Update (8/17/17, 3:15 p.m.): The Observer got its hands on Starfest’s contract with Plano and emails between the two parties, which shed some more light on the situation. In short, Starfest organizers failed to share artists’ contracts with the city and did not get a special events permit. This festival was indeed as shoddily put together as everybody suspected.

Update (8/20/17): Starfest says it has found a new home at Lone Star Park in Grand Prairie. The dates remain unchanged, and the festival has cut ticket prices significantly.

Update (8/22/17): Well, never mind. Starfest says today that it is again looking for a new home, and considering pushing back its scheduled dates, because Lone Star Park was booked the weekend of Sept. 8. The lineup has completely been removed from Starfest’s website and replaced with a statement:

While we were pleased to announce that Lone Star Park in Grand Prarie would be able to accommodate us for the festival, the management informed us on Monday morning that the facility was previously booked for an outside event on their parking lots that would take up 80% of usable parking for our guests. The team at Lone Star Park has been diligently working with us directly to help facilitate us with other dates in one capacity or another. This unfortunately may cause us to push back our event or move locations. More details to follow, but this Cinderella Story is not over yet! Stay tuned…

Original post below.

In a brief statement, the city of Plano announced Thursday morning that it is terminating its contract with the Starfest Music Festival, which was scheduled for Sept. 8 and 9 at Oak Point Park. Here it is:

The City of Plano has decided to terminate our contract with the promoters of the Starfest Music Festival, planned for September 8-9 at Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve. We believe the cancellation of this contract is in the best interest of the City and our community.

Unless organizers can come up with a new location for what they have billed grandiosely as “North Texas’ premier music festival” in the next couple weeks, this appears to be the end of the road for the comedy of errors that has been the Starfest Music Festival.

This news should surprise absolutely no one who has kept up with the series of misfortunes and harebrained moves to befall the festival. An incomplete summary of the red flags that went up since we first wrote about this fiasco-in-the-making:

On Monday, TMZ reported that the festival was being sued by a talent booker, who is accusing Starfest organizers of sneaky tactics to avoid paying him a commission.

Cadillac, at one time prominently listed as a sponsor of the festival, has since been scrubbed from Starfest’s website.

After naming Lil Wayne a headliner, some of the other “top-tier” performers promised by the festival turned out to be a couple EDM DJs we had to Google, Flo Rida (who is playing a free show at the State Fair in late September), and a handful of local acts. The festival has also named and then retracted (and, in one case, then named again) several announced acts.

Online mockery of Starfest hit a new peak with a planned Denton watch party at which one could watch the disaster unfold from a distance.

Plano breaking up with Starfest before it can transpire is probably an act of mercy, even if it means some observers will be denied a few cheap laughs. We’ll update this post with any new information, but, much like the city of Plano, we’re kind of ready to wash our hands of this whole thing.