TBD Fest Co-Founder Sued For Fraud, Breach of Contract

TBD Fest co-founder Clay Nutting is being sued by Katrina Arnaud, a Sacramento-based certified public accountant for breach of contract and fraud. The lawsuit filed in Sacramento Superior Court on Dec. 9 on the behalf of Arnaud claims that Nutting took out a $200,000 loan from Arnaud and failed to pay it back.

According to the Sacramento Bee, Arnauld took a mortgage out on her house to provide the loan to Nutting. He was supposed to repay Arnaud on Aug. 10 with proceeds from the three-day music and arts festival. Nutting was expected to use ticket revenues and sponsorship dollars as his way to repay Arnaud by the deadline.

The lawsuit also names David Steinberg, a financial officer with the festival and the company, TBD Fest, in the count of fraud.

Nutting admits he owes the $200,000, but is working with a new investor to help repay the festival's debts.

"We've been in communication with (Arnaud) as frequently as possible," Nutting said via the Sacramento Bee. "When a couple of payments were missed, she started getting concerned. I said that we had some money coming in and want to get back on the payment schedule. If she wants to protect herself, that's understandable."

TBD Fest took place from Sept. 18-20 in Sacramento. Over 30,000 people combined attended the three-day festival. Artists like Toro y Moi, RL Grime, Chromeo, Mobb Deep, Tyler The Creator, Ratatat, Tycho, Dr. Dog, Chance The Rapper, Tears For Fears, The Glitch Mob, Purity Ring, Porter Robinson and Madeon all performed at TBD Fest this past year.

Even in a very crowded California festival market, TBD Fest has stood out as a cutting edge multi-genre event. It would be a shame to see it go under due to financial issues that take down so many other festivals and music venues.