SEATTLE, WA (CelebrityAccess) — The Paradiso Festival, one of the biggest EDM events on the West Coast, may not take place in 2020 after the fest’s co-producer Insomniac has taken their former partners USC Events to court seeking millions in damages.
The festival, which launched in 2012 by USC Events and Live Nation in 2012, took place last year at the Live Nation-managed Gorge Amphitheatre in George, Washington for what it appears may have been the final time, considering the apparent acrimony in the legal filings.
In the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Seattle, Insomniac Holdings alleges that Conscious Entertainment Group, a company owned by Chad Anderson and doing business as USC Events, misused funds festival funds and is not able to explain where said funds went.
The complaint states that while Insomniac and USC shared net revenue and losses from the event, USC was primarily responsible for paying artists and vendors for the festival. Insomniac claims that a provision of their agreement with USC allowed the indie promoter to request funds on unearned revenue from Insomniac to be advanced to meet cash flow needs for the 2019 event. Insomniac’s suit alleges that USC made four such cash advance requests in 2019, to the tune of $2 million dollars in total.
However, Insomniac alleges that USC did not use the money for festival expenses and that they only became aware of the alleged misuse of funds when artists and vendors began contacting Insomniac directly to seek payment for the 2019 edition of the festival.
Insomniac claims they were forced to provide an additional $1.2 million to cover the costs and that USC has failed to provide an adequate explanation for the shortfall.
Worse, Insomniac claims that despite the contretemps, USC has begun promoting and booking talent for the 2020 return of the festival even after a severing of the agreement between the two companies.
Through the lawsuit, Insomniac is seeking a judicial declaration that the agreement between the two companies is officially terminated, as well as an injunction barring USC from using the Paradiso Festival social media accounts, booking artists for Paradiso Festival, and other activities promoting a Paradiso Festival event in 2020.
Insomniac is also seeking monetary and compensatory damages, and for USC to fully and verifiably make whole any vendor who has yet to be paid in the wake of the 2019 edition of the festival.
In a statement to the Seattle Times, USC’s Chad Anderson said: “USC Events finds these recent allegations disheartening and disagrees with this lawsuit. We are disappointed that Insomniac would decide to strain our long-tenured relationship with this litigation, over an event that USC has created from inception.”
The statement also indicated USC Events is planning a legal filing of their own in the case, the Times reported.
