[Update: 2/12]
Yesterday, we reported that Electric Forest was vulnerable to cancellation due to SFX potentially purchasing the land, as you could expect, over 20,000 ticket-holding fans were panicking. Today, an SFX spokesperson released the following statement:
“There is absolutely no truth to the rumor that SFX is doing anything to halt Electric Forest. In fact we agreed to rescue the property owner and then another party began a legal proceeding much to our surprise. Electric Forest is a great festival held on a great site. We regret the actions of others but we assure all fans of Electronic Music that we only are interested in expanding the offerings available to EMC fans.”
Electronic Dance Music’s leading concert and live event promoter SFX Entertainment (the company behind festivals like Tomorrowland, Sensation, and Electric Zoo) has recently made an effort to halt the holding of Insomniac’s and Madison House Presents’ Electric Forest Festival held in Rothbury, Michigan at the Double JJ Ranch. The reason for this spawns from earlier in 2013, when SFX attempted to buy Insomniac, one half of the organizers responsible for holding Electric Forest, but was unable to do so. The media conglomerate then turned its head to purchasing the second half responsible for holding the festival, Madison House Presents, but again failed to do so, with Madison House Presents recently being sold to a smaller production company known as AEG. In response to this, SFX Entertainment has looked to buying out the Double JJ Ranch, the grounds where Electric Forest Festival is held. Progressive Resorts, the owner of the Double JJ Ranch, have recently struggled financially and are in serious debt. This being the case, SFX offered to pay off the debts that Progressive has in return for the land. The resort company, falling in deep desperation, voided Madison House’s 20 year lease agreement, disregarding the $60,000 they accepted as a deposit for this year’s festival last October.
Insomniac is assuring its fans that the festival will go on this year, although with the Michigan Court delaying itself from making a decision and pushing back the hearing to February 24, there is a question of this guarantee. If SFX, by some chance, does buy out the resort, AEG and Insomniac will have to refund the 21,000+ tickets already sold. Not only that, but there would be a huge question mark on the future of the festival for years to come. Although nothing is known for sure at the moment, make sure to keep up with us as we patiently wait for more news to follow.
via My V.I.Peeps & Dancing Astronaut