Coronavirus concerns have the industry's decision-makers on high alert as the fate of 2020's high-profile music festivals hang in the balance. Variety sat down with James Sammataro, co-chair of the firm's Media + Entertainment Group, to discuss the difficult decisions that festival planners and attendees must make. While many festival contracts include communicable disease and force majeure provisions, the choice of whether or not the show will go on must weigh the health and safety of thousands of organizers and attendees, as well as numerous financial commitments from a host of stakeholders.
"It's been on everyone's radar the last couple of weeks, and we're all trying to straddle the line between prudence and panic. I think this is a pretty fluid situation. It flared up with Ultra [music festival] canceling, and that has a lot of people looking at whether or not they need to take a little bit more of an aggressive position. It's a fairly unique situation. There haven't been too many pandemic viruses that caused real alarm...."
Sammataro also discussed the broader implications of the current health crisis on entertainment policies, ranging from artist contracts to sporting events.
Read the full article in Variety.
The story was also picked up by numerous outlets, including Yahoo News and The Telegraph.
More About Sammataro's Practice
With two decades of trial experience in high-stakes copyright, trademark, defamation, First Amendment, rights-of-publicity, and non-compete matters, Fortune 500 companies, James Sammataro represents leading media entities, professional sports teams and A-list talent in delicate, high-profile disputes.
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