Coachella demands UK charity to change their festival name

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Coachella has forced a UK charity to change its forthcoming festival name.

Following the announcement of The Multiple Sclerosis Trust’s Couch-ella festival, the charity’s chief executive, David Martin, said lawyers had contacted the trust about possible confusion between Couch-ella and the annual Californian festival. 

“They asked us to reconsider our name and see if there was something else we could use to avoid confusion,” Martin said. “Half of me thought ‘Shall we take them head-on?’ but in reality when lawyers get involved it costs a lot and we didn’t want to waste any of the charity’s money.”

In an interview with the BBC, the MS Trust said the lawyers had also informed the charity that the “chella” suffix was trademarked. The MS Trust’s online festival, which takes place on the 22nd August, has been renamed to MS Trust Home Festival, will feature comedy, music, yoga, dance and more.

Earlier this year, Coachella was forced to cancel its rescheduled 2020 event amid the coronavirus pandemic. The California festival had originally been moved from its original dates in April to the 9th – 11th and 16th – 18th October 2020, as various global festivals and events, including Tomorrowland Winter, Miami Winter Music Conference, SXSW, Miami’s Ultra, announced cancellations or postponements in the same weeks due to the COVID-19 outbreak.