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Paul Tollett on Coachella’s past, present & future

Goldenvoice boss Paul Tollett has opened up on the evolution of Coachella and offered a glimpse into the future of the event in a new interview.

Bad Bunny, Blackpink, Frank Ocean and Skrillex, Fred Again.. and Four Tet headlined the most recent edition at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, back in April, which also featured acts such as Calvin Harris, Gorillaz, Burna Boy, Blink-182, the Chemical Brothers, Blondie, Rosalia, Eric Prydz, The Kid Laroi, Charli XCX and Björk.

The US festival’s co-founder Tollett was joined by AEG’s global touring SVP Michael Harrison for an ‘in conversation’ session at the inaugural SXSW Sydney last week in Australia.

Tollett revealed that Coachella was unlikely to grow beyond its current 150,000-capacity – in person at least.

“I don’t know it needs to be bigger,” said Tollett, who highlighted the event’s long-running livestreaming deal with YouTube as a means for it to expand its audience without increasing on-site capacity.

YouTube livestreamed performances from all six stages at Coachella, on both weekends of the festival, for the first time this year and Tollett credited the partnership – along with international headliners such as Blackpink – with extending the brand’s global reach.

“Things have changed so much now, people want to book a year in advance. I don’t want to, I want to wait and see what’s out there”

“All of a sudden you have the biggest artist in that region. And what it does is, it just gets everyone watching from that area,” he said. Coachella wasn’t really that well known in Asia. Now, everyone in Indonesia follows it, not just Korea. It became a thing where no matter what country you’re in, you could watch it like it’s your show.”

Tollett said the first two Coachellas, held in 1999 and 2001, lost a million dollars after attracting just 17,000 and 21,000 fans respectively, reports Audience Republic.

In its first decade, Tollett added, he didn’t start booking the line-up until around six months before the event, and still believed in not planning too far ahead of time.

“It’s a rolling 90-day masterplan,” he said. “I haven’t even finished booking next April’s show, and it announces in January. Things have changed so much now, people want to book a year in advance. I don’t want to, I want to wait and see what’s out there.

“I never say, ‘In the next three years, I’m changing it to this,’ it just changes. As it goes you look back and go, ‘Oh it changed over the last three years.’ You do it by the music. The music is leading the culture. You just start seeing trends when you look back.”

Coachella is scheduled to return over two weekends from 12-14 & 19-21 April 2024.

“There’s a growing trend out there between managers, agents, promoters, who like to do these multi-year, multi-cycle deals”

LA-based Australian promoter Harrison, meanwhile, who made the switch from Frontier Touring five years ago, discussed how global touring deals had changed the live music landscape.

“There’s a growing trend out there between managers, agents, promoters, who like to do these multi-year, multi-cycle deals,” he said. “What that allows you to do is have longer periods of time where a promoter is engaged with an artist, and you can really get involved and invest in their growth campaigns by touring.”

A celebration of the tech, film and music industries South By Southwest (SXSW) made its debut in Sydney, Australia from 15-22 October, and featured 400 sessions and more than 700 speakers from around the world, including Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts, Chance the Rapper and Black Mirror creator Charlie Brooker.

In addition, the SXSW Sydney Music Festival took place across locations including the Hollywood Hotel, the Lansdowne and Lord Gladstone, hosting more than 250 artists and over 300 performances.

The official annual Asia Pacific instalment of the US conference and showcase festival, SXSW Sydney was a collaboration with promoter TEG, the NSW government and tourism agency Destination NSW.

The next edition of SXSW’s flagship US event is set for Austin, Texas between 8-16 March 2024.

 


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Music and theatre sue UK govt for pilot show data

Live music industry body LIVE and a range of theatre businesses, including Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Really Useful Group, Cameron Mackintosh, Michael Harrison and Sonia Friedman, have commenced legal proceedings against the UK government to force it to hand over the report from its series of test events, the Events Research Programme (ERP).

The ERP is the government’s research into Covid-19 mitigations in sport, entertainment and business conferences settings. The music industry and theatre businesses have repeatedly called on the government to outline the scientific basis for its decision to maintain restrictions on events. Despite portions of the ERP economic impact assessment being leaked to the media this week, the government refused calls from many MPs in a debate on Tuesday 22 June to release the report in full.

Several UK festivals, including Kendal Calling, Truck and Let’s Rock, have cited the non-release of the ERP data as a reason for cancelling their 2021 events. “Without this safety guidance, there are numerous aspects of the festival we cannot plan, and which could lay us wide open to last minute unforeseen regulations or requirements which could scupper an already built festival,” reads a statement from Kendal Calling, which cancelled earlier this week.

Stuart Galbraith, CEO of Kilimanjaro Live (which recently acquired Let’s Rock) and co-founder of LIVE (Live music Industry Venues and Entertainment), the representative body for the live music industry, says: “The live music industry has been very willing to work with government for the last year to show that our industry can operate safely. But it is intolerable that after running pilot shows for the government’s Events Research Programme, at our own cost, we have been blocked from seeing the results, leaving the whole sector in limbo with the real chance that the entire summer could collapse for the second year running.

“Even now, the live music sector has no idea what the rest of the summer brings, and we are left with a complete inability to plan ahead due to the government’s continued unwillingness to provide some form of insurance to enable events to move forward.”

“The govt’s actions are forcing theatre and music companies off a cliff as the summer wears on, whilst cherry-picking high-profile sporting events to go ahead”

In the legal action, lodged today, the parties assert that the government has “flagrantly breached the ‘duty of candour’ which requires it to be transparent when faced with a legal challenge and that none of the reasons given for withholding the Events Research Programme material they seek withstand scrutiny”. They have asked the court to consider their application at an urgent hearing as soon as possible.

“The government’s actions are forcing theatre and music companies off a cliff as the summer wears on, whilst cherry-picking high-profile sporting events to go ahead,” comments theatre impresario Andrew Lloyd Webber. “The situation is beyond urgent.”

As well as declining to publish the ERP results, the bodies argue that the British government is yet to provide any form of insurance scheme for the sector or to make it clear what kind of ongoing mitigations may be required in the future – effectively making it impossible to plan for any live entertainment business. According to recent research from LIVE the potential four-week delay to reopening will lead to around 5,000 live music gigs being cancelled, as well as numerous theatre productions across the country, costing hundreds of millions of pounds in lost income.

Peter Gabriel, speaking for WOMAD Festival, says: “Without immediate government intervention, the festival industry is on the brink of collapse. That doesn’t mean cash, it means providing the certainty to enable us to deliver festivals, guidance on safety, and an understanding of how their timing affects us in the real world.

“We struggle to understand why these trials took place if the government can’t now tell us the results and how that will affect all of us”

“At the end of this week, WOMAD will be faced with one very difficult and heart-wrenching decision. Millions of pounds of investment and the livelihood of around five thousand people are at stake. Several pilot events have been successfully run over recent months. But, like other festival teams, we need to be told what that research means for WOMAD. We struggle to understand why these trials took place if the government can’t now tell us the results and how that will affect all of us.”

While today’s suit focuses on forcing the government to release the findings of its pilot programme, the suit is also critical of the lack of guidance for the forthcoming step four – the final stage of reopening, provisionally scheduled for 19 July. Lack of clear guidance was a contributing factor to Kendal Calling cancelling earlier this week despite it taking place after the step 4 date.

Craig Hassall, CEO of the Royal Albert Hall, says: “The chronic uncertainty and endless indecisiveness from government, and pilot events with no published results, have damaged audience confidence and further harmed a sector that has already been decimated by the pandemic. For as long as venues like the Royal Albert Hall, and hundreds more across the country, are prevented from effectively operating with no justification, we cannot play our part in supporting the critical ecosystem of freelancers, small businesses and suppliers who rely on us and who are so desperately in need of work.”

Live entertainment and theatre generate £11.25 billion in gross value added each year, and the sectors support just under one million jobs between them.

LIVE’s members are the Association of Independent Festivals (AIF), Association for Electronic Music (AFEM), Association of Festival Organisers (AFO), Association of Independent Promoters (AIP), British Association of Concert Halls (BACH), Concert Promoters Association (CPA), Featured Artist Coalition (FAC), The Entertainment Agents’ Association (TEAA), Music Venue Trust (MVT), Music Managers Forum (MMF), National Arenas Association (NAA), Production Services Association (PSA) and Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers (STAR).

 


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As Harrison deserts, Sahara in at Frontier Touring

Leading Australasian promoter Frontier Touring has promoted Sahara Herald to the role of tour director, following the recent departure of Michael Harrison for AEG Global Touring in the US.

Since joining Frontier in 2014, Herald has worked on tours for Troye Sivan, Lorde, the Killers, Muse, Harry Styles and, most recently, Sam Smith. She was also an integral part of the huge 2017 tours of iconic Australian artists Paul Kelly and Midnight Oil, the latter of which was nominated for a Helpmann Award for best contemporary concert.

Prior to joining Frontier, she was national event coordinator for the late Big Day Out festival, where over the course of 18 years brought artists including Neil Young, Björk, Nick Cave, Kraftwerk and PJ Harvey to several Australian cities.

In her new role, Herald will be responsible for both maintaining and developing Frontier’s existing roster of artists, and nurturing upcoming acts and building new agent relationships. She joins fellow tour director Gerard Schlaghecke, alongside managing director Michael Gudinski, in securing tours for Frontier.

Gudinski comments: “Sahara has proven time and again her true passion for live music and hard work. Since joining Frontier, she has played a key role in the success of a number of our tours, and I’m incredibly excited to see her take this next step with the company as we continue to grow and diversify.”

“Sahara has proven time and again her true passion for live music and hard work”

“I’m thrilled and grateful to embrace this next stage of my career and to continue to work with Michael Gudinski and the tremendous team at Frontier Touring to bring memorable live music experiences to audiences across Australia and New Zealand,” Herald adds.

“While evolving technology has changed the way we consume music, I still strongly believe that the raw, electric moment of being part of a live concert has the power to bring immeasurable joy and lasting memories to punters. It’s helping deliver those magic moments that keeps me truly engaged and passionate about what I do.”

Herald’s new role is the first of many new announcements for the company, says Gudinski.

“Michael Harrison has been a core part of the Frontier team for almost two decades. It’s never easy to see a great staff member leave but I’m happy it’s to our good friends at AEG Presents,” he continues. “With his recently announced departure and Frontier’s rapid expansion in recent years, this has been a good time for us to review our situation and I’m pleased to say we will have some further exciting announcements about additions to the Frontier team soon.”

Upcoming Frontier tours include Kylie Minogue, Norah Jones, Bryan Adams, Arctic Monkeys, Bryan Ferry, Rodriguez, and Lily Allen.

 


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AEG Global Touring poaches Frontier, YouTube execs

Michael Harrison, former tour director at Michael Gudinski’s Frontier Touring, and David Rappaport, recently head of artist relations for the Americas at YouTube Music/Google Play Music, have joined AEG Presents’ new Global Touring division.

True to its name, AEG Global Touring and Talent is the company’s new specialist international touring division. Headed up by president Gary Gersh, it launched in September and sits alongside other AEG-owned companies including Goldenvoice, Marshall Arts and Concerts West.

At Frontier, Harrison promoted Australasian tours by the likes of Arctic Monkeys, Royal Blood, the Killers, Sam Smith, Lorde and Flight of the Conchords. He “has been bringing artists to Australia for years from Europe and bringing them through Australia to Asia,” Gersh tells Billboard. “His area of expertise brings a tremendous amount to the group, [and] his relationships worldwide are imperative for us to grow the group at the level at which we plan to.”

Rappaport, meanwhile, worked on promo campaigns with artists including Led Zeppelin, Panic! at the Disco and Camila Cabella, according to AEG.

“We are already seeing some clear direction that where we are headed is super-positive”

Other AEG execs joining the Global Touring division include New York-based Donna DiBenedetto, who has been promoted to VP of global touring, Jenny Heifetz Henault, who has been named senior director of global touring, Jessica Smith, who has been promoted to senior manager of marketing, and Derek Tucker, who has been named VP of ticketing, as well as Nashville-based Laurel Hilburn, who has been promoted to manager of touring.

“Though we only announced [AEG Global Touring] a few weeks ago, we’ve been moving in this direction for the better part of eight months,” continues Gersh. “We are just now coming above board, if you will.

“We are already seeing some clear direction that where we are headed is super-positive. I think over the course of the next 12 to 24 months, we will see a tremendous growth spurt for us in our relationships with talent and our execution.”

 


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