Musicians Tune Up Their Own Music Festivals

Top artists like Morgan Wallen and Adele are launching their own music festivals in a bid to build long-lasting cultural moments.

The Main Stage: The post-COVID IRL-event boom is in full swing, especially as fans look to build community with like-minded people. Artists, who already have credibility with their music, are able to break through the noise when organizing events.

Between The Setlists: Concerts provide an experience for a couple of hours, but festivals expand the experience to a couple of days.

• Morgan Wallen announced a partnership with AEG and Goldenvoice to launch the Sand In My Boots festival in Gulf Shores, Alabama — which is really a rebrand of the Hangout Music Festival, just now with the Wallen stamp of approval.
• Pharrell and Tyler, the Creator have brought their curation to their respective Something in the Water and Camp Flog Gnaw festivals, which have been selling out for years.
• Adele had a specially designed stadium built in Germany that had an English pub, a karaoke stage (for belting out “Rolling in the Deep,” of course), and a Ferris wheel, turning the concert series into full-day events.
• Karol G hosted her two-day Mañana Será Bonito event in Colombia, which had a ball pit, merry-go-round, and arcade games.

Encore: Kirk M. Sommer, the global co-head of music at WME, told Bloomberg that “people want super-focused experiential events that are thoughtfully curated around a subject or talent.” It’s that uniqueness which makes it enticing to fans and even broadens the artist’s appeal. And considering artists also get paid as curators or creative leads of the events, it could provide a rich new line of revenue… even when the artist stops headlining.