Vince Power has injunction set aside

he was not banned from staging musical events

By Scott Williams | Published: Mon 24th Nov 2014

<s>The Hop Farm Festival</s>.. 2013 - Vince Power — Photo credit: unknown

The Hop Farm Festival - CANCELLED 2013

Friday 5th to Saturday 6th July 2013
The Hop Farm, Paddock Wood, Tonbridge, Kent, TN12 6PY, England MAP
£135 for the weekend with camping, £110 without. £65 for either day.

Daily capacity: 52,000

Irish promoter Vince Power has had the injunction banning him from staging live music for not having paid the Performing Rights Society for Music (PRS) set aside in court.

Last week Power, founder of Mean Fiddler, won a High Court case against the PRS regarding their claims against the Hop Farm music festival that it did not have copyright to play live music.

In August this year Power stated, as reported by eFestivals (here), that he had not had any correspondence from PRS regarding this situation and was surprised to read about these supposed outstanding fees of £7,987.

Power's complaint that PRS' lawyers had made no proper attempt to serve him was upheld and the injunction and the order for costs was set aside after it was proved that the order was made in his absence because he knew nothing about the hearing.

PRS also wrongly claimed that it had obtained an injunction banning Vince from staging musical events. It had not – the order simply required him to pay licence fees in order to stage events and that is the law anyway.

Vince reacted to the story leaked by PRS in August saying that he never received any correspondence or court papers from PRS and that the claims were damaging to his career.

PRS agreed to have the injunction and costs award set aside by High Court order.

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