MEGAN COURTNEY | Culture Editor
LouFest, the annual St. Louis music festival that was supposed to take place in Forest Park from Sept. 8-9, has been sued for “breach of contract.”
Logic Systems Sound and Lighting, the company that was hired to produce sound for the festival, was the contractor that backed out just days before the festival was set to take place.
Vice President of engineering for the company, Chip Self, said they filed a “breach of contract suit” against Listen Live Entertainment, the company behind LouFest, last month in an attempt to get back “any of the thousands of dollars they are owed,” according to KMOV.
Self said the company received a letter from LouFest attorneys “that basically said they don’t have any money,” and also said LouFest owes them money from 2017, plus all money they were contracted for the 2018 festival.
Court records show that Listen Live Entertainment has tax liens from the Department of Revenue for past years, according to KMOV.
Organizers for LouFest cited the loss of two major sponsors, scheduling issues and existing debt from previous events as the cause of the cancelation.
In addition, the “fickle St. Louis weather” was another factor, saying that a rain-soaked weekend like what happened in 2016 would harm festival attendance and do “physical harm to Forest Park.”
The festival said there was no money left to issue customer refunds, but Front Gate Tickets, owned by Live Nation and Ticketmaster, refunded all ticket purchasers in full.
As far as being repaid, Self said he does not expect “to see the money they are owed,” but hopes other vendors will be paid in the “off-chance” someone purchases the festival.
