Yeah, they’ve got Lou Reed, Betty LaVette, Cat Power, the Roots and the Black Crowes (also coming to the Arkansas Music Pavilion in Fayetteville at the end of the summer), but aside from the cost ($60-80) and the miserable bottleneck that is Tom Lee Park and the hours you’ll spend waiting in line to use the john, here’s a good reason not to make the trek to Memphis in May this weekend: Festival organizers administer a radius clause in performers’ contracts that prohibits them from playing Riverfest, too, according Riverfest’s DeAnna Korte.

“We don’t feel threatened by it, but we don’t think the two events conflict,” she says. “I think their rationale is, ‘If Jonny Lang is the only person you care about at Memphis in May and you can see him in a couple of weeks in Little Rock for $10 versus $60 in Memphis, then you’re likely to skip Memphis in May in favor of Little Rock.'”

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Pretty chickenshit, I say. And bully-ish.

As spinsouth suggests and Alltel’s Michael Marion confirms, the radius clause is standard procedure, employed by just about every major festival. Bonaroo’s radius is apparently really wide.

So maybe not chickenshit or bully-ish. How bout just frustrating? More in the comments below.

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