Latitude 38 to Host Big Rock Festival in Napa

On January 26, the Napa Valley Register correctly broke the story that Latitude 38 is organizing the three-day BottleRock music festival at Napa Valley Expo to be held starting on May 30. Last year was the first year of BottleRock, and it was a financial disaster, as it racked up a reported $5.5 million in outstanding debts and spawned many lawsuits over breach of contract. No wonder Latitude 38 was able to buy selected assets from the previous promoter, including the BR name, at a bargain price. However, as the Register reported, Latitude 38 did not purchase BR Festivals’ liabilities or obligations, “and does not control how BR Festivals handles its debts.” After all, who wants to buy someone else’s problems?

Who will be playing at BottleRock this year? We don’t have a clue, because we at Latitude 38 actually don’t have anything to do with it. You see, BottleRock has been taken over by an outfit that calls itself Latitude 38 Entertainment, and was thus repeatedly referred to in the Register article as Latitude 38. It’s a little confusing, don’t you think?

Over the years there have been what we believed to be several attempts to trade in on the good name we at Latitude have developed over the past 36 years of doing business as Latitude 38 Publishing, much better known as simply "Latitude 38." It’s true that long after we founded the magazine, a real estate company and then a housing search service in San Francisco started businesses using the name Latitude 38, as did a vacation rental business in Telluride, and a long established restaurant in Oxford, Maryland. We’ve never had a problem with any of them because they were clearly in very different fields and/or locations. But we didn’t like it when, a few years ago, a fellow started something called Latitude 38 Productions and began advertising yacht charters on San Francisco Bay. Fortunately, that enterprise didn’t last long enough to be a concern.

It seems a little trickier with Latitude 38 Entertainment, as we at Latitude 38 have long put on an assortment of parties, rallies and events, which all could easily fall under the general category of entertainment. It seems to us that the entertainment company in Napa chose a poor name. But maybe we’re too close to the matter to evaluate it objectively. So we’re asking you, our readers, if the use of the name Latitude 38 by the music festival organizers causes you confusion over the question of whether we the publishing company or somebody else is putting it on? We hate lawyers and the courts, but do you think we should take legal action? Let us know.