For more than 40 years, the Lake Tahoe Music Festival provided local residents and tourists with classical music concerts. It was a modest event compared to such festivals elsewhere but much beloved in the community. However, last month, the event’s producers announced that this summer’s performances will be the final ones. The festival is closing up shop, the latest victim of a California law that severely limits the ability to hire independent contractors — in this case, musicians — in the Golden State.

That law, known by the bill name AB 5, was intended as a response to perceived abuses within California’s changing economy. According to the Federal Reserve, as many as 3 in 10 workers are now part of what can broadly be termed the “gig” economy, a system of employment characterized by short-term, contract-based employment (or “gigs”). Ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft are perhaps the most visible examples of this class of employment, but the gig economy also includes all sorts of freelance, part-time, and temporary jobs, including those for musicians, designers, and nurses.