NXNE removes its controversial 45-day radius clause

by Tyler Munro

North by Northeast 2014 has been a ton of fun so far, and heading into the weekend, it’s poised to keep getting better. But beneath all the booze and bands there’s been an underlying sense of discontent, mostly stemming from the festival’s radius clause, a contractual agreement that stipulated performers couldn’t play in Toronto within 45 days of the festival. For big names like St. Vincent or Danny Brown, the clause is standard fare, but it ended up being dolled out on smaller bands, too.

It got people talking—Weird Canada’s Aaron Levin got into a Twitter argument with fest director Christopher Roberts, and the site also launched a change.org petition calling for its removal . But surprisingly, the festival listened. Earlier today it sent out a press release championing a “last call” for the radius clause. In short: Things are going to be different moving forward.

It’s announced that it will work with Canadian Music Week, whose new May date for 2014 likely resulted in the clause in the first place, to give artists more leeway to perform locally prior to their festival gigs.

“We are so fortunate to have such an engaged and vocal music community,” said NXNE’s Michael Hollett in a statement. “Unintended consequences of our policy were pointed out. We are making changes that address these issues – changes that don’t hurt up-and-coming bands, and yet still protect the integrity of NXNE’s lineup.”

Unintended consequences like cancelling on Toronto’s own Birds of Bellwoods’ showcase after finding out they’d played a charity gig 38 days prior. Other local bands were forced to play under aliases; we found more than 20 names on the band list that had violated the clause without the festival noticing.

Here’s the statement Birds of Bellwoods issued.

Local favourites The Double Cuts, who often play weekly residencies at Toronto’s Cameron House, had their day-time set threatened, too.

“The radius clause alone is prohibitive and counter-productive to local bands, bars and venues. They’re drunk on bureaucracy,” said Double Cuts bassist Arif Mirabdolbaghi. “It’s an enormous waste of time in pursuit of a shitty goal. Everything funnels back to the festival and works to disservice the bands.”

We agree. North by Northeast incentivizes exposure for up and coming bands, but they’re not being paid. And if we’re being honest, is it really going to kill the festival’s draw if a local band brings 30 friends to a gig five weeks before their 2 A.M. Sunday morning North by slot?

Still, good on them. Even if the timing is obvious—the Why NXNE Sucks panel is about to start—that they listened means that behind its increased corporate footprint, NXNE organizers are still listening.