Two Washington, D.C. residents found themselves facing a lawsuit this week from Coachella—the iconic California music festival—after founding a knockoff “Moechella” festival in the nation’s capital. Founders Justin Johnson and Kelsye Adams are named in the suit that alleges the name is too similar to Coachella and that a shooting at a 2022 Moechella event has harmed the reputation of the original California festival. At Moechella’s Juneteenth concert last year, a fifteen-year-old boy was killed and three others were injured by gunfire. Moechella initially started as a series of musical protests in 2019 against new residents of a luxury apartment building who complained about loud go-go music in the Shaw neighborhood of D.C. These protests turned into an annual Moechella concert and “Million Moe March.” The name, according to a failed trademark application filed by Johnson, is a mash-up of “Moe”—slang for “friend”—and an allusion to Coachella.
