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Howard King

on Coachella and

Force Majeure The minute you go from no cases to one case,

as Riverside County did over the weekend,
how does that change the tone of the conver-
sations or the urgency?
IN T ER V IE W B Y P H IL G ALL O
It really doesn’t matter that there’s one case in
ing, Holmes, With SXSW, we saw that the organizers Riverside County. You have tens of thousands
Paterno waited for the city and the state to declare of people coming from around the world.
& Soriano an emergency before they decided to cancel. What are the odds that some of those people
represents How crucial is that kind of government action don’t have the virus? Whether it spreads or,
the three for getting force majeure to take effect? since it’s all young people, they just have mild
acts selected If you’re worried about people getting sick, symptoms, who knows? But you can’t deny that
Kto headline there’s no force majeure. Even assuming there there is risk.
Coachella this year— is insurance in place, without the government It’s a tough decision to make. And by the
Rage Against the Machine, closing it down, [a promoter] can’t make a way, nobody really knows what’s going to hap-
Travis Scott and Frank claim on cancellation policies, and without pen in a couple of weeks. It really could have
Ocean. A day before the force majeure, you can’t get out of the respon- run its course, or it could be far more serious.
festival was rescheduled sibility for paying the artists or vendors.
to October, Howard What has been your experience with other
E. King broke down the So there is no chance that Coachella or health scares?
legal issues facing the another festival would have some saying, We had cancellations overseas when SARS
performers and Golden- “We don’t feel safe and won’t show up.” was around [in 2003]. In fact, after SARS,
voice—which have obvi- That wouldn’t happen. insurance companies started cutting back or
ous implications for other Highly unlikely. creating exclusions in cancellation insurance.
upcoming events. There’s really no cancellation insurance for
“They’re deeply con- How far out can you go with a festival a pandemic available for artists. There is for
cerned,” King said of the before you say “we’re in” or “we’re out”? promoters, but not for artists. That’s just a
three headlining acts. The facts are that the acts have already result of SARS.
“They’re spending seven spent millions of dollars getting ready for
figures to create the type Coachella, building their productions, hiring Artists are screwed on this.
of performance that crew, renting highly overpriced houses to The artists are naked. The policies are really
would stand out for their stay in. Those artists, presumably, will con- limited almost to the point where the artist has
fans. We’re sort of on egg- tinue to spend money. to contract the virus at the venue. It’s really an
shells here about what’s Presumably, Goldenvoice is going to con- impossible hoop to jump through to get cover-
going to happen.” tinue to prepare the grounds, so if they cancel age. It’s very, very limited coverage.
King discussed insur- tomorrow or if they cancel a week before If somebody rolls into the venue feeling fine
ance, the SARS effect their performance, relative to the ginormous and contracts the virus during the day, they’re
and, of course, force cost, it hardly matters. It’s bad PR if they covered—if the policy was written before Jan.
majeure. “It’s the second cancel after people have already gotten on 20 of this year. After Jan. 20, they excluded
clause you learn about in planes. If Coachella [cancels], the rumor is Coronavirus altogether as a covered event.
law school,” he said. “It they’ll reschedule for October. So it’s gratifica- Insurance companies are not really in the busi-
supersedes all contracts.” tion delayed rather than gratification denied. ness of paying claims.n

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