Summer 2014 40 Must- See Music Festivals
Welcome to the strange economics of modern rock festival, where every summer, defunct or dormant gather earn more than a couple of gigs they did in years of touring and recording bands. Outkast, who have not released much as a new song in eight years, are even more extreme example, unlike many of the great acts of the festival, they are not known for their live performances. “For the good bands, there will always be demand if you are away for long," says Charles Attal , partner C3 Presents , which produces Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits . Outkast’s success reflects a new reality: Thanks to the great competition “event booking " selling tickets of $ 300 or even more expensive VIP packages , parties can afford to pay the headliners of up to $ 4 million.
All this is possible because the parties have come to dominate the music industry, with 60 scheduled to take place in the U.S. this year. Fifteen years ago, when the organizers of Coachella 25,000 people came to see Rage against the Machine and Beck in the California desert, no one could have predicted that an event like Electric Daisy Carnival Las Vegas ‘attracts more than 400,000 people during a single weekend. "Festivals have become a very important part of American culture," said Pasquale Rotella, CEO of Insomniac, developer of Electric Daisy, which started as a rave in 1997, “When we started, it was very strange - . Everyone could remember was Woodstock. Became very difficult to explain. That's no longer true. "
Festivals have changed the way music is experienced - and released. A fan with a Spotify account and a ticket to Bonnaroo can test hundreds of bands, live or on record, in a single weekend.
"It's a good time to be a fan, if you want a piece of everything," says Ben Dickey, director of the indie band Spoon, whose new album coincides with a tour that includes dates Governors Ball and the knees that this summer. “[Spoon] will play tens of thousands of people in each festival - which is a very big platform to promote new songs.”
Not only are the big names that are cashing in. In the nineties, when Neutral Milk Hotel recorded his landmark album in the airplane over the sea, the group was fortunate to make a couple of hundred dollars per show. But this summer, the band, whose last album came out 16 years ago, will pull down more money a night at festivals like Bonnaroo and Pitchfork. "You can add a lot of zeros, basically, what they did," says Jim Romeo, booking agent group.
A decade ago, had different personalities festivals: Coachella had the alt -rock, Bonnaroo was more of a jam -band event. But as the crowds grew , major headliners became harder to find , which means more pressure to score high profile meetings or megastars like Bruce Springsteen , who promoters of Bonnaroo was years before court agreed to owner in 2009.
The regional competition is fierce. Cliff Burnstein, co -manager of Metallica and Red Hot Chili Peppers, says California is one of the great battlefields of this summer, now that Jay Z Made in America will be in Los Angeles, joining Outside Lands in San Francisco and in BottleRock Napa Valley. "Will you fight for the facts," he says.
Major festivals like Coachella and Lollapalooza are regularly sell out within hours of announcing their lineups. One form of such festivals is to stay on top with " radius clauses " which means bands cannot perform any other show - even a Club Concert - within , say, 300 miles and four or five months the date of the festival.
That can make the bands ' summer schedules increasingly complicated , to the point that the mega - booking agency William Morris has had to create a separate department devoted solely to do band " festivals and agreements with the management of their tourism routes . " it's like playing air traffic control ," says William Morris ' Kirk Sommer, agent of Murderers and Arctic Monkeys. “Think of how to play Governors Ball in June could affect another festival in the fall.”
Of course, not all successful festivals - in recent years, Rothbury Michigan, Bamboozle in New Jersey and Kanrocksas have doubled, despite strong hooves names headlining as the Black Keys and Foo Fighters. Bamboozle promoter suffered infighting, Kanrocksas had trouble selling tickets and could not consistently align Rothbury huge headliners.
“Sometimes it takes years of development to get these events on profitability," says Bob Roux, Co-President of Live Nation concert in the United States. In the early days of festivals in the United States, it was easier for independent companies to build a music festival niche, like jam bands and electronic dance DJs. That's not the case today. "There is much more political and much more investment to make something happen," says Rotella of Insomniac.
Given the recent boom, you might think festivals have reached a saturation point. However, many managers and promoters of the band say there is still room for growth. "It's getting heavy," says Attal. “But I do not think it peaked - it's just hit a good rhythm.”
Even for bands baby - if they get the appropriate time intervals and are able to play effectively to large crowds - festivals can make the difference between merely surviving and thriving. “A festival pays three and a half to four times more than the spectacle of half the club," says Dylan Baldi of Cloud Nothings, who are playing Bonnaroo, Pitchfork and several European festivals this summer. “We are still a small -scale side, the performances of the festival we will realize what happens when you try to become more popular.”
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