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George Pimentel for Departure
From left to right: Jackie Dean, Chief Operating Officer of Loft Entertainment; Tom Pistore President of OVG Canada; Kevin Barton, Executive Producer, Loft Entertainment and Randy Lennox, co-founder and CEO of Loft Entertainment
Legal News
Departure Festival Lawsuit Expands as Former CMW Owner Says He’s Blocked from Working
In an updated statement of claim, Neill Dixon claims non-compete clauses have prevented him from working while he seeks payment from Departure’s owners.
12h
New details have emerged in the legal case between Departure and Canadian Music Week’s former owner Neill Dixon.
In an updated statement of claim filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice on March 25, Dixon expands on his initial lawsuit. In addition to the approximately $485,000 in damages in that earlier March 18 filing, the new statement also seeks the removal of Dixon’s non-compete and non-solicitation clauses.
Those clauses – referred to in the statement as the Restrictive Covenants Agreement – were part of the sale agreement in June 2024, when Dixon sold the company to Oak View Group and Loft Entertainment for $2 million. Now, he claims the new owners of Departure (who changed the festival’s name from Canadian Music Week after buying it last year) have not lived up to their end of the agreement.
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“Announcing my retirement was predicated on getting the full sale price,” Dixon tells Billboard Canada. “Retirement in this economy is not cheap. Not getting paid the final payment threw me for a loop. I now realized I couldn’t even work in the industry I love because of a non-compete clause.”
A spokesperson for Departure says they have not yet seen the new statement of claim and can’t comment on it.
After Billboard Canada broke the news of the lawsuit last week, The Canadian Press reported that Loft Entertainment co-founder Randy Lennox (a former head of Bell Media and Universal Music Canada) sent an email to his staff referring to Dixon’s legal action.
“We see things very differently,” he wrote in the memo, according to CP. "We stand firm in our position of integrity, beliefs and values."
Dixon’s new legal filing claims that in the sale of Canadian Music Week, he agreed to a three-year non-competition and non-solicitation clause, which would be effective until June 1, 2027. That would effectively prevent him from working in the music industry in the province of Ontario during that time.
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“The plaintiff [Dixon] states that the defendants [the owners of Departure] were opportunistic and took advantage of the plaintiffs’ goodwill and trust when they unilaterally decided to avoid their legitimate payment obligations…” Dixon’s lawyers write in the statement. “Specifically, the defendants knew or ought to have known that the plaintiff was retiring, after having spent his career building the brand and goodwill of CMW.”
The claim further states that the new owners “deliberately prevent[ed]” Dixon from earning income during his retirement.
There are also new details on the financials of the deal and the outstanding payment Dixon claims is allegedly still owed.
In 2024, it says, CMW incurred a loss of $121,072. An earlier draft of CMW’s 2024 financials showed a smaller loss of $14,640, the claim states, and the first $500,000 installment was paid on November 7, 2024.
The agreement requires Dixon to cover any losses, it continues, and the updated amount has been deducted from the remaining $500,000. The statement says no notice or objection was claimed within 30 days, as per the terms of the agreement. Dixon is also claiming unpaid consulting fees and damages, which contributes to Dixon's $485,428 claim.
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Departure previously announced Dixon would be the recipient of a lifetime achievement award at this year’s festival and conference, which takes place May 6-11, 2025. Dixon says he has not heard from the new owners on that or any other matter since the payment installment was allegedly missed on December 7, 2024.
It was just a few days before that same Departure launch event, on November 12 at Hotel X in Toronto, when Dixon says he first learned of the new owner’s plans to change the name from Canadian Music Week. There was nothing in the agreement preventing them from changing it, but he says the decision took him by surprise.
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“I had heard rumours but I didn’t know the new name,” he says. “Although they bought over 40 years of history with a name that spoke to the brand's Canadian heritage and its core identity as a music-focused festival, the purchasers certainly had the right to change the name and format.”
Departure has expanded beyond music to also include comedy, technology, gastronomy and other new focuses – which Dixon worries will move it away from its original spirit.
“It now distances the event from its legacy and dilutes the festival’s historic music focus, making it less distinctive,” he says.
Departure Festival has not yet responded to Dixon's legal action.
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