Revenue / 09.29.21

The Indie Alternative: Boutique Festivals Help Salvage 2021 and Continue to Grow

Access Staff

Pollstar (09/23/21) Borba, Ryan

Independent boutique music festival operators could make 2021 profitable for the live events industry, and potentially enable expansion as the pandemic continues to rage. BeachLife Festival co-founder Allen Sanford said, "The reason we decided to have the festival in 2021 is we made the commitment to not ending this year with a defeat. We knew not a lot were going to try it, but it's a very tight-knit community and if anybody could pull off a festival, this community could do it." BeachLife 2021 hosted artists mainly appealing to the 40-and-older crowd and elder millennials, including Counting Crows, Ziggy + Stephen Marley and Jane's Addiction, as well as current stars like Portugal. The Man and '90s favorites like Sugar Ray and The Wallflowers. For events just under the 10,000-capacity "mass gathering" size in Los Angeles County, masks were optional for fans who tested negative or supplied vaccination status. "We have put an emphasis on being more inclusive and artist-friendly versus transactional," said Denny Young of Elevation Festivals. "Are we going to put you in front of more people than Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza or Austin City Limits? The answer is no. But, are we going to put you in front of more people than you would play in front of in Columbus or Cleveland, and would we pay you more money for it? The answer is yes."

Read the full story from Pollstar. 

Tags: Music , News