LAS VEGAS (CelebrityAccess) – A Nevada federal judge has ordered the owners of Las Vegas’ KAOS nightclub to pay dance and electronic artist DJ Kaskade $7,950,000 after they canceled his $300,000 a night residency.
According to federal court records, KAOS, a subsidiary of Red Rock Resorts, has to pay the DJ (legal name Ryan Raddon) after the Palms’ night and day clubs were shut down. The court ruled that FP Holdings, a company owned by Frank Fertitta III and Lorenzo Fertitta, owed the DJ compensation for unpaid performances. The Fertittas owned the Palms at the time KAOS opened and closed. The hotel’s General Manager, Jon Gray, was not named in the suit.
Kaskade’s shows had been called off when KAOS abruptly shut down in November 2019. The club reopened in April 2020 after adding a 70-foot-dome over the space. Kaskade had been signed for $300,000 per performance. The artist had been booked for 30 shows in 2019 and another 30 in 2020. He was in an exclusive residency partnership with the club.
Jordan Siev of Reed Smith LLP said in a statement, “We are pleased that the court found in Kaskade’s favor and upheld the parties’ carefully negotiated agreement.”
Billboard reports U.S. District Court Judge Andrew Gordon said the DJ “could have performed several shows between January and March 15, 2020, before the COVID shutdown order.” KAOS closed the previous November, and the DJ was still under contract as a headliner with the company.
The judge also said the Fertittas did not offer up any other formats for Kaskade shows, including drive-in or virtual performances, though Kaskade was available for such arrangements. Lastly, the judge wrote that FP Holdings offered no live-performance alternatives and no alternative venue in which to perform.
The DJ’s reps claimed in the suit that FP Holdings asked all of its resident artists to restructure their performance agreements, which Kaskade declined. In October 2019, KAOS reps negotiated their way out of DJ Marshmello’s lavish $60 million residency contract. Those types of generous expenditures forced the club to run in the red.
A month later, KAOS closed to the public before the entire hotel shut down in March 2020. The resort never reopened under Station Casinos ownership. In 2021, the company sold the resort to the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, which intends to reopen the property this spring. There has been no formal word on the new owner’s plans for the famous KAOS enclave.
