July 27th, 2009
Popped! Sues Live Nation Over Scuttled Festival
You may recall that earlier this year, as we reported, Live Nation abruptly ended its involvement with the third annual Popped! Festival, which was planned to happen last month at FDR Park in South Philly and feature a slew of big name bands (it wound up being a far more modest affair, folded into the free 2nd Street Festival in Northern Liberties and featuring mainly small and/or local acts). Now, Popped! has filed a civil complaint against Live Nation that alleges breach of contract over the split.
In the lawsuit, filed last week with the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, Popped! president/CEO Alexis Rosenzweig claims Popped! and Live Nation had a “legally enforceable, written contract” to put on the festival, and that Live Nation’s “breach of the contract was malicious, wanton, and oppressive, the repercussions of which not only adversely affected Popped, but also its subcontractors and the city’s economy, with lost revenue for small businesses that would have benefited from a major summertime festival, and lost tax revenue for an infamously devastated city treasury.”
According to the suit, Popped! and Live Nation were finalizing plans for the concert line-up at the beginning of February 2009 — with Live Nation making offers to the Beastie Boys, Animal Collective, Dap Kings, My Morning Jacket’s Jim James, Hot Chip, Fleet Foxes, Girl Talk, and Os Mutantes, and looking to make offers to Wilco and Ween, as well — before Live Nation dropped out entirely, and without explanation, on February 20th, 2009.
Additionally, the suit alleges tortious interference on the part of Live Nation regarding the 2008 Popped! Festival at Drexel University, claiming that Live Nation convinced the Roots — who already had a deal in place to play Popped! — to back out of that show to play the inaugural Roots Picnic a couple of weeks earlier. Says the complaint: “Live Nation acted intentionally, knowingly, and without justification for the purpose of inducing or causing the Roots not to perform their agreement with Plaintiff [Popped!] and to accept Defendant Live Nation’s higher offer to perform at a preceding concert, namely, the 2008 ‘Roots Picnic,’ in order to increase their revenues from said show.”
Furthermore, the lawsuit claims two counts of civil conspiracy against Philadelphia-based Live Nation executives Geoff Gordon and Jim Sutcliffe for their roles in both the breach of contract and tortious interference claims, saying that the pair’s actions were “outrageous, malicious, intentional, recklessly indifferent, and/or oppressive.”
Rosenzweig is seeking a total of $250,000 in damages from the four counts.
We spoke with Popped! attorney Conor Corcoran this morning and asked him at the outset if he plans to take this all the way to trial, or is looking for an out-of-court settlement. “I’m going to the wall on this one because the industry in town is really full of vipers and they’re doing their damndest to stomp out competition,” says Corcoran. “And you know what? I’ve got a woman here who has been able to accomplish something — just from an industry perspective she was really successful and she was a woman. The way Alexis has been treated smacks of a particular prejudice. We’re not interested at this point in settling…this is a do-it-yourself city, and a City Hall jury is going to respond very well to a do-it-yourself entrepreneur — and that’s precisely what Alexis is — and we’re going to make sure as best we can that Live Nation doesn’t behave like this anymore.”
When asked again later in the conversation if a settlement was at all possible, Corcoran told us, “If they behave appropriately, the case will go away. If they make a decent financial offer, and make some kind of proclamation on their end of corporate responsibility…and a promise to change their behavior and respect Philadelphia’s unique concert promotion industry. I haven’t heard from them, I don’t know what their position is on this. To be dead honest with you, I wasn’t too impressed with how they treated us to begin with. I’m not expecting them to suddenly turn into Mother Theresa. This is an organization that does not take small-time people seriously, and that’s what this lawsuit’s about. So no matter what I ask for, I suspect they’re gonna scoff at it, and that’s fine. Because we’re gonna take it over to City Hall, and we’re gonna let some locals decide how we should be treated.”
We reached Live Nation’s Jim Sutcliffe by phone this morning to get his reaction to the lawsuit; he informed us he needed to contact the company’s Los Angeles office to determine if they were going to comment on the suit. We’re still awaiting his return phone call, and when we hear more we’ll bring it to you. Stay tuned!
2 Responses to “Popped! Sues Live Nation Over Scuttled Festival”
By bh on Jul 28, 2009
I like the disparity between the “this is a do-it-yourself city” quote and the fact of the festival working hand in hand with the biggest entertainment conglomerate there is. Interesting.
By JonahDelsonic on Jul 29, 2009
go go go Alexis!!