A Michigan judge decided against the organizers of Electric Forest in a Feb. 24 hearing, which could mean the owners of the property on which the festival is held could back out of their 20-year contract with the festival and sell the land to a competitor.
According to the Muskegon Chronicle, an Oceana County judge denied a motion for intervention filed on behalf of the festival organizers. The motion would have allowed AEG, which owns Electric Forest co-organizer Madison House Presents, to ask the judge to prevent the property’s current owners from refusing to honor the festival’s 20-year lease, which was signed in 2010.
Now, one of Double JJ Resort’s current owners, Antler Bar Amusements LLC, as well as it’s former owner, Progressive Resorts LLC, are saying they no longer need to honor that lease, which Progressive Resorts signed with Madison House Presents four years ago, because Double JJ Resort was sold via court order in November.
More from the Muskegon Chronicle via MLive Media Group:
At the hearing, AEG’s lawyer argued that the lease is part of the collateral and so must be honored. AEG and Madison House were not made aware that the sale would place their 20-year agreement in jeopardy until late January. He also explained that festival preparations were already underway. Bands had been booked, infrastructure investments had been made and over 25,000 tickets had been sold, he told Thomas.
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After the hearing, Stein said the hearing was “one step in a process” and that he was looking forward to a “good outcome.”
“There’s a lot of entities involved here right now so I think everyone’s trying to figure what’s best for everybody,” he said.
He said the proceeds would not affect this year’s Electric Forest Festival.
“We’re excited to be plowing forward and I think everyone’s intentions are for the festival not only to happen to be the best one yet,” Stein said.
If you would like to know more about what is going on, we would highly recommend checking back with mlive.com and searching “Electric Forest” for updates. Arts reporter Lisha Arino has done a fabulous job explaining the complex legal proceedings. We will be checking, too, and will pass along any updates.
But what the most recent story did not include is how SFX Entertainment is involved in all of this. SFX Entertainment tried to buy the Double JJ Resort property, which some said was a blatant attempt to shut out Electric Forest after SFX unsuccessfully tried to buy some of Insomniac’s, another Electric Forest organizer, holdings last year.
SFX responded with this 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.”
Regardless if SFX ultimately ends up owning Double JJ Resort’s property or not, this most recent ruling could spell serious trouble for the festival. Although organizers continue to assure fans that this year’s event will go on as planned, we’re sad to say that it seems like this festival may have to move in the not-too-distant future.
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