Outdoor Festivals:
How Many Can Be Successful in North America?
With the plethora of outdoor festivals that seems to have cropped up in recent years, this panel tackled the issue of not only how many can be successful, but how to make sure they are.
Coachella, Bonnaroo and Lollapa-looza have established themselves as destination events, but organizers shouldn’t look at those as the only examples. There was one point of agreement regardless of whether a festival is a multi-day camping extrava-ganza or a single-day event: They are hard to do.
Weather and other logistics are always a factor, but a good insurance policy and a strong support staff can at least mitigate some variables. But local political winds aren’t as predictable or its problems as preventable.
Moderator Chuck Morris made a compelling case for getting city offi-cials behind a festival early – and being prepared to pull out a Plan B.
“Politics can be very difficult,” Morris said. “Some of you are thinking about doing festivals in your city. Do your homework and get your people behind you. The politics can be deadly. It’s so important, and it can kill you.”
During the planning of Denver’s inaugural Mile High Festival, Morris learned that there was an objection from unexpected quarters – the Denver Zoo, which is inside City Park where he originally planned to stage the show.
Fortunately for Morris and AEG Live Rocky Mountain, officials in suburban Commerce City were amenable to moving the festival to Dick’s Sporting Goods Park and its 22 grassy soccer fields. Morris was able to take lemons and make lemonade, but his story underscored the fact that one official, or one complaining neighbor, can scuttle a festival faster than you can say “Vineland.”
Another Planet Entertainment’s Gregg Perloff was emphatic on that point.
“Don’t do it if the political winds aren’t at your back,” he said. “I don’t care how good you are; if they aren’t completely with you, don’t go there.
Go to another site. ... I would really recommend considering where you’re putting your festival. If the city is with you, you can pull it off.”
AEG Live’s new festival COO Stuart Ross added, “It can all go away because of one pissed-off neighbor. They call a city councilman and the permit goes away.”
But even with permits lined up and neighbors at bay, the outdoor festival is still an unruly animal to work with, all agreed. It’s work for the promoter, the artist and the fan. Making it worth the effort for everyone increases the likelihood of a repeat performance.
“It starts with the whole quality of the festival and the audience experi-ence,” Pardigm’s Chip Hooper said. “Bonnaroo and Austin City Limits are good examples. You walk around like a patron and you can see the good ones get better every year. You’ve got to make it fun.
“It’s a lot of work to attend. You drive a long way, set up a camp; it’s work. Keep your prices reasonable and keep the audience experience great.”
Hooper also used the example of one of his artists, Phish, to point out that there’s more than one way to present a festival. “Phish used to do a single-band thing over two days with multiple sets,” he explained. “They made them unforgettable experiences for the fans, and the fans kept coming back. The amenities have to be there to make it good to go to. If not, it won’t be sustainable.”
And then there’s the weather. Insurance is a must, but even that won’t completely bail out a festival when there’s artist itineraries to consider. A one-day washout can kill the buzz even if the festival schedules a “rain day” if a headliner can’t come back with the sun.
“Our model has changed,” C3 Presents’ Charlie Jones said of the Austin City Limits fest. “The first couple of years, when we were much smaller, the risk and rewards were such that we just put our heads down and dove in. Now, we have to act responsibly and we have insurance policies, contingencies for different staging. You can attempt to do rain bookings, but we’ve been lucky.”
But Jones believes the demise of the radio festival is imminent and that will actually help the market.
“If we don’t raise the guarantees and fees too high, I think the United States has a huge market for this,” Jones said. “We try to watch the overall experience. In the years to come, you may see one or maybe two pop up. If you treat these like the radio fests with higher and higher guarantees, it doesn’t work.”
Ross gave one example of how the Stagecoach festival, Coachella’s coun-try cousin, is rising to the challenging economic times .
“We’re extremely aggressive about keeping ticket prices reasonable,” Ross said. “We’re doing a layaway plan for Stagecoach. [A ticket buyer] can make two, three or five payments. It comes out of their credit card at predetermined times at no extra cost.
“We are sensitive about what that experience costs.”
But is it realistic to say that there’s room for more outdoor festivals in the U.S.? Perloff thinks so.
“All of us who want to do festivals owe a debt to [Goldenvoice’s Coachella co-founder] Paul Tollett, Superfly at Bonnaroo and C3 in Austin. They’ve made all of these events so great and the artists say, ‘We’ve been treated well; it was great.’
“We’ve seen some growth already. The artists and agents have a limited supply, and it’s their job to raise what the artist makes, which raises the ticket price. And festivals are difficult to produce.
“But as long as the artists aren’t telling the agent they hated the experience, it’s good. Every-one’s doing a great job and I think, if they continue, there’s room for growth.”
- Reported by Deborah Speer, Pollstar
- Photos by Jason Squires and John Shearer
