How could we forget about news breaking a couple weeks ago that AEG Live, the company behind such colossal music festivals as Coachella and Firefly, are eyeing Queens' Flushing Meadows Corona Park for a stacked summer music festival in 2016-- just two weeks after our beloved Governor's Ball?
The details of it all weren't taken well.
Not because New Yorkers don't want more quality shows, but because the timing reeks of foul play. AEG, you know this is like when a Burger King moves in across the street from a McDonald's, right?
Actually, since the folks responsible for five years of amazingness with Gov Ball, Founders Entertainment, are hometown people, it's actually like a Starbucks moving in across the street from your favorite bodega with 75 cent coffee.
For diehard New York City concert goers, festival-heads, and party lovers of all shapes and sizes, the news may have stuck to the back of your mind like an unpaid parking ticket, with that sentiment of, "Oh crap that's right, Governors Ball might be ruined next year... "
But now you can do something about it, like if you somehow magically were able to keep your bodega's rent from rising.
Founders Entertainment launched a petition today asking Mayor de Blasio to reject AEG Live's proposal. Despite the fact that AEG is yet to obtain permits for the proposed Panorama Music Festival, they've already begun to book bands.
A portion of the petition reads, "The timing of this proposed event is an aggressive, greedy attempt by AEG to push a small, independent company of born-and-bred New Yorkers out of business and out of the market."
There's a couple reasons why AEG appears to be acting up here. The first of which is that they can outspend Founders, meaning they'll likely soak up all the prime talent available to play next June in NYC.
The next important thing to know is that bands often sign contracts including "radius clauses," a type of non-compete clause that bars the act from performing within a given radius of the gig in question for a certain period of time, often as long as a month.
So even if a band wanted to play both festivals, it's likely their contract for one would disqualify them from playing the other. Both of these variables put Gov Ball at an extreme disadvantage.
For those reasons and more, Founders is petitioning that de Blasio reject the current proposal in favor of one playing Panorama at a different time of year, so both festivals can go forward successfully while not competing with each other.
How's that for, "Love thy enemy?"
Want to support Founders Entertainment in their quest to preserve the glory that is Governor's Ball? Sign the petition here.
Check out Coachella Festival Set Their Sights on NYC– Just Weeks After Governors Ball
[via Consequence of Sound]