Whatever Happened to the Paradiso Festival?

Whatever Happened to the Paradiso Festival?

Remember The Paradiso Festival? It sold out its final year, back in 2019. Live Nation, who owns the Gorge confirmed in March of 2020, that it would not return to the venue.

Where did it go? What happened? 

There was a time when the Paradiso Festival  was the most popular and most awaited EDM concert festival in Washington state.

Just before the pandemic, the festival ran into some internal turmoil.  In January of 2020, one of its owning companies filed a lawsuit against the other.

Paradiso co promoter, California’s Insomniac Events, an events production company, filed a lawsuit on Jan. 28, 2020 against the other Paradiso co-promoter, Seattle’s USC Events. 

Insomniac Events alleged that USC mismanaged $1.2 million. 

The company says it gave USC $2 million in advance. Money that was ear-marked to pay for artist appearance fees and vendors working the three day festival. Vendors and artists say they didn’t receive payment.

The 2020 lawsuit asked the judge to dissolve a co-promotion agreement between the two companies that had allowed them to put on the hugely successful festival. It seemed to sell out the Gorge every summer, from 2013 to 2019. The lawsuit also asked for a permanent injunction against USC, that would keep the company from any future Paradiso Festivals.

The two-day event usually occurred in the early summer months and attracted about 25,000 people each day.

EDM music returns to the Gorge for three days in August: The three day Bass Canyon Festival @ The Gorge is scheduled for: August 18th-20th, 2023.

 Click this link for ticket and shuttle options

INFO SOURCES: scribd.com, Seattle Weekly