Insomniac and Live Nation sued by music festival volunteers

As if electronic music festivals haven't had enough trouble organizing events because of past substance abuse problems from their fans, now they have to deal with complaints from volunteers. However, if the claims brought by unpaid workers against Live Nation and EDM specialist Insomniac are true, music festivals across all genres may suffer.

At first, it's easy to dismiss the complaints from volunteers who think they deserve payment from the festival promoters. After all, part of the deal is that they get to attend the festival for free in return for helping out. However one slight detail brings the legality of the program into question: Volunteers are required to submit a deposit worth the price of entry, which they'll get back if they carry out their work as required. Concert promoters haven't been ripping off volunteers or anything truly dreadful, but they are essentially holding their volunteers' work for ransom. Having "interns" pay, even if temporarily, for the right to work unpaid is beyond questionable.

None of this would have drawn complaints from volunteers if not for the problematic reports of working conditions however. The plaintiff behind the suit alleges they were forced to work 12 to 14 hour workdays, which made it impossible for them to check out the musical acts. The suit also points out that the system in place violates the Fair Labor Standards Act in that for-profit companies can't solicit volunteer labor (whereas non-profits can).

Unpaid labor disputes have struck many industries, as interns have begun to push for pay. One of the bigger instances was when an intern sued Diddy's Bad Boyz Entertainment, alleging that her unpaid internship did not provide her with any applicable experience in her field of choice. Indeed, we at Music Times are just praying that our intern Claire will not bring litigation against us.