Insomniac Sues Operators of Miami’s Club Space As Long-Running Partnership Dispute Boils Over: ‘This Is a Case of Greed’

Insomniac has filed a multifaceted lawsuit over a venue partnership turned sour. Photo Credit: A J.

Can’t we all just get along? Insomniac has levied a firmly worded complaint against the operators of Miami’s Club Space over a partnership turned sour – including with an allegedly threatened “smear campaign” against Insomniac head Pasquale Rotella.

Live Nation’s Insomniac submitted the convoluted action closer to August’s beginning, naming as defendants promoters David Sinopoli, Davide Danese, and Jose Gabriel Coloma Cano as well as several of their businesses.

Unsurprisingly, like other music JV legal battles – see Round Hill v. Zync and the now-shuttered Brooklyn Made venue – there are more than a few moving parts here. Additionally, a substantial portion of Insomniac’s 51-page suit has been redacted.

Beginning with a couple pertinent background details, the way the filing company tells the story, the aforementioned promoters were before 2019 running Club Space “on a whim without so much as an ownership interest in the very name and brand that the business relied upon for its success.”

Enter Insomniac, which scooped up a piece of the Club Space IP and a 51% stake in the venue’s Space Invaders operating company, hammered out a long-term lease agreement, and set out to revitalize an allegedly flailing Club Space, per the suit.

Each individual defendant still possesses a nearly 11% interest in Space Invaders, the complaint shows.

(There are, of course, two sides to every story, and impartiality is hard to come by in ugly professional disputes. “Unlike other festivals of similar attendance,” reads one footnote concerning an included photo, “Insomniac has, for decades, provided free-of-charge hydration stations manned by its employees at various locations throughout its venues. … Such hydrations [sic] stations filter water through state-of-the art systems, including UV sterilization.”)

Per the plaintiff promoter, the efforts were successful – with the JV having “septupled Club Space’s revenue, with 2025 reaching record highs,” according to the document.

“A rising tide lifts all ships,” the suit continues, “and between distributions and management fees, payments to [the aforementioned individual defendants] increased nearly tenfold—adding an extra ‘0’ to each of their annual paychecks, taking home in excess of $8 million each through partnering with Insomniac.”

What, then, went wrong? Well, as told by the EDC organizer, it and the defendants looked to build on the Club Space results with a second Miami venue partnership, Factory Town.

Insomniac purportedly put up all the required cash but faced “outrageous demands for millions of dollars to be paid to the” defendants, besides sought bolstered ownership stakes to boot.

Furthermore, the defendants allegedly failed to disclose that they had in September 2021 taken “a position in the real estate of the Factory Town Venue and stood to profit from the lease.”

Had it known that the defendants were “negotiating on both sides of the deal, Insomniac would have taken a materially different approach to the Factory Town lease and partner negotiations, considering” backend profits and more, the suit indicates.

Regarding the main Club Space JV, the defendants allegedly “saw an opportunity to work with Club Space’s landlord and cut Insomniac out.” This landlord, ostensibly the defendants’ “new billionaire partner,” allegedly owned the venue name and IP before the defendants (as well as Insomniac).

That’s more or less where the initially highlighted threat of a lawsuit containing a “smear campaign” targeting Rotella comes into play.

Subsequently, the parties in June 2025 participated in “a sixteen-hour mediation” that, needless to say, didn’t resolve the dispute.

Evidently, the showdown isn’t confined to a core contract disagreement, either. The litigants are further clashing over the fate of the forthcoming Hocus Pocus Halloween festival – apparently, the defendants intend to organize the happening on their own.

But that point, ticket prices, Insomniac’s absence from the poster, and other particulars aren’t sitting right with the plaintiff. Unfortunately, the redactions mean we don’t know precisely what relief Insomniac is seeking.

However, the entity says it’s suffering significant damages as a result of the conduct in question – and “fully expects a retaliatory lawsuit from” the defendants.

Link to the source article – https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2025/08/20/insomniac-lawsuit-club-space/