Obed Manuel
Already The Focus of Ridicule, Starfest Music Festival Is Now Being Sued For Failing To Pay A Commission To A Talent Buyer It Had Contracted.
Seems like it was only going to be a matter of time before Starfest Music Festival got sued for some reason, but most people probably figured the lawsuit would come from disgruntled ticket-holders after the festival had finished and failed to live up to its own hype.
But the festival, which is still scheduled to take place less than a month from now, already has a court date lined up after a man named Simon Perez filed a lawsuit against the organizers. Perez claims the team behind Starfest has failed to pay him almost $100,000 in commissions for booking two big-name acts to its stage, TMZ reports this afternoon.
According to the lawsuit paperwork obtained by TMZ, Perez alleges that he booked Deadmau5 (who has not been included in any promo for the event just yet) to play the festival, for which he was told he would receive a $75,000 commission. He also says he was set an additional $18,750 for booking Flo Rida to the Plano event. Seeking out additional big names for the fest was Perez’s specific goal in his work with Starfest: Organizers hired him to book names to go alongside acts that they’d claimed to have already landed themselves — including, according to the suit, a headlining set from Drake.
News of this lawsuit is just the latest blow in the ongoing saga that is Starfest, which has been mocked far and wide for its bizarre insistence of keeping its lineup a secret — and also for its steep ticket prices, which seems to fly in the face of the first issue. Nonetheless, Starfest’s organizers have pushed forward with what they have dubbed a “pop up music festival” where they claim some 60 artists will perform on September 8 and 9 at Plano’s Oak Point Park. At each turn, organizers have claimed that exciting news would be coming out soon to calm concerns.
Instead, followers of the festival’s roll out have mostly been witness to disorganization: After announcing Lil Wayne as its first headliner on August 4, the festival’s website has been quietly adding and removing acts from its published roster of performers. At one point, DJ Carnage was listed as a performer on the site, then he was gone, and today he’s back — along with a slew of lesser, little-known acts who aren’t too likely to move many ticket-purchasing needles.
In the past few days, the festival site has also removed any mentions of car manufacturer Cadillac, which had once been listed as the primary sponsor of the event.
Let’s assume for a second that, as implied in Perez’s lawsuit that Drake and Deadmau5 have indeed been booked to the festival. Presuming they haven’t now backed out of their agreements and run to the hills, scared off by all the bad karma surrounding the event, would their presence even be enough to salvage Starfest at this point? Maybe not.
On the other hand, maybe it’s time everyone started appreciating Starfest for the soap opera it is. Sure, we’re still weeks away from the event’s planned kickoff, but you’ve got to admit it: Watching everything that’s going on with Starfest is pretty damn entertaining!