law of music festivals and live events, part 1

In early March 2017, I turned to my colleague in the Legal Department at SXSW and said: there should really be a law school class about our job. We must have been working through one of the many unexpected issues that can pop up right before a big event. Sure enough, after pitching the concept to the University, the next fall I started adjunct teaching the Law of Music Festivals & Live Events at University of Texas School of Law.

I’m constantly morphing the course to keep it interesting for the students and myself (and of course weaving in course eval feedback), but the premise is always the same: let’s learn about several core areas of law through the lens of live events, which I believe are the gateway to some of the deepest forms of human connection. It doesn’t hurt that through the seminar we can talk about issues like insurance and indemnities in the same sentence as Bonnaroo and the Sphere.

Some years I bring in more guest lecturers, sometimes fewer, but we have always been able to do a site visit to the ACL Festival grounds at Zilker Park with the C3 Legal Department — which includes the colleague of mine who I originally discussed the class concept with back in 2017 at SXSW (small world). Needless to say, that’s hands down a highlight for the students.

This year I’m going to do my best to recap the courses so there is a way to share some of the information we discuss with a broader audience. If nothing else, I’ll share a lot of links here. Stay tuned!