Music festivals are a risky business, with the key word being business. We recently learned that HARD’s Gary Richards was suing Insomniac’s Pasquale Rotella for payment to continue using the Electric Daisy Carnival trademark. This isn’t the first time we’ve seen some of our most beloved EDM brands embroiled in legal battles, but we always assume that while the suits fight we can continue to enjoy ourselves the way we always have. However it appears that the battle between Pasquale and Gary may have some immediate affects on festival goers, as EDC Vegas and HARD Summer have no overlapping performances – at this time.
We’ve been doing this long enough to know it’s more than a mere coincidence, much like radius clauses preventing overlap between Life In Color Miami and Ultra Music Festival (short of surprise appearances). It would not be surprising to find that EDC and HARD employed similar contracting terms to prevent any overlap. However, HARD addressed this very issue on Twitter and denied using any booking ultimatums which would prevent overlap. Perhaps EDC will add some of those artists from HARD as the festival draws closer. Additionally, Gary Richards is still booked to perform as Destructo at Insomniac events, so this may be much ado about nothing. We can only hope that cooler heads will prevail and the 2 EDM titans will work out their differences so we can continue to enjoy both of our favorite festival brands the way we always have.
@EDMsauce HARD does not issue booking ultimatums. We are pro artist all day. Your story is incorrect.
— HARD Spoon (@HARDFEST) May 7, 2015
Source: LA Weekly
