Music conference drama! Departure Festival (successor to CMW) has been sued (by CMW!) UPDATED
Well, this is awkward. In the tight-knit community on top of the Canadian music industry, there’s a fight between Neill Dixon, the founder and operator of the original Canadian Music Week, and Loft Entertainment/Oak View Group, who bought the festival from Dixon last June for $2 million.
A flashy event celebrated the handover at the X Hotel in Toronto. At the time, everyone was all smiles. But since then, something has gone very wrong.
Billboard reports that the owners of Departure–the new name for Canadian Music Week–is being sued by Dixon for breach of contract and unpaid sales feel. A court filing contends that the Departure people owe Dixon money for the sale ($378,928), unpaid consulting fees ($56,000), $435,428 in damages and $50,000 in punitive and aggravated damages.
Dixon said this to Billboard: “After 42 years of building an internationally respected Canadian music business, I made the difficult decision to sell and retire, trusting the purchasers to honour their commitments under the Agreement we had between us,/ I have been forced to start a lawsuit to hold them to their end of the Agreement we had between us. It’s disheartening to have decades of dedication and hard work met with such an approach by them.”
The Departure folks say they’ve been negotiating with Dixon. Departure takes place from May 6-11 in Toronto.
UPDATE: The lawsuit has been expanded by seller Neill Dixon. He’s asking for the removal of a non-compete clause that would allow how to keep working in a similar area. From Billboard:
“Announcing my retirement was predicated on getting the full sale price,” Dixon tells Billboard Canada. “Retirement in this economy is not cheap. Not getting paid the final payment threw me for a loop. I now realized I couldn’t even work in the industry I love because of a non-compete clause.” (The agreement says that he can’t work for three years.)
If you want to get into the weeds of it all, go here. Meanwhile, it was announced separately that Neill Dixon will be honoured with a Lifetime Achievement Awards at this year’s Departure. Well, that’s awkward.
