With the return of the KAABOO music festival delayed until 2025, Del Mar Fairgrounds CEO Carlene Moore said Sept. 10 that the two sides were working on an amendment to their agreement.
KAABOO had been scheduled to return this month to the Del Mar Fairgrounds, where it had its initial run from 2015 to 2019. The amendment will include specific dates in 2025.
“It’s currently in route for signature,” Moore told the fairgrounds board of directors during their monthly meeting. “So that will be moving forward and we’ll have updates on that throughout the year.”
The fairgrounds was set to receive $250,000 or 3% in net revenue, whichever was higher, as well as 40% of parking revenue, for bringing KAABOO back to Del Mar this year. The fairgrounds also has four one-year renewal options to keep KAABOO in town. Now that agreement will be amended to start next year.
Dating back to fall 2023, the Del Mar Fairgrounds and Festival Licensing and Acquisition Corporation (FLAAC), which owns the rights to KAABOO, had been working to bring the three-day festival back to the fairgrounds in September 2024. It would have been the first KAABOO since 2019 in Del Mar. But no dates or performers were ever announced for this year and tickets never went on sale.
Meanwhile, festivalgoers who bought tickets to canceled KAABOO dates at Petco Park in 2020 are still hoping for refunds or other compensation.
Since KAABOO was last held five years ago, the festival has endured multiple legal struggles stemming in part from a strained partnership with the Padres that failed to produce any KAABOO events at Petco Park. The festival has also undergone multiple ownership changes over the years before the rights to hold KAABOO events landed with FLAAC.