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2019

Assuming FORM SPECIAL
FESTIVAL

How A Hippie Desert Enclave Came w A Hippie Desert Enclave Came
Ho
To Host One Of The Biz’s Best Boutique Fests

By Eric Renner Brown
Mak Records and more, helps steer the festi-
val’s business end – a tall order given that the
festival is independently promoted.
“We deal with a lot of the typical challenges
that a small business does,” says Feinberg.
“Money being tight, managing cash flow, try-
ing to grow with modest resources and taking
risks without safety next. ... We’ve all poured
years into this thing strictly on sweat equity.”
Though tickets began at $349 this year,
FORM’s first two installments were free-by-ap-
plication, and the event subsisted on sponsor-
ships and patronage-level ticketing. “It drew a
lot of people that really had the right intentions
and just a lot of great music fans and a great
spectrum of people that were doing things in
the creative community,” Feinberg says.
Acclaimed indie acts such as Four Tet and
Thundercat played FORM in its early years,
but Solange’s 2017 set proved pivotal. “It was
really, really fantastic because she brought her
whole band and choreography,” Tetreault says.
“Seeing something like that in the intimate
Arcosanti amphitheater was insane.” Other
festival performances he saw of Solange’s
high-concept A Seat at the Table show that
summer “just didn’t hit the same way” as at
Carlo Cavaluzzi
DANIEL CAESAR performs at Arcosanti’s amphitheater at FORM’s 2018 installment. FORM. “We can do anything,” Tetreault recalls
thinking afterward. “I can book anyone that we
can get to and convincingly tell them that we
lorence + The Machine hit the road this decade from a friend who studied archi- can do it and we can do it right.’”
next month for a conventional string tecture. Established by architect Paolo Soleri Solange’s performance initiated a “domino
of dates: Two nights at Red Rocks, a in 1970, the town was a pioneering example effect,” according to Feinberg, that attracts
F headlining slot at New York’s Gover- of arcology – a portmanteau of “architecture” top-tier talent annually: “Word gets around from
nors Ball, several arena gigs. and “ecology” – the movement that sought to artist to artist and from agent to agent.”
But the beloved indie-rock band’s tour maximize urban efficiency while minimizing Financially, “the math only goes so far” –
begins in a less-expected locale. On May 10, environmental impact. (Legend has it that Florence unsurprisingly nets a bigger check
Florence + The Machine descend on Arcosan- George Lucas took inspiration for the “Star at an arena than at a small fest in the desert
ti, an experimental enclave 70 miles north of Wars” planet of Tatooine from Arcosanti.) – but FORM’s ethos compensates. Beyond
Phoenix in the Sonoran Desert, for the sixth “I had a curiosity for unconventional places music, this year’s program includes a literary
iteration of FORM Arcosanti. to do concerts at the time,” says Tetreault, who conversation between Florence Welch and
“I’m still in shock that they’re going to be visited Arcosanti while road-tripping in 2013 Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova, a talk by
a part of our festival this year,” says Zach and was “fascinated” by its artistic, cooperative Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors
Tetreault, co-founder of both FORM and Florida community. FORM arrived the following year, and a poetry reading by Yrsa Daley-Ward.
electronica act Hundred Waters. With good when Hundred Waters staged a glorified album And, crucially, the festival fosters a collabo-
reason: FORM holds fewer than 2,500 partici- release show and invited artists including How rative atmosphere. “There are so many missed
pants, meaning Florence and fellow headliner to Dress Well, Majical Cloudz and Julie Byrne to opportunities when everybody brings all these
Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals will play share the bill. amazing artists, musicians and creators to-
to crowds of hundreds, easily the smallest audi- When Hundred Waters was just getting gether every single weekend,” says Feinberg,
ences either will encounter this year. off the ground, Tetreault united with Alex referencing the impersonal “cattle call” of
Those bookings – along with other acts such Hoffman and industry vet Mike Feinberg – all many major festivals.
as Skrillex, Kaytranada, DJ Koze, Khruangbin three were working at Grooveshark in various “There’s so many festivals out there and
and Snail Mail – represent something of a capacities at the time – who became integral there are so many arenas that you can play,”
coup in the often-corporate festival sphere, members of the band’s team and subsequently Tetreault says, “but there are only so many
especially when considering that FORM has helped to create and run FORM. 2,500-cap festivals in a microcity in the middle
existed only since 2014. As FORM’s de facto COO, Feinberg, who has of the desert. It’s a really special thing that we
Tetreault learned about Arcosanti earlier held prominent roles at House of Blues, Dim have. I don’t take it for granted.” s

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