Coachella promoter Goldenvoice was unable to prevent New Year’s Eve festival ‘Coachella Day One 22’ from going ahead, despite being granted a temporary restraining order against Live Nation Entertainment to prevent the sale of tickets.
The temporary restraining order called for Live Nation to stop selling tickets to the event on Ticketmaster under the ‘Coachella Day One 22’ name, which the judge originally granted. Ticketmaster was therefore prohibited from listing any event under the Coachella name.
However, a second ruling was unable to stop Live Nation from selling tickets to the event altogether as the plaintiffs modified the order to stop Live Nation from selling tickets in general. Tickets were instead sold under the name ‘Day One 22’.
The festival was produced by 29 Palms Band of Missions Indians, a federally recognised tribe of Mission Indians with reservations near Indio and Coachella, and Twentynine Palms in California, and was promoted on Live Nation’s Ticketmaster platform. The tribe also runs the Coachella Crossroads venue.
Darrell Mike, tribe chairman, said the “response from Judge Klausner is a win for the tribe, the community and our ticketing partners at Live Nation”.
Goldenvoice was unable to sue 29 Palms Band of Mission Indians because of its sovereign immunity, instead choosing to sue Live Nation.
The tribe continued to advertise the event on billboards using the original branding and name which it was able to do as it was not a party in the lawsuit.
At the time, Mike told Rolling Stone: “This suit is a direct attack on us and the region. The event is developed as a thank you at no cost to the community and an attempt to bring people together safely to celebrate what we have will be a prosperous 2022.
“AEG and Goldenvoice have taken ‘ownership’ of a name via trademark rights to an area they fully believe they ‘founded’, even though their event does not take place in Coachella, California but rather in Indio, California.”
The lawsuit was originally put forward on December 13 last year at the US District Court in California. It also stated the Goldenvoice had filed two separate cease-and-desist letters to Live Nation over promoting and selling tickets to the event, as well as Bluehost – a hosting platform that hosted the festival’s website.
The festival still went ahead on New Year’s Eve and boasted acts such as rapper Lil Wayne.
Image: Joey Thompson on Unsplash