Live Nation, the world’s largest concert promoter (by a huge margin), has acquired a “controlling interest” in Bonnaroo, Middle Tennessee’s by-a-long-shot largest music festival. This according to a press release sent the Scene’s way this morning.
The news comes just five days after the concert promotion behemoth announced a 20-plus-strong summer concert season at Nashville’s newly named, soon-to-be-christened Ascend Amphitheater at Riverfront Park. It’s a rather drastic development when considering how Live Nation had, save for its country music arm, left Nashville in 2007, after selling off the Starwood Amphitheater property in Antioch. In a Scene cover story from last year, local concert industry insiders speculated as to just how large a play Live Nation would make when it returned to Nashville to run the amphitheater at Riverfront Park. The answer it seems now: a major one.
According to the release, Live Nation — a publicly traded corporation that generates up to $20 billion in annual revenue and also owns Ticketmaster — has entered a three-way partnership with Bonnaroo founders/promoters Superfly Presents and AC Entertainment, a Knoxville-based company that only relatively recently opened offices in Nashville. As part of the deal, Live Nation also purchased a share of Great Stage Park in Manchester — the festival’s home since launching in 2002. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed in the release.
So how will this deal affect the Bonnaroo experience for festivalgoers? Perhaps not at all. According to the release, Superfly and AC will “continue to plan and execute the day-to-day operations of the festival and signature Bonnaroo initiatives.”
Major festivals selling out to larger promoters isn’t uncommon. Cases in point: Live Nation acquired a controlling interest in C3 Presents — promoters of Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits festivals — in 2014. And Live Nation’s main competitor, AEG Live, acquired Coachella promoter Goldenvoice in 2001. In each case, the festival’s original promoter continued its role in programming the lineup and other operational facets. Live Nation has ownership in more than 60 major music festivals worldwide.
Bonnaroo 2015 returns to Manchester June 11-14, with headliners the likes of Billy Joel, Mumford & Sons and Kendrick Lamar.
More info to come …
