news story / By Bob Doran

Reggae River Rising

Severe split over annual SoHum festival moves into court.

(Feb. 22, 2007)  The battle over the future of the multi-million dollar Reggae on the River music festival down Southern Humboldt way rages on. After devolving into a nasty war of words in the blogosphere, with commenters taking pot shots under the cloak of anonymity, flames rose high last week with a pair of announcements that came almost at once.

Late last week the Mateel Community Center, the nonprofit that holds the trademark on Reggae on the River, filed a lawsuit against People Productions, its head Carol Bruno and Tom Dimmick, who controls the property where the festival was held last year. The immediate intent of the “complaint for damages for breach of contract, interference with prospective economic advantage, misappropriation of trade secrets, infringement of trademark, unfair business practices, conspiracy conversion [and] accounting” is for a judge to grant a preliminary injunction, also known as a temporary restraining order (TRO), on Bruno and Dimmick’s previously hinted at plan to run their own reggae festival without the Mateel.

ROTR wristbands. Photo by Bob Doran.

GALLERY >

The same day the suit was filed, a website popped up promoting something called “Reggae Rising.” A press release announced that: “People Productions and the Dimmick Ranch are pleased to announce a summer Reggae festival, benefiting the community, in the Southern Humboldt tradition” with three days of camping, music on “the beautiful Eel River,” on the first weekend in August, the same time as Reggae on the River.

And thus the gauntlet is thrown. Which side will get to produce a reggae concert on that idyllic bend in the Eel remains to be seen, and will likely be decided in the first week of March in the Humboldt County Courthouse, either in the courtroom of Judge Bruce Watson, who will hear the Mateel’s request for a restraining order on March 5, or the week prior on March 1, when the permit to run the festival comes up for review by the Planning Commission.

Bruno, who did not respond to questions posed by the Journal by press time is quoted in her press release as saying, “We are saddened that our attempts to resolve our differences with the Mateel Community Center - attempts that have included two mediation sessions and three multi-million dollar offers with the potential to preserve the fiscal health of the MCC - have not produced a reasonable solution for all. However, the South Humboldt community deserves its annual reggae festival and the proceeds from this annual fundraiser, which support many of our region’s non-profits. People Productions, Dimmick Ranch and our many local supporters are committed to maintaining this tradition through the Reggae Rising benefit.”

The Mateel board and its executive director, Taunya Stapp, declined to comment on the pending lawsuit, but Boots Hughston, the producer the Mateel has hired to run Reggae on the River in People Productions’ place, was more than happy to talk about the obstacles he’s facing trying to book a festival while the company that produced Reggae for over two decades is promoting a counter-festival.

“We have confirmed somewhere between 22 and 23 out of 27 acts I’m planning to book,” said Hughston, noting that contracts and deposits are pending. He added: “I don’t really want to say exactly who the acts are at the moment, because I don’t want to give the other side a pecking list to bump our acts. It’s already happened a little bit already.”

Specifically, Hughston said he believes that several top reggae acts, including Ziggy Marley and Burning Spear, have been “pulled off of our side” due to long-term relationships with Bruno.

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