One of the worlds largest multi-genre music festivals, Coachella, is currently under fire over its five state radius clause, barring all artists who are to perform at Coachella. This means that all those artists cannot play within a 5 state radius between December up until May.
Oregon based Soul’d Out Music Festival attempted to get SZA to play at their festival, but were unable to because of the contract she signed with Coachella. The founders of Soul’d Out asked the festival for a waiver, but Coachella denied their request. Following, Soul’d Out proceeded to file a suit to the United States District Court saying that requiring artists to sign a 5 month radius clause, even after the festival, violates anti-trust and unfair competition laws, creating “an illegal monopoly in the market for live music festival performances.”
Soul’d Out festival takes place in Portland April 18-22. Festival owners Nicholas Harris and Haytham Abdulhadi, state that all Coachella is doing is barring smaller festivals in the area, as Coachella already sells out far in advance and doesn’t have any big competition.
Soul’d Out’s lawyer, Nicholas F. Aldrich, accuses Coachella organizers AEG and Goldenvoice of violating anti-trust laws by “unreasonably restricting price and cost of competition among live concert venues” and “limiting entry or expansion of competitors” in “the states of California, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, or Arizona.” Aldrich also seeks to completely remove the because they allegedly are an unlawful restraint on trade under California law, which creates an unfair competition to other festivals that want to host an event in any of these five states.
Check out the Coachella lineup and see what artists are under this no show clause here.
What do you think of this lawsuit? Do you think that Coachella’s radius clause is unfair? Let us know in the comments below.
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