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I don’t think any talent buyer goes into book- they are hoping to get more sponsor dollars
ing a show with the idea of keeping the show or hoping they could get a higher ticket price.
predominately gender-driven. The kicker of that is that you put “festival”
on the name and the agents are going to take
What are you doing to you straight to the bank. We do some festivals
differentiate your festival in Canada but I think Americans are getting
a lot more accustomed to going to outdoor
from the rest? events.
It’s not to say there’s more plays in a mar-
Medina: Curation, content and communica- ket, but there’s a lot of stuff that at one time
tion are key for every one of our festivals. We would have played indoors. There might be
have an internal concessions company here at bands that can play three or four nights but
Danny Wimmer Presents (Southern Hospital- are pulling some of that programming out of a
ity Concessions) which allows us to be much four-wall club.
more creative with our food and beverage What’s unfortunate is when people get
offerings to fans on site. With the sheer num- involved that don’t respect the game or don’t
ber of festivals that exist now, you have to be play nice in the sandbox. Meaning they are
Amy Corbin able to offer festivalgoers premium options to going to overpay talent just to get them, and
enhance their experience. they don’t think about what the long-term
per day festival, or give the fans a female pop Secondary entertainment is also a big piece effect of that is. They’re fucking it up for
headliner and call it “done.” of what we do to separate ourselves. If a fan is everybody for a short-term gain. It’s messing
It’s easy to see where the improvements taking a break or waiting for a band to go on in with the herd, basically.
are occurring, but it’s also easy to call that the next few minutes, we need to be sure that
“enough.” I think the fans want more inclusive we are satisfying those minutes with engaging
and diverse lineups – racially, culturally, and experiences. What difference, if any,
in terms of gender. That’s what music is. does a diverse staff and
We want to see artists of color, we want to see Lobl: We try to create festival lineups and production crew make to
gender non-conforming artists, we want to experiences that tailor to each individual fan
see artists from around the world, we want to base for each festival we work with. a festival?
see differently-abled artists. Each festival has its own personality, in
There shouldn’t be anyone who can’t see demographic, location, genre – there are so
themselves playing a festival stage. That’s a many aspects involved.
huge privilege for the festival buyer! We try to really understand who our fan bas-
es are and listen to them and what they want
Blaylock: I feel like the end result is about to see and experience to make each unique,
the same. However, it’s an important stride memorable and to keep them buying tickets!
that diversity keeps being a part of the
conversation. As an industry, we now look at Blaylock: We’re really looking to expand our
our lineups and question them – Did we do lineups into the far corners of rock. Our core
everything we could to be inclusive and rep- is certainly hard rock/active rock— but you can
resentative? I think that awareness is a good add Muse and Run The Jewels and ZZ Top to
step forward. touch an even larger cross-section of potential
fans.
Even larger for us this year, is the focus on
experience. We want to add crazy art in-
stallations and specialty bars and super-VIP
programs to make sure our fans are getting
more bang for their buck – that this feels like Tami Blevins
a once-in-a-lifetime experience from the entry
gates to the stage production. Tami Blevins, Director of Artist Relations and
Travel Services, C3 Presents: My experience
has been that when crews see people of color
How do you see the festi- and/or LGBTQ persons backstage it reminds
val market affected by the them that the “underrepresented” still has
increase in boutique and/or a massive welcoming presence in the music
artist-curated festivals? industry.
As a woman of color, I have always felt
that my work ethic and breadth of know-
Galton: With more festivals happening, there ledge has been key to my success. Does that
is a lot more competition to get artists to mean there have not been challenges?
confirm your festival dates simply because No, but I do feel that in this industry diversity
Sophie Lobl
there might be another event that day that is is not only welcomed, it’s strongly encour-
Lobl: This year has already produced incredi- wanting them, too. From a fan’s perspective, I aged.
ble females that are on the rise to top-tier sta- think the boutique/artist-curated festivals offer To paraphrase a line from “Bohemian Rhap-
tus: Billie Eilish, Solange, Rezz, Maren Morris a more specialized event which results in more sody,” we are a bunch of misfits who don’t be-
and Kasey Musgraves, just to name a few. It’s opportunity for artist discovery. long together working with other misfits, and
a really exciting year to see so many female this is what makes us feel like a family. This
acts coming through and we’re putting them Vantress: I think there’s a lot of people putting is why we, the crews of the backstage world,
on all of our festivals. the word “festival” on a name maybe because actually do belong together.

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