field space.
“Unfortunately, like many vendors and partners, we have not been compensated for costs associated with renting Legends Field for the event, as stipulated in our contract,” Saturday’s statement read.
Workers navigate lost revenue
Some workers at Jingle, including part-time employees and contracted entertainers, said they have not been paid for the entire month of December. Amari Lewis, 22, said that Jingle owes her about $1500 for her work as a live singer since November 29.
Lewis said she has not received payment for any hours worked at Jingle, starting with a December 13 invoice of about $390. She had worked for the Enchant pop-up in 2023 without issue, she said.
“After December 13, every time I went back to work, people would ask me, ‘Have you been paid yet?’” Lewis said. “And I was like, ‘Well, no, I just sent in my first invoice.’ And other performers who had been there for weeks were telling me, ‘Oh, I haven’t been paid at all.’”
Before the Jan. 3 email, Lewis said she spent several weeks trying to chase down her missing earnings with no response from accountants and administrators. Other employees tried to soothe her at first, before realizing they weren’t getting paid either.
“I called the customer service line,” Lewis said. “I called them every day. They got so scared, they were like, ‘I’m scared I’m not gonna get paid.’ And lo and behold, the next day, they did not get paid.”
Meanwhile, Lewis’ hours were cut back in increments from Christmas Eve to New Years’ Day, often with little warning, she said.
“This is a week and a half worth of money that I’m missing out on,” Lewis said. “That might not seem like a lot, but that’s the majority of $1,000.”
Lewis had planned to use the money she earned at Jingle to finish funding a move to New York. When no payment was made, Lewis had to cancel her flights at cost, as well as several scheduled theater auditions, she said.
“I’m still gonna move,” Lewis said. “It’s gonna take me a couple more months now, because they never paid me.”
Glimpse, who lives at home, said the loss of her Jingle earnings mostly cuts into her savings goals. Winter is usually a “slow season” for the theater artist, who had hoped to rely at least partially on the payment until March.
For some of her coworkers, Glimpse said, the situation is more dire. Rhonda Sutton, who worked for Jingle this year, shared online that the missing paycheck has left her worried about paying rent.
“I have three kids and for them to send us an email like that was just crazy,” Sutton wrote.
Hoping for compensation
Lewis is among those employees now considering legal action against Jingle. Along with missing paychecks, she alleges performers were not provided heated tents or a safety walk-through of the premises, and that she was assigned to private performances in the VIP section without a commensurate boost in pay.
“It was a mess to work for, and then just to not get paid as well — it’s a slap, it’s a spit in the face, honestly,” Lewis said.
In his Jan. 3 email to employees, McKee promised an update on Jingle’s financial situation by Jan. 8. Glimpse, though, isn’t holding her breath for her paycheck.
Some employees, including Glimpse and Lewis, are still wondering whether McKee and Jingle ever intended to pay them for their work.
“I truthfully wouldn’t be surprised if nothing really happens,” Glimpse said. “I kind of had the same gut feeling Friday… I’m sure a lot of us are hopeful for [payment], but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s maybe a bit more of a delay.”
As for Lewis, she said her experience at Jingle will change the way she navigates the world as a performer, whether or not her missing paychecks arrive.
“I’ll be requiring half payment right up front from now on, no matter what I’m doing, because of this,” Lewis said. “This is not just a fun little side job. I do entertainment full time. I take my gigs deliberately and seriously, and the fact that I’m missing about $1,500 in my slowest time of the year when I have nothing else going on is devastating.”
The Star’s Alecia Taylor contributed reporting.
This story was originally published January 8, 2025 at 6:00 AM.
