The summer music festival season is coming to a close, and it was as eventful as ever. In the midst of all the collective Chappell Roan love (H-O-T-T-O-G-O, anyone?) and Usher’s headlining of Essence Fest in celebration of the 20th anniversary of his “Confessions” album, experiential brands were busy making their festival debuts, leaning into windowless “enclosures” for their activation builds and painting the landscape with bright, bold colors.
Check out our summer field reports:
- Coachella 2024: Shower Portals, Manifest Stations, Surpr-ices
- Governors Ball 2024: 18 Brand Activations
Here, we explore six news tidbits from the spring and summer festival season, as this month kicks off a string of fall music festivals like Riot Fest in Chicago, Pilgrimage Festival in Tennessee, Soundside Music Festival in Connecticut and October’s Austin City Limits in Texas.
Coachella sees slowest ticket sales in a decade.
Ahead of the opening weekend of the 2024 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, ticket sales were slower than usual, with Billboard reporting that the festival had only sold approximately 80 percent of the available 250,000 tickets. It took one month longer to sell out than it did in 2023. In 2022, Coachella’s return from the pandemic saw both festival weekends sell out in four hours. Even 2024 resale tickets on Stubhub were going for well below face value. The recent Burning Man festival, which typically draws a sellout crowd of at least 70,000 participants, also experienced a drop in ticket demand.
International music festivals show no signs of slowing down.
Tomorrowland continues to dominate among EDM festivals in the world. Held annually in Boom, Antwerp, Belgium, the longstanding festival celebrated its 20th anniversary this year across two weekends in July, and featured 16 stages and more than 800 electronic artists, including AFROJACK, Alesso, David Guetta, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Swedish House Mafia. More than 400,000 festivalgoers from over 200 countries were in attendance.
Tomorrowland’s influence is spreading to other countries, as the property teamed up with Colombian-based Breakfast Club for a two-day festival that brought a new CORE stage to Medellín, Colombia in May. It also may make its way to Thailand, as organizers explore an event in Southeast Asia, which would mark the fourth Tomorrowland event to be hosted outside of Belgium. Offshoots of the festival have taken place in Chattahoochee Hills, GA, near Atlanta; Brazil; and the French Alps over the last 11 years.
Just last month, Summer Sonic, Japan’s biggest music festival, made its debut in Bangkok, Thailand, with attendees raving over sets from headliners OneRepublic and Lauv.
Photos: Courtesy of Tomorrowland
Niche music festivals are having their year.
Memorial Day weekend ushered in Napa Valley’s BottleRock 2024 festival, which combines music, food and wine for a quintessential Northern California experience. Headlined by Stevie Nicks, Megan Thee Stallion, Pearl Jam and Ed Sheeran, the three-day festival brought together 120,000 music fans across three stages, plus a Williams-Sonoma Culinary Stage with chef demonstrations and performances.
The Napa Valley event has found so much success that this year, BottleRock organizers debuted a new Latin music festival called La Onda in June. About 70,000 attendees gathered at BottleRock’s home, the Napa Valley Expo, to enjoy performances from headliners Maná, Junior H, Alejandro Fernández and Fuerza Regida. Latin culture infused the festival program beyond the artist lineup, with Lucha Libre contests, Mariachi performers, Aztec ceremonies and more taking place throughout the weekend. The local Latin community wanted its own music festival, and BottleRock answered the call.
Up north in Oregon, Project Pabst returned to Portland in July, after a seven-year hiatus. First launched in 2014, the Pabst Brewing Company-sponsored festival called it quits after running for four years. While many thought the 2017 edition marked the end, the beer company started to take Project Pabst’s revival into consideration to “get Portland to fall back in love with Pabst,” and the 2024 event came to fruition, with Billy Idol and T-Pain headlining the Saturday lineup. Cheers to that.
Photos: Courtesy of BottleRock
American Weed Co. makes history as headline sponsor of Cali Vibes 2024.
A cannabis brand has never served as a presenting sponsor of a major U.S. music festival—until Cali Vibes 2024, that is. American Weed Co. made history as headline sponsor of the annual reggae-heavy festival in Long Beach, CA, produced by AEG-owned Goldenvoice, where headliners like Gwen Stefani, Ice Cube and Wiz Khalifa performed.
With a mission to destigmatize cannabis and legalize it for veterans nationwide, the brand offered multiple touchpoints during the weekend, including the educational Vibes Village presented by American Weed Co., and a “military locker” activation that served as a storytelling moment and speakeasy-style temporary tattoo parlor. Regulations prevented American Weed Co. from selling cannabis on-site at the festival, so for its main activation, the brand made a merch play, selling apparel and accessories. It also collaborated with Cali Vibes on a festival t-shirt, with 100 percent of all profits donated to Stop Soldier Suicide. –K.S.
Photo credit: Derek Fukuhara
Country music festivals face cancellations.
Branded as “country music’s biggest party,” Stagecoach in Indio, CA, took off without a hitch in April, but other country music festivals weren’t so lucky. The Cork & Jug Country Jam Festival in Paso Robles, CA, scheduled in May was canceled “due to unforeseen circumstances,” with the announcement going out less than a week before the big show. Organizers of the Rebels & Renegades Music Festival in Monterey, CA, released a statement that the 2024 edition wouldn’t go ahead “after careful consideration and an honest look at the festival market,” noting that they would be stepping back to “reassess how and where we can grow the Rebel brand.”
And just last week, a promising new property, Giddy Up Music Festival, set to premiere in October, announced it would not move forward with the Las Vegas event. Is it “country festival fatigue,” as Rolling Stone puts it? An oversaturated market? Poor organization? Or not enough popular headliners to draw crowds? Only time will tell.
Photo credit: Underwood Studios for BÉIS (Stagecoach)
Will Fyre Festival make a comeback?
Fyre Festival flames reignited this year when Billy McFarland, who ended up in a federal prison for four years after duping investors and ticket buyers out of more than $26 million for the fraudulent 2017 event he founded, announced a reboot: Fyre Festival II. He told The Wall Street Journal this week that he’s a little over a year into planning the do-over but doesn’t yet know where or when it’s going to take place or who’s going to perform. But you can bet cheese sandwiches won’t be on the menu. Or will they?
Featured photo: Courtesy of Tomorrowland
