HITTING THE WALL: Rapper Paul Wall performs at Summerfest on June 29, ranked among the best buys in 2024 by Lauren Stark, talent buyer for the Milwaukee event. (Getty Images)

Nostalgia theme tied to ‘best buys’ at events

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina — Music festival producers must keep in mind the strength behind booking profitable events relies on strong secondary acts to support the headliners selling the most tickets.

The message was shared among three veterans of the festival scene during the opening panel session at Confluence, the second annual music industry conference focusing on live music in the Carolinas.

Dates were Oct. 9-12 at the North Carolina Music Factory in Charlotte and extended to live showcases at multiple clubs across the city.

Festival producers Bob Durkin of Southern Entertainment and Crystal Taylor, The Underground Collective, joined Lauren Stark, talent buyer for Summerfest in Milwaukee, to provide insight during the Future-Proofing Festivals session.

“We’re all looking for the next Chappell Roan,” Stark said, referring to the 26-year-old singer/songwriter who rocketed to fame over the past 12 months, attracting record-breaking crowds at Lollapalooza, Coachella and Outside Lands.

“That’s what we try to do, starting with budgeting,” she said. “But it’s also, who are we going to get to provide the most bang for the buck? Who’s the next Noah Kahan, who may start out on a smaller stage, and by the time the festival rolls around nine months later, they’re a superstar? It’s a lot harder than I make it sound, but we got lucky on a few lately.”

Southern Entertainment is coming off a successful launch of the Lovin’ Life Music Festival in Charlotte last spring, drawing 75,000 in attendance, and Durkin is in the process of booking the second edition for May 2-4, 2025. Kahan was among the headliners of the inaugural three-day event, plus Post Malone and Stevie Nicks. Durkin said it’s a tricky balance for festival producers to book artists that serve all demographics. Supporting acts are critical for filling the gaps.

CONFLUENTIAL: Lauren Stark, second from left, Crystal Taylor and Bob Durkin discuss festival trends with moderator Taylor Winchester at Confluence 2024 in Charlotte. (Don Muret/Staff)

“There’s a lot of acts out there that don’t sell a lot of tickets (on their own), but they’re great festival acts, ones that have the hits and people will show up early to see,” he said. “At Lovin’ Life, we had The Fray, Dashboard Confessional and Petey Pablo, who was the best buy of that festival. He hit home for a lot of people and he’s a North Carolina artist. He sang (his hits) and people put it all over social media and he’s an inexpensive artist.”

Summerfest’s best buys for 2024 were rappers Mario, Baby Bash and Paul Wall, whose hits spanned the late 1990s to early 2000s. Those three individuals drew the biggest crowds among the festival’s eight stages, Stark said. She said some rappers and hip-hop artists that were headliners 25 years ago, but whose careers took a back seat to much newer acts in recent years, have seen a resurgence through festival bookings.

Part of it is the the wave of nostalgia sweeping the scene for Generation X, the folks that have the disposable income to spend for reliving their youth, according to Taylor, producer of Beats n Bars, a hip-hop festival entering its ninth year in Durham, North Carolina.

“We’ve taken advantage of that a little bit, because pricing (to buy talent) is ridiculous,” Taylor said. “Seeing artists you haven’t seen since you were a kid — there’s support in who wants to hear those songs performed live. Big festivals are booking legacy acts because they’re pricing lower than newer artists. We’ve had Mya and Sisqo. Music fans have not seen them in a long time, but those are artists you can look to for playing off that nostalgia feel for what people want.”

Southern Entertainment, apart from Lovin’ Life, produces country music festivals in Myrtle Beach and Greenville, South Carolina and Wildwood, New Jersey. Durkin sees people in their 40s and 50s partying and spending more money on live music than ever before over his 25 years producing events. These days, producers can’t just rely on teenagers and college students to buy tickets. Taylor said many of them are on tight budgets and enroll in payment plans to cover those costs.

“The older folks are buying super VIP tickets,” Durkin said. “They don’t want to mess around. They want the least friction and hassle to enjoy it. They’ve earned it. At the Carolina Country Music Fest, we’re picking up 50-year-old men and women off the floors. It’s crazy.”