Just yesterday rumors were swirling about HARD Events boss Gary Richards getting the boot from the company he created. Now, it’s being confirmed that while he is still leaving Live Nation and HARD, he is doing so of his own volition. Since his sale of the HARD brand back in 2012 he has been under a 5 year contract with Live Nation. Now that it is up, he is looking to move on to bigger things. Namely Live Nation’s competitor LiveStyle. LiveStyle is the promoter for massive festivals like Tomorrowland and Electric Zoo.
Unfortunately this means he is confirmed to not be on the HARD Summer lineup or curating Holy Ship in 2018. As for what this means for HARD in the following years is still up in the air as no replacement has been announced. We could be seeing a consolidation of HARD and Insomniac with Pasquale Rotella as chief.
On the flip side, this move means potentially good things for the other LiveStyle events in the U.S. Specifically the return of beloved festivals like TomorrowWorld and the U.S. edition of Mysteryland. 2018 is looking to be big year with big changes.