At this point in the game, a Radius Clause is pretty well understood as the bane of a music fan’s festival enjoyment. This is due to the world’s biggest events like Ultra Music Festival and Coachella wanting fans to see their events as the only place you can see [insert DJ here] for a set period of time in the area. It’s a business strategy that some love and some hate.
Those less enthused include Nicholas Harris and Haytham Abdulhadi, the founders of Oregon’s Soul’d Out Music Festival in Portland, Oregon. They filed a lawsuit against AEG Live and Goldenvoice for their newest radius clause that bars all events in California, Nevada, Arizona, Washington, and their state of Oregon from December 15th of last year to Mat 7th this year.
Upon trying to book SZA for their own event from April 18-22, they found out that they were all bound by the clause. The promoters reached out to Goldenvoice for a waiver but were refused. The allegedly also reached out to Daniel Caesar, but he has to decline because of the clause. Tank and the Bangas confirmed their plans to attend but later canceled due to playing at Coachella as well. Despite their inability to play Soul’d out, the artists are allowed to play at any other AEG live events.
Lawyers for Harris and Abdulhadi claim that Coachella’s organizers are engaging in “an unlawful restraint on trade, meant to use Coachella’s market power in the music festival market to suppress competition by other festivals.”
Soul’d Out takes place next weekend, as does weekend 2 of Coachella.
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