Tennessee’s Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival has unveiled an Infinity Stage for its 2025 edition, touted as the “world’s largest” 360° live music experience.

Backed by UK-based music technology company Polygon Live, the new venture aims to deliver a fully immersive experience for attendees with speakers positioned overhead and around the hemispherical stage.

“Our offering, however, is not just about sound. It’s designed to tap into almost every sense: sound, sight, scent and touch. It’s a multisensory environment that stimulates and amazes, and keeps our audiences coming back for more,” explains Polygon.

Featuring “spatialised sound and synchronised lights,” the structure will be erected alongside five pre-existing stages – three main and two tents – in the main festival area, known as Centeroo.

Dedicated programming is expected for the stage, with a lineup announcement expected this week.

Infinity Live is reportedly a North American first, with Polygon Live staging iterations across Asia

The four-day pop/rock festival, which welcomed 70,000 people last year, is set to return to Manchester, Tennessee for its 22nd edition from 12-15 June. Bonnaroo is produced by Superfly Presents, which also produces San Francisco’s Outside Lands Music Festival, and AC Entertainment.

Infinity Live is reportedly a North American first, with Polygon Live having staged iterations at Thailand’s Wonderfruit Festival and Singapore’s AFTER 2049, an electronic music event held before the country’s Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Polygon Live will also launch a bespoke three-day festival in London this May, dubbed the UK’s “largest outdoor spatial audio festival”.

Polygon Live LDN will be the first event to utilise Polygon Productions’ dual-dome design, with each stage boasting “five times the speakers a stage of similar size would use”, said Polygon during its December announcement.

The inaugural edition is set for 2-4 May 2025 at Crystal Palace Park and will include performances by Arooj Aftab, Gold Panda, Halina Rice, and Jon Hopkins.

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The start of a new year and, perhaps more significantly, a new decade is fast approaching – and while many may be thinking ahead to New Year’s Eve plans and well-meaning 2020 resolutions, IQ is casting its mind back to the most pivotal industry moments of the last ten years.

Following on from the 2010 synopsis, IQ looks to 2011, a year in which rising unemployment and astronomical national debts continued to take its toll on spending habits. The live industry experienced a slower period, indicating signs of maturity after years of fast growth.

Extreme weather led to festival cancellations and, tragically, the loss of lives at Pukkelpop and Indiana State Fair. Festival attendance, however, stayed strong, with festival bosses commenting that the demand for festivals was definitely still there.

2011 also saw U2 take the crown for the most successful concert tour in history, dethroning the Rolling Stones with their mammoth 360° tour. The Irish rockers were on course to retain the record into the new decade, too, before Ed Sheeran came along.

2011 in numbers

Worldwide, the top 50 tours grossed US$3.07 billion in 2011, up from $2.9bn the previous year.

According to Pollstar, U2 were the most successful band of 2011. A back injury sustained by Bono in 2010 saw many dates on the 360° tour postponed to the following year, with the band selling 2.4 million tickets over the year – at an average price of $97 each.

The stadium tour, which typically drew crowds of almost 92,000 per show, grossed $231.9m in 2011, adding to the $133.6m earned on the 2010 leg.

Other major tours of 2011 included Take That’s reunion tour with Robbie Williams ($224m), the Bon Jovi Live tour ($148.8), Taylor Swift’s Speak Now tour ($104.2m) and Roger Waters’ The Wall Live tour ($103.6m).

2011 in brief

January
AEG opens the 52,000-cap. Türk Telekom Arena in Istanbul, later winning the contract to manage the 12,500-cap. Ülker Arena in the same city.

Serbia’s Exit Festival ends its business relationship with Charmenko agency and begins booking international artists directly.

February
Ticketmaster buys Spanish ticketing company ServiCaixa, allowing it to sell tickets through over 8,000 ATMs owned by financial services company and bank La Caixa.

Live Nation takes full control of Front Line Management, with its founder Irving Azoff becoming chairman of the Live Nation board, taking over from Liberty Media’s John Malone.

March
Nelly Furtado announces she is giving the $1m fess she was paid for performing in front of Libyan leader Colonel Gaddafi in 2007 to charity. Beyoncé follows suit.

President of Madison Square Garden Jay Marciano moves to London to take up a new role as CEO of AEG Europe.

Irving Azoff took over as Live Nation chairman in 2011 (© Full Stop Management)

April
International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) figures show that global music sales fell $1.4bn in 2010, with the UK market dropping 11%, the US dropping 10% and Japan dropping 8.3%.

U2’s 360° tour becomes the highest-grossing tour of all time, beating the Rolling Stones’ Bigger Bang tour record of $554m. 360° is set to gross over $700m by the time it ends.

May
US ticketing company Eventbrite, which integrates social media and mobile, announces a $50m influx of venture-capital finance.

Gil Scott-Heron dies in New York at the age of 62.

June
German festival promoter Folkert Koopmans announces his second Swedish festival in Norrköping, the 50,000-cap. Bråvalla Festival, following the January acquisition of Hultsfred Festival.

Bloomberg reports that AEG plans to refinance the O2 Arena in London with a £150m ($240m) loan and equity injection.

U2’s record-breaking 360° tour (resized) © Kristian Strøbech/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

July
Promoter Vince Power raises £6.5m ($10.4m) by floating his company, Music Festivals, on London’s Alternative Investment Market exchange.

SMG secures a management contract for Movistar Arena in Santiago, Chile, its first in South America.

August
AEG launches its new ticketing system, AXS, in several Denver and San Francisco theatres. The system includes a mobile app and social media integration.

Belgium’s Pukkelpop creates a private foundation to support the victims of the storm that claimed five lives at the festival on 19 August.

September
Global entertainment giant Vivendi buys UK number two ticketer See Tickets for a sum thought to be around £80m ($128m).

eBay announces it will launch secondary resale platform StubHub in the UK, the first market it will have operated in outside of the US.

Santiago’s Movistar Arena (© Movistar Arena)

October
German powerhouse FKP Scorpio continues its buying spree by taking a majority stake in Sweden’s Getaway Festival.

2011’s biggest-selling artist, Adele, undergoes throat surgery to repair damaged vocal chords, forcing her to cancel all remaining tour dates and promotional appearance for the year.

November
Bankers Citigroup agree to sell EMI Music to Universal Music Group for $1.9bn, while EMI Music Publishing will become part of Sony ATV in a $2.2bn deal.

Michael Jackson’s physician, Dr Conrad Murray, is found guilty of manslaughter.

December

Live Nation emerges victorious in the saga for the rights to run the new €134m 15,000-capacity arena in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Seatwave chief Joe Cohen denies speculation the ticket resale company is in financial trouble, despite reports it has amassed losses of €40m since 2007.

Amy Winehouse (1983-2011) © Republic Records (cropped)

Who we lost

In 2011, the music industry lost a number of important figures, including Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty, 63; agent Ron Baird, who opened CAA’s Nashville office in 1991, 60; legendary soul and jazz musician Gil Scott Heron, 62; Willie Robertson, co-founder of insurance specialist Robertson Taylor, 67; award-winning singer Amy Winehouse, 27; Academy Music Group founder John Northcote, 62.

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With 360 deals – wherein an artist signs to a single entity for album releases, tours, sponsorship and everything in between – now common across the industry, it was inevitable that, sooner or later, one would go spectacularly wrong: and that’s exactly what’s happened with Arcade Fire.

According to an announcement from Everything Now Corp, with which Arcade Fire has their 360 deal, the band are “content to be the ninth-biggest [band] in the world”, whereas Everything Now wants to work with “those who strive to be number one”.

The company has, therefore, “decided to temporarily exercise the right in our contract to take over Arcade Fire’s social media channels in order to bring you some excellent promotional material that the band was unwilling to share.”

https://www.facebook.com/arcadefire/posts/10155192754285225

Except, of course, it hasn’t: because Everything Now is Arcade Fire’s latest album and tour, and the ‘take-over’ is a masterful piece of guerrilla marketing on the band’s part.

Enjoy the “much better version of the ‘Creature Comfort’ video” above, complete with bonus pop-up bubbles revealing that the band “stand in a circle and each say one thing they like about capitalism” before every show and that frontman Win Butler was born on the same day the Titanic sank, Abraham Lincoln was shot and the McRib was introduced.

Everything Now is out now on CD, cassette, vinyl and fidget spinner.

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As expected, Jay Z has signed a new touring contract with Live Nation, giving the world’s largest promoter a decade-long extension on its exclusive deal to promote and produce his shows worldwide.

The two parties signed a US$150m, ten-year ‘360’ deal in 2008, creating a new joint venture, Roc Nation, comprising recording, management, publishing, concert promotion and TV/film production divisions. It emerged last month that Jay Z (Shawn Carter) was seeking new investors for the non-live side of the business, with Live Nation now solely interested in touring.

It is believed Carter (pictured) and Live Nation will remain equity partners in Roc Nation, with the latter making no mention of any change in the company’s structure when announcing the new deal, reportedly worth around $200 million.

“Live Nation and I entered unchartered territory in 2008,” says Carter. “Over nine years, we have travelled the world producing historic music experiences. [Live Nation CEO and president] Michael Rapino is an industry visionary, and this renewed partnership is a testament to our longstanding relationship and the talented individuals at Live Nation.

“For the next ten years, we will continue redefining the live event landscape”

“For the next ten years, we will continue redefining the live event landscape.”

“Jay Z is one of the world’s preeminent touring artists,” adds Rapino. “This strengthens the creative and business partnership of someone that continues to expand his touring base and reach.”

Jay Z has not toured since 2014’s On the Run tour, jointly headlined with wife Beyoncé, which made $109.7m and was the fifth highest-grossing of the year. He will, however, play several festivals this summer, including Meadows Festival, Austin City Limits and his own Made in America Festival.

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Jay Z is reportedly seeking new investors for the recorded side of his Roc Nation business, as the full-service entertainment company’s ten-year ‘360’ deal with Live Nation comes to an end.

Roc Nation was established in 2008 as a subsidiary of Live Nation. The mammoth deal, rumoured to be worth US$152 million, remains one of the biggest of 360 agreements, creating a new company incorporating recording, management, publishing, concert promotion and TV/film production divisions.

According to sources quoted by the New York Post’s Page Six, Live Nation wants out of Roc Nation’s recorded-music business, with Carter reportedly seeking new investment, potentially from Universal Music Group.

“Live Nation is not in the business of buying recorded music any more”

“Jay’s 360 deal with Live Nation is not being extended,” says one ‘insider’. “Live Nation had bought into the artists’ rights and recorded music, but they are not extending any of those relationships. Live Nation is not in the business of buying recorded music any more.

A spokesperson for Live Nation tells Billboard that is indeed the case: “Live Nation has a new long-term deal with Jay Z, and we expect to continue being equity partners in Roc Nation for many years to come.”

Artists signed to Roc Nation include Rihanna, Lil Wayne, Big Sean, J. Cole, Grimes, DJ Khaled and Demi Lovato.

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