- 12 minutes ago
From the new Daisy Chain Fields Music Festival to established heavyweights like Coachella, the festival space remains strong, but it is also changing, as genre and artist-focused events continue to grow in popularity. Billboard has gathered several key festival promoters, as well as voices from the management and agency words, to analyze the current factors driving the growth and evolution of festivals of all sizes.
The 2026 Billboard Live Music Summit takes place on Nov. 10 at the 1 Hotel in West Hollywood. This event brings together artists, executives, promoters, managers and other leaders shaping the live music business. Through conversations, panels and networking, the summit explores the ideas, opportunities and challenges influencing the future of live music.
The 2026 Billboard Live Music Summit takes place on Nov. 10 at the 1 Hotel in West Hollywood. This event brings together artists, executives, promoters, managers and other leaders shaping the live music business. Through conversations, panels and networking, the summit explores the ideas, opportunities and challenges influencing the future of live music.
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MusicTranscript
00:00Hello, everybody. I'm Katie Bain, as Eric said, a senior music correspondent at Billboard,
00:04and I'm here with some true leaders in the festival space. Festivals are probably my favorite
00:10way to consume music, so I have a lot of questions for you guys. Before we get started,
00:15can you please just introduce yourselves quickly and tell people where you're coming from?
00:19I'm Alan Scott with Another Planet Entertainment. I'm president of concerts and festivals and
00:26co-founder of Outside Lands. Hi, I'm Melissa Ormond. I'm the chief operating officer for
00:32festivals for AEG Presents and the chief operating officer for Golden Voice.
00:38Hi, I'm Heather Kolker, and I am an artist manager and founder of Dream Shop Management.
00:44I'm Jeremy Spisner. I work at Rome Artists, where I run the festival department.
00:49I'm Houston Powell at C3. I work on a team that books the Lollapalooza shows,
00:55Gov Ball, When We Were Young, New World. Thank you. Okay, so to get started, this year we saw
01:01the huge success of Olivia Rodrigo's Daisy Chain. How are you all thinking about these types of
01:07artists curated events versus mega festivals like Coachella, Lollapalooza, ACL, et cetera?
01:16You know, I worked on, I was fortunate enough to work on Daisy Chain, so it was a pretty unique
01:21show.
01:22It was very, I mean, 100% Olivia Rodrigo driven. She had the vision for the show. She booked every
01:28band on the show. She personally called every band. So it was interesting to work with an artist who
01:35had the kind of vision that she had about what she wanted to get out of the show, which was
01:39to raise
01:39awareness, raise money. But, you know, it was much different than other artists curated shows I've been
01:46on because she was, you know, for nine months, she was intimately involved in every decision.
01:52So it was pretty unique.
01:57We're past a decade now with title of the creator on Camp Flognor, which plays off this weekend.
02:02Hopefully no weather. And we just launched Morgan Wallen's Sand in My Boots in Gulf Shores,
02:08Alabama last week for the second year. So it's an important part of the portfolio.
02:12It's, it does require a tremendous amount of commitment from an artist, so they have to be
02:16willing to do it. And when they do well, it's great. But it's certainly not the only part of
02:23the portfolio.
02:24When do you know when an artist is ready to kind of step up to that level?
02:30They have to be able to sell a lot of tickets, have a lot of great relationships. And as I
02:35said,
02:35be willing to commit to curating not only the lineup, but the entire experience and working
02:40really closely with us on site. And Tyler and Morgan are great examples of artists who are
02:45very committed to that and very committed to how everything is presented.
02:50Heather and Jeremy, how are agents and managers thinking about festival touring versus hard
02:55ticket shows? And when is a festival more valuable? And when do you pass?
03:00I think it really depends on the artist and what level the artist is at. I mean, there's an argument
03:07for hard tickets, especially I think when you're talking about headliners who, if they lean into
03:14dynamic pricing and things like that, the amount of money that can be made on their own versus a
03:18festival. But I also think that culturally, there's a spot probably in their cycle for the festival as
03:23well. It's just maybe perhaps after the headlines and a different part of the cycle. But it depends on
03:31what level band you're talking about, too. I think for really developing bands, it can just the slot in
03:38itself can be a really important piece of the story that you're building. And then you have a more
03:45middle tier where I think it gets a little bit more tricky as to what's of value to you in
03:52a
03:52particular time. I think it's really just timing. Where are you at in your album cycle when the festival's
03:56happening? Also important is where are you at when they're giving offers? You know, to try and get
04:03people on board, the bookers on board with why you think that artist should be on the festival. And
04:09sometimes it makes sense, and sometimes it doesn't. And you headline and do your own thing.
04:13Sure. Okay.
04:14Yeah, I think further to Heather's point, it's like, it's all about what the plan is. What's the vision?
04:19What are we trying to accomplish within a year? And do certain festivals help us tell the
04:26story that we're trying to tell in that given cycle? And it also is a lot of it is kind
04:32of
04:32balancing timelines, because all festivals book and operate on relatively different timelines and
04:38kind of figuring out, you know, when is the when is the time to bring in an offer? When is
04:43the time
04:43to have that conversation versus, you know, letting it rip on the headline front?
04:47Got it. What happens and maybe this is more from the festival side, when an artist that you book,
04:52let's say a year out blows up in the year between when you book them and when the festival happens,
04:57is there malleability in terms of where they're placed or how they're kind of put forth at that
05:01festival when people have a significant boost in that time frame?
05:05Well, as a festival booker, when that happens, we're very happy. Because usually we got a good deal
05:10on the artist. But, you know, we're flexible on the slot. You know, if something is undeniable,
05:17like a Chapel Rhone was in 24, you know, we moved around. We moved around. And, you know,
05:26most agents, managers understand it's a little bit of a dance with them to make them happy if you're
05:33taking somebody else's slot. But, you know, it's called a good problem to have.
05:39Yeah.
05:40Okay.
05:41Yeah, I was just going to say, I think it's, you know, you have to keep your finger on the
05:45pulse.
05:45We're going through this with Angine Duploitrine right now, who are, you know, skyrocketing kind
05:52of against all odds as a math rock band from Sanguigné, Quebec. But as that has been happening,
06:00we've engaged in a lot of conversations about moving the stage, you know, moving the slot up
06:04a little bit. You know, their debut festival play was at Newport Jazz, where we had them in this teeny
06:10tiny tent in the corner of the festival. And like a week before, we were seeing what was happening in
06:15real time. And we moved it to the main stage. And it was a huge, huge set. Yeah.
06:21I'm also curious, you know, on a related note, just the calculations that you all do with radius
06:27clauses. And when you're, you know, putting your artists on events, and then I guess,
06:31have you also seen radius clauses change in the last, let's say, five years? Have they
06:36become broader and stricter?
06:40We have seen radius clauses get stricter in California.
06:52You know, there's festivals in Southern California and in Nevada that are quite strict. And it's,
07:03in my opinion, it's a little overkill, you know, to have 500 miles plus on a festival. I mean,
07:12if, if Lollapalooza put a 500 mile radius, it would hit Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina,
07:19Georgia, Arkansas, you know, Missouri, it's, it's pretty wide, almost New York City at that point,
07:28Toronto. And, but, you know, it's a conversation with the, the agents and sometimes with the promoters
07:37to try to, to work that through. But, um, uh, I'm not a big fan. Let's put it that way.
07:47Unless it's yours.
07:49Well, we don't have any, any, our radius does not go past 250 miles. So.
07:55Please, Heather, go ahead.
07:57Yeah, I think it's another one of those situations that really depends on the situation and
08:01what level of artists you're talking about and how much money they're getting paid. And,
08:06you know, if you're getting paid a ton of money, you can understand a little bit more,
08:10you know, why it might be stricter or also, but at the same time, maybe there's more leverage there
08:18to do what you want to do when you're confirming. If you're sort of lower on the ranks and you're
08:23not making a ton of money, there's probably early conversations that are happening when you're
08:27confirming about what else you might want to do. And hopefully you'll, you know, work it out.
08:34Sure. So there can be wiggle room, I think. Yeah. And it sounds like there has been some,
08:40sometimes. Okay. Um, and I guess my understanding is that these are kind of essential to protect
08:46a massive financial investment. Is, is that kind of the, the bottom line here?
08:52Festivals are not for the faint of heart. Yeah. And they're growing more expensive every day and
08:56more risky every day. So that is the rationale behind them. Yeah. Yeah. I would love to talk about
09:01growing more expensive every day. You know, we've seen, of course, there's so many conversations
09:05about the cost of touring rising to levels that, you know, feel almost unsustainable for
09:09many artists. How, how are these rising costs affecting what you all do?
09:16Um, it's greatly affecting what we're doing. I mean, I'll just speak for outside lands in San
09:21San Francisco. Um, you know, the inflation for the United States since 2021 has probably been around
09:2927% growth since 2021 for outside lands. And specifically, we've grown up 60% plus in our costs.
09:41It is exorbitant. Um, and the ticket prices can't keep up with that. So you have to add different
09:49price points. You have to go through, you know, additional sponsorship, try to get some of the
09:55top end experiences, add more of those to keep your general mission ticket price down. But it's
10:01definitely a major problem. I think, uh, um, that we see on like a nuts and bolts level, where are
10:09you
10:09seeing the costs rising most? Like I understand diesel is very expensive and just kind of these
10:13like line items, like where, where is the cost inflating? Well, there was a lot of consolidation
10:18after COVID. And so things like fencing became very expensive because there were fewer fencing
10:24companies, consolidation and security companies, public safety is very, very expensive with all
10:30the threats that we have to face out there. Um, and then weather, of course, you know, we're,
10:35we're always thinking about how to mitigate weather and there's a significant cost to that. So it's
10:39pretty much across the board. I don't, can't think of any category that's gotten less expensive.
10:45Yeah, I was just going to say on the artist side, and I'd be curious to hear Heather's
10:49thoughts on this as well, but it costs are also rising every day. And, you know, when we
10:55negotiate festival deals and festival fees, it's this, it's this back and forth of, you know,
11:00things are tight on our end, things are also tight on our end. And for me, you know, as sort
11:06of a middleman between the agents and the promoters, it's a big part of my job to try and thread
11:12that needle and to find whatever that middle ground might be, you know, whether it's, hey,
11:18this artist, I think we could route these three festivals together and not mess up any radius
11:22issues. And that might help us, you know, get a deal, quote unquote, a word that agents hate
11:29to say and hear. But, you know, just figuring out again, like, what is the plan? How do these
11:34festivals fit into our plan? And how can we help promoters mitigate their costs on their end while
11:39also being mindful of our artists costs and transportation costs and all that?
11:45Another thing that we're seeing is with the artists themselves, with the rise of platinum and
11:51dynamic pricing, these artists are making a lot more money on their hard ticket dates. And then that
11:58translates to a lot more money on the festival dates. And so our along with everything else that
12:06we were just talking about to produce the festival, the artists, our artists budget has gone up
12:14significantly. Heather, please. Yeah, I was just going to add from the artist side, it is extremely
12:21expensive for the artists to tour. So you get into a situation where you get a festival offer that
12:28might even make sense for where your artist is at, but it's unaffordable. You know, the cost of buses,
12:34crew coming out of COVID. And I'm not even saying I disagree with this, but people don't want to go
12:40out for less than a certain amount of money. And so everything, buses, crew, the artists wanting to put
12:47production in, if you are going to do the festival, they want it to be something special. And a lot
12:53of
12:53times it just becomes, it's just math. The math doesn't math. And it becomes difficult unless you
13:00can figure out a way to, to support it in another way. So you know, you can get into an
13:07argument of
13:08money. I personally don't like, maybe I did this more when I was an agent, but I don't believe in
13:16beating, you know, anybody up for amount of money that doesn't make sense. It just, I don't, I don't
13:21really have it in me. And so I just don't think it's fair to anybody. Um, but there are times
13:26where
13:26it just comes down to, we can't do it for that amount of money. So we either need more money
13:31or
13:32we can't do it.
13:34To put it kind of crassly, like, how do you stop the bleeding on the promoter level? Like,
13:39how do you make sure that not all of these costs are trickling down to attendees? And I guess,
13:43what are the first things that get cut with respect to just how expensive everything is?
13:51Well, um, as I mentioned earlier, what we try to do is, you know, the, the rise of like the
13:58GA plus,
14:00or we have what we call the golden gate club, which is an ultra, um, VIP opportunity that's,
14:08um, curated by Ken folk, which is a big interior designer. And, you know,
14:13some of the A plus restaurants in San Francisco, and it's just a white glove experience. And by
14:19doing that also being more aggressive on the sponsorship, which has been helpful as, you know,
14:26this is our 19th year we're heading into. So, you know, that's fortunately grown each year, but
14:32that allows us to keep the general admission, uh, ticket down price. But, you know, we're one of the
14:39higher in the country, you know, being in California, it's just, everything's more expensive
14:43here.
14:45Yeah. Fortunately, we're seeing people are, there's a segment of the population that's willing to spend
14:50for a higher end experience. And I think that really, as Alan said, helps take some of the risk
14:55off and some of the pressure off the GA pricing. Um, but ancillary revenue is really important,
15:01really critical.
15:02And when you say ancillary revenue, what does that encompass?
15:05Sponsorship, food and beverage, all of the creative ticketing, you know, access to the pit
15:10for one artist. We found tremendously successful on the Morgan Wallen show. People want to spend a
15:16little bit more money just to see one artist. They clear the pit, we sell it again. You know,
15:22it's just trying to be creative, find creative solutions to keep that GA price down.
15:25That's super interesting. Thank you. Houston, is there anything you want to add? I saw you
15:30nodding. Um, doesn't need to be, not to put you on the spot.
15:34I don't know. You know, if the, if the prices get out of control, the festivals end up, you know,
15:39paying too much for talent, the ticket price goes too high, the festival goes away. So there's kind
15:43of a natural weeding out. You'll see a lot of festivals take years off or just disappear
15:48altogether. So you're just kind of, you're kind of on a year by year fight to stay alive, to be
15:53honest.
15:54Yeah. Um, most of you mentioned the weather, which I feel like is,
16:00gotten so much more unpredictable in the last, I don't know, you can tell me, but five or 10 years.
16:06Um, how are you thinking about planning for the weather and how has that changed?
16:10Well, it depends on the location in the country. We have been dealing with weather conditions,
16:15you know, in new Orleans or Western Michigan forever, but California, we had never evacuated
16:21a festival until cruel world in 2023. I think we had never evacuated the desert 25 years of Coachella
16:28and we've evacuated twice in the last six months stagecoach for wind and head trip for lightning.
16:34So it is a very big calculation. And then last year, of course, moving camp Flagna from one weekend
16:39to the next because of rain and flooding at Dodger stadium. So it is something that we're spending a lot
16:46of time on. How do you, um, do festivals move? Like, I guess just like, what are the,
16:54what are the things that you're doing to kind of mitigate or can, is it just too unpredictable?
16:58Well, there's, depending on what the issue is, what the weather condition is, you can,
17:02you can try to mitigate things on site like flash flooding and things like that. Nothing you can do
17:07with lightning. You either evacuate and you reload or you cancel the rest of the show.
17:11So wind conditions, you know, it varies. It just depends on what the situation is and how severe
17:16it is. And you, and there's a tremendous amount of preparation in advance. And then you have to
17:21have a lot of flexibility in real time to deal with whatever the threat is that's presented itself.
17:27It's a real bummer, you know, for everybody, for the festival, for the artist. I had an artist this
17:33year playing all things go headlining. It got canceled, you know, and you've got your whole
17:40operation out there. And it's a hit. It's a big hit to the tour. You know, when you have a
17:47headliner
17:48fee and that thing goes away, you will get usually partial payment. But part of something big that
17:57could be an anchor for part of your tour is a problem. So it's, and it does, I mean, it
18:06feels like
18:06it's happening more and more. I had Bonnaroo cancellations last year. I mean, it's feels like an
18:13almost unfortunately regular thing. Um, which, you know, with the climate change is probably going to
18:22continue to be a problem. So it does, it is something that crosses my mind now, which is, are we
18:28doing
18:28outdoor shows? You know, you, it's feels a lot more relaxing to go inside somewhere. Um, so that
18:36you're taking that off the table because that weekend in New York, there was so much going on.
18:40It was global citizen. It was all things go. Everything got canceled, but Phoebe Bridgers tour
18:47because it was inside, you know, so there's just a, a level of things you don't have to worry about.
18:53And so it, it is something that you think about now or something I think about now and insurance
18:58is cost prohibitive for the artist. It is. And it's becoming cost prohibitive for us as well.
19:02It's insanely expensive to ensure the festival and then have a weather event or to protect as an
19:07artist to put, to get cancellation insurance is so expensive. So most, um, most opt to not have it.
19:17Um, unless you're an artist who it's so big and you can really afford to do whatever you need to
19:22do.
19:22But there's a lot of, there's a few tiers in there that usually don't get it.
19:27There, there's a distinction between what's a hard ticket show. So if a tour is routed and you're playing
19:33an outdoor venue and there's weather that you have to cancel, you have the option to postpone and try to
19:39put
19:39the date somewhere else on the tour. It doesn't always work, but you have that option with the festival.
19:45You have, you know, a hundred, a hundred, some artists that you just can't move at a weekend or two
19:52weeks
19:52unless apparently can't flog none. You work with the, uh, with Tyler, the creator, but, um, it's, you know,
20:00so it's very difficult. So your only option usually is to cancel.
20:05Uh, yeah, no, I was just going to speak to the insurance part. I think that, you know, two or
20:10three years ago,
20:10that was something that no artist I work with did, you know, getting their own cancellation insurance.
20:15And now it's become more of a conversation because this is becoming more of a, of a,
20:21it's definitely, something is definitely going to happen this year. You know, some,
20:25if you have six festivals on your schedule, you know, statistically speaking, one or two of them
20:32is, is going to cancel or your set's going to get cut or whatever. Um, but I think you are
20:38seeing
20:38on, on the festival front, especially, you know, across the independent festival landscape,
20:42a lot of these festivals are moving. They're, they're changing dates because, you know, maybe
20:47the weather the past two years has been really crappy in August or September. And so they're,
20:52they're looking at moving it to May for next year. That's fascinating. Thank you for that. Um,
20:58hopefully the next topic is a little bit more fun lineups. Um, I'm very curious about how you decide
21:06when to announce a lineup. Um, you know, I think, I think, uh, like for example, Lala Chicago,
21:16we've just stayed in March. We moved earlier one year didn't, and it was just actually too cold in
21:21Chicago. Nobody was thinking about the summer yet. So we just, we just have stuck in our March
21:26announced because that's always worked for us. Um, you know, I, I, I do, I have seen advantages
21:32as other shows of getting up and we've done shows where we're getting up early to, to extenuate the,
21:38uh, the on sale period. So you've got a longer time to sell tickets, but it's a devil. I don't
21:44know if there's one certain plan that works, right? Yeah, we, I mean, we really want to get up as
21:50early as we can. Um, that being said, we find like we fall into that first week of March is
21:58kind of
21:59when we can get the festival all booked in time. We're a little slower, I think, in how we book
22:06the festival compared to other people, I know. Um, but, uh, so we kind of slow played a little bit
22:14to see kind of what's percolating. Um, and what's, you know, we booked a couple of years ago, we had
22:22Dochi and she played our 500 cap club, the independent in San Francisco and it was in October
22:29and, you know, we booked her in January, probably December for the following year. And she played
22:35penultimate on the, the main stage. So we like to try to get is these windows when these artists are
22:43just popping to get like a chaperone at the right time or Dochi, you know, we find it's helpful to
22:49put closer to the event or at least the announce. Um, and so that kind of lines us up with
22:57right
22:57at the beginning of March when we were able to kind of piece everything together.
23:02Okay. Thank you for that. Um, Melissa, I'm curious with Coachella, you know, kind of famously
23:07used to announce in January and now it's been earlier. I think last year was November. Is
23:12there, is there a strategy around that or it's just like, Hey, it's ready. Let's go.
23:19Yes. Uh, I mean, when it's ready, it goes. I will say that one of the other considerations
23:26for us, generally speaking, as, as the price of ticket prices, as the cost of tickets rise,
23:33we want to offer payment plans to the audience and we want to offer as many installments in those
23:38payment plans as possible. So the earlier we go within reason, the, the more adoption there is on
23:45payment plans and we're finding less defaults on payment plans than we would expect. It's,
23:51it's something that's really important to the consumer. And I know I think most of us do it.
23:55Uh, so that, that also goes into, Oh, are we okay?
24:04All right. We got the thumbs up, I think. Yes. Okay. We're okay.
24:08Also, we get, we have, we all know the kind of landscape out there of when the other festivals
24:14are announcing and we all try to kind of give each other some space, um, so that we're not
24:22on top of each other because although, you know, we're talking about primarily regional festivals,
24:29you know, there is that kind of news cycle or social media cycle that you want to, you know,
24:36get that those eyeballs and attention for at least, you know, 24, 48 hours.
24:41Right. Okay. Um, maybe you already answered it, Melissa, but we had a, you know, big story a few
24:46years ago, but how more festival attendees are using payment plans. And it sounds like you're saying
24:50that that you're, you're finding that that's the case. Yeah. In our case, definitely. Okay.
24:54Interesting. Um, let's talk about headliners. Um, I, I've heard a few people recently say,
25:00you know, obviously breaking a new artist is challenging right now in general across the
25:05industry. Um, is that a challenge you're encountering in terms of finding headliner level acts of
25:11just that there aren't as many as there used to be? Uh, I think there's as many as there used
25:16to be,
25:17right? I, I think that you just have to kind of adapt, right? Like there's, there's a certain level
25:21of act that kind of disappears off your radar. If you're probably anybody, but Coachella,
25:26which is, you know, the Harry Styles or the Justin Bieber's, it's just, you know, we don't,
25:31we don't have enough, we don't spend enough to get those acts and, you know, they're into,
25:35they're into stadium world, right? So the weekend, et cetera. So you have to kind of re norm your
25:42expectation and try to get ahead of the curve. Maybe, you know, if you're lucky, you get kind of
25:48one of those next acts at the right cycle, maybe you get, you know, when we had Olivia Rodrigo at
25:53Lal, it was, it was the year after her tour. So we were getting second bite at the apple,
25:57but we were extremely glad to have second bite. Um, you know, and you just have to, you know,
26:03they used to say, Hey, you need to be elevating new headliners. Now we have no choice, but to
26:08elevate them. Interesting. Okay. I guess in 2026, what makes a great festival headliner?
26:14I mean, I think it, a lot of it depends on, on what, what your show is and who your
26:19fan base is,
26:20right? So all the shows are different. Coachella is different than Lollapalooza. Loll is different
26:24than outside lands. There's a different vibe at the show. There's a different audience, right? I mean,
26:29I, I had kind of a wake up call in 22 when I booked Metallica, um, and realized the, the
26:36generation
26:37that's coming to Lollapalooza now doesn't really know Metallica that well. And the Metallica fan doesn't
26:42want to come stand in the field to watch Metallica. They want to watch them at the stadium. So,
26:47um, and when I booked them in 15, it worked, went over amazing, right? And they spent the last decade
26:52doing unbelievable stadium shows in the round, right? So their fan base wants that experience,
26:57right? So I just think you have to, uh, you have to know what your show, who your target audience
27:03is,
27:03right? You know, so for me, Lorde is more valuable than Metallica. She's not a bigger act,
27:08but she's hits my core demo. Interesting. Anything, anyone wants to add there?
27:14No. Okay. So, uh, let's talk about live streams. Um, more and more festivals are live streaming for
27:20global audiences, mass audiences. Is live streaming becoming the norm, um, that's necessary to make the
27:26financial investment in a festival feasible? I will start on this one. The Coachella live stream
27:34is the single biggest televised look in the world. Not even close with second, not the Super Bowl,
27:41not the Grammys. It's the Coachella stream. That stream alone, in my mind, has changed the way that
27:47all the bands look at the festivals, right? You know, the bands used to, it was a decent payday to
27:52come to the festival. We used to have to beg them to stream at Lollapalooza, right? Now they're looking
27:57at like, how do I create a moment less so for what's going on there, but I need the drone
28:02shots
28:03for my Instagram, but what goes on the stream, right? And, and so, you know, the fans in South
28:09Africa, the fans in South America, the fans in India, the fans in, in Asia are watching that stream.
28:15They're not watching the Super Bowl, right? So, you know, we used to never get special guests at
28:20Lollapalooza, right? Suddenly we started to get special guests, not as many as Coachella, but we're like,
28:24oh wow, we got a special guest, right? You know, because that streaming has completely changed
28:29everything, and everybody's trying to create their Chapel Roan moment. Yeah, and I, I can't speak
28:35as much on the financial side, but, but on the artist side, to Houston's point, it's, it's a added
28:41layer of exposure, you know, and like we spoke a lot last year, two years ago, about when McGee played
28:48at Lalla and ACL, and, you know, I think a lot of artists that we work with in years past
28:54would have
28:54said, no, we don't want to participate in the stream, but now there's such a, a bigger appetite
28:59for it, because it's another platform, and it's, it's a, it's another way to work that festival into
29:04your strategy, and do what you need to do on a, on a bigger level. As touring gets more expensive,
29:11it's a great opportunity for artists to extend the brand to areas that they could never tour,
29:15and it, I mean, we've seen such a dramatic increase in the quality of show, production,
29:23presentation, not just at Coachella, at many of our festivals as a result of the live stream,
29:27but it certainly helps the festival brands as well. Thank you for that. So to close, we're out of time,
29:34but I would love to know each of your best festival moments from 2026. What was your, what was your
29:40highlight?
29:44I'll go first, because it was recent. Something must have happened. It was recent. We, just the
29:49extraordinary Sunday that was head trip, which never would have happened absent the lightning
29:54evacuation, because we never would have had Calvin Harris on the same day, same stage, as Swedish
30:00House Mafia. It was extraordinary. I would not want to repeat everything that happened that weekend,
30:07particularly with the evacuation, but, uh, just an extraordinary experience last month.
30:12Thank you. Go ahead. Since I got skipped, um, and I appreciate that actually. Um,
30:20last year's festival for outside lands was probably one of my favorite years ever. I thought for our,
30:26our lineup was one of the better we've done, at least in, in several years. And I thought Sunday night
30:33with Rufus DeSoul closing out the festival, which for our audience is just right down the middle,
30:41um, was just, it was just, uh, uh, a great way to just end a really special year.
30:49Amazing.
30:51Um, I loved Lala. I, I love Lala. I just like it a lot. I think it's a really great
30:57festival. I've done so
30:58many great things with Houston for so many years. And I think it's just a incredibly,
31:06it's just a really great festival. It's fun to go to, whereas, you know, as I get older, I don't
31:13need to go to all the festivals and, you know, but it's, it's nice. And it's just, yeah, I think,
31:19I don't know if there's one thing I loved my artists set there. Um, but it, it was just a
31:26good
31:26overall festival experience. Thank you for that. Uh, my favorite was probably, uh, Lincoln Park
31:32and Lala India, which is very difficult show to book. It's difficult to go to bands to India.
31:37You had never played there before. There's like a Mount Rushmore of bands in India,
31:42which is like Metallica, Eminem, Lincoln Park, and somebody else, because there's four in Mount
31:47Rushmore. But, um, but you know, they, they basically blew out 65,000 two day tickets by themselves.
31:54Wow. And every single part, and you know, the Indian fans were in tears watching. It was pretty,
32:00pretty awesome to watch a band play in front of an audience that waited, had waited a generation
32:04to see them. That's amazing. I alternate what festivals I cover every year. So this was not
32:10a Lollapalooza year for me. Next year will be, but I did, I went to Riot Fest this year in
32:14Chicago.
32:15Sorry, Houston. And I do too. It was awesome. And it further to what we were talking about,
32:20about weather, like it turned into a giant fucking mud pit, you know, it was crazy.
32:24Sorry. It was crazy. There were worms everywhere. Like it was gross, but it was also beautiful.
32:30Like everybody stayed, everybody was sloshing around in the mud. We had a huge return look for
32:36this Chicago band, Twin Peaks that we book and they closed one of the, one of the smaller stages.
32:42And there were fewer people there than would have been because of the weather. But the people that were
32:46there were engaged, having a great time. And, you know, just one of those moments of like,
32:51even in the face of crazy weather, people prevail. Great scene. Thank you. Give these guys a big round
32:58of applause.