The lease of a concert venue — a hall, part of a stadium or an event ground taken temporarily — is written in Georgia under the norms of lease, and precisely these norms determine what may and may not be done in a sublease, how early return stands and who repairs what. On this page we explain the five central lease norms in the context of event venues.
The Concept of Lease — What the Lessor Gives
By the lease contract the lessor must hand over defined property to the lessee for temporary use and, during the lease period, secure the possibility of receiving its fruits as income where it results from proper management of the undertaking; the lessee must pay the lessor the agreed rent. The rent may be determined in money or in kind, and the parties may agree on other means as well — flexibility that matters in event practice: rent may even be written as a percentage of the ticket, if the contract so determines. Note also that the property defined as the object of the lease must be concrete — a hall, a ground, a sector — because the terms of the contract build precisely the frame of this property's use: the type of event, its duration and the regime of loading. The rules of hire apply to the lease contract as well — meaning that the lease of a concert hall is written under the same general logic as the hire of a dwelling.
Sublease and Early Return
Event practice often raises the question whether the organizer may pass the space to another — a catering operator, a merchandiser, a technical partner. The law's answer is clear: the lessee has no right of sublease without the lessor's consent; the lessor may refuse the leasing of separate parts of the leased property where significant damage would thereby be caused to him. In a sublease the lessee answers before the lessor for the sublessee using the item otherwise than permitted by the lessor, and the lessor may directly suspend such use. The sublease rule creates a two-sided protection: the organizer may lease parts of the space to partners, but only with the lessor's consent; the lessor, in turn, protects the designated use of the space — a sports arena cannot be turned into a catering zone without consent. Early return is also governed: if the lessee returns the property before the termination of the lease relationship, he is released from paying the rent only if he offers in his place a new solvent lessee acceptable to the lessor, who agrees to take the lease on the same terms; absent such an offer, the rent must be paid until the relationship ends — for a cancelled concert this means that only a replacement found by the organizer lifts the burden of the rent.