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Industry Noize: Last-Minute Picnic Settlement
The long-running battle over Ireland’s Electric Picnic festival was settled May 13, the day former event partners Denis Desmond and John Reynolds were due back in court to continue their legal fight.
The matter came to a close when Desmond’s Festival Republic Dublin paid an undisclosed sum acquiring the stake of Electric Picnic it didn’t already own.
Festival Republic Dublin is a joint venture with Live Nation and in 2009 bought 71 percent of the 35,000-capacity festival at Stradbally for euro 4.2 million ($5.7 million).
It’s the solution that case judge Mr Justice Peter Kelly had been urging both parties to seek since last spring, when the legal wrangles began. Reynolds began the legal battle under Section 205 of the Companies Act, claiming Festival Republic was trying to push him aside to add Electric Picnic to its stable of festivals and outdoor events.
FR counterclaimed that Reynolds was behaving in a “deliberately obstructive” way with the intention of selling his remaining shares in Electric Picnic for “grossly inflated prices.”
The settlement is effective immediately and gives Festival Republic complete ownership of this year’s festival Aug. 29-31. The lineup includes Portishead, Outkast, Foals, Paolo Nutini, Lily Allen, and Pet Shop Boys.
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