In June, Barcelona’s flagship music festival, Primavera Sound, returned after a two-year absence due to the pandemic. Headlined by dua Lipa, Lorde, Gorillaz and Creator Tyler, the festival attracted 66,000 enthusiasts a day for two weeks on the Mediterranean waterfront.
“The special back in Barcelona,” said Alfonso Lanza, co-director of Primavera Sound. “The atmosphere was so excited that people couldn’t wait for the party. There was a lot of joy. “
When Primavera Sound makes its long-awaited debut in Los Angeles sept. 16-18 at the 25,000-seat Los Angeles State Historic Park in Chinatown will introduce a confusing environment for Southern California festivals. Primavera has a great chance of good fortune: it has Lorde, Nine Inch Nails and Arctic Monkeys, avant-garde. headliners, a Live Nation production company and a foreign reputation as one of the most attended and organized musical gatherings in the world.
But Primavera is also coming to a wobbly market for festivals. Supply chain and worker corps issues, rush to compete after COVID-19, spiraling inflation, and a depleted fan base beyond cancellations (not to mention heat waves) have made this summer’s and fall festival circuit return as hectic as last year’s live music.
“There’s a lot of chaos right now and it’s unpredictable, especially when it comes to ticketing,” said Dave Brooks, senior director of live music and travel at Billboard. “People’s buying behavior at the beginning of the year replaced in the middle of the year. People were more insightful about emerging costs. There are many options, and everything becomes more difficult to predict. There is sweetness everywhere.
“I was told that L. A. es a last-minute market for buyers of price tickets,” Lanza said. “We’re seeing this two weeks before the festival, but we’re safe. “(Currently, 3 days, General Admission passes at $425 sell for less than $200 on StubHub. )”This is the first edition, there is a lot to try. But the plan is to stay and grow. “
Barcelona’s flagship edition of Primavera Sound has grown from a local event for a few thousand enthusiasts in the early 2000s to one of Europe’s most beloved and influential festivals. Located in the captivating and brutal Parc del Fòrum, the festival blends with Barcelona’s weeks of decadent nightlife. of off-site exhibits and nightclubs throughout the big occasion. In recent years, the festival has expanded to Portugal, Argentina, Chile and Brazil.
When Primavera had its first U. S. edition in 2019, L. A. it was an herbal hotspot as the largest festival market in the country, with a large fan base of Primavera’s Latin, hip-hop and indie sounds.
The COVID-19 pandemic has improved everyone’s festival plans for nearly two years. But few expected the sheer weirdness of the festival market by the end of 2022.
While Coachella has made a strong comeback this year, some iconic events, such as Goldenvoice’s hip-hop-focused Day N Vegas and L. A. ‘s alternative Latin Viva, and the ’90s rock festival of choice Flannel Nation in Long Beach, have been canceled due to the low price. ticket sales. Goldenvoice’s Palomino Festival, which was held in Brookside at the Rose Bowl and featuring Kacey Musgraves and Willie Nelson, seemed to be far below a packed house. the region was paralyzed by cartel violence. (The festival continued even as the U. S. Consulate continued. UU. de Nearthrough in Tijuana ordered government officials to take refuge there. )After the fatal tragedies of the Astroworld and Once Upon a Time in L. A. festivals. Last year, security issues are also a fear for fans.
Joe Berchtold, president and chief financial officer of Live Nation Entertainment, said that so far, 2022 has been a record year for its SoCal and U. S. festival market. The U. S. economy despite inflation, with an increase in attendance of 50% since 2019. feed them and build them,” he said. Of course, we’ve noticed rate inflation, but we’ve been able to mitigate more than others with the expansion of sponsors, food and beverage, and the high-end VIP market.
Representatives for Goldenvoice, owned by AEG, declined to comment on the story.
Other promoters debuting or returning to L. A. after a few years of absence acknowledge that the pandemic was apocalyptic for live music and, upon the return, no one knows what enthusiasts are willing to pay.
“Yes, there are problems. Inflation and a possible recession are points considered,” said Matt Zingler, co-founder of the rolling-hop festival Rolling Loud, which will move to Inglewood’s Hollywood Park in 2023.
“We’ve noticed the cancellation of several copycat festivals this year, and I think we’ll see more,” added co-founder Tariq Cherif. “The festivals that will suffer this typhoon will be strong brands that already exist. This is a very difficult time to launch a new party.
“We had to thoroughly review our budget,” said Jason Miller, managing director of Eventim Live Asia, which is co-producing October’s new K-pop mega-event, Kamp at the Rose Bowl. scale event, things get expensive. Coming out of COVID-19, prices are even higher than I expected, and that’s the maximum right now.
Billboard’s Brooks said Los Angeles festival-goers have been scared for years of artist events and cancellations and considerations similar to COVID-19. Inflation has risen for developers and made the public less willing to take the cause out of the entries.
“Goldenvoice and Live Nation have continued to be competitive with festivals this year; it was almost a land grab for L. A. Brooks, he said. Now, other people wait much longer to buy tickets because they know they can get better deals if they wait, and then going through COVID-19, the fragile promoters weren’t ahead with refunds. Fans are wondering, ‘Will this event take place?'”
Lanza said that while Primavera Sound in Los Angeles has run into the same old messes that each and every concert organizer faces, “The procedure has been normal. We had 3 years to prepare, so in that sense it was easier. Primavera will reflect on her style of taking the city with performances through artists such as Giveon, Darkside, Bad Gyal and Drain Gang at Live Nation venues around Los Angeles the week of the festival.
There have been good stories of local festivals. Brooks cited When We Were Young from Live Nation, the emo nostalgia festival in Las Vegas that debuted in October, as a wonderful hit that stretched on to two weekends after an instant sale.
Charlie Walker, co-founder of promoter C3 Presents, affiliated with Live Nation, which produces Lollapalooza in Chicago among many festivals, agreed that genre-focused or era-focused festivals like When We Were Young and R
But even Lanza acknowledges that the festival market is at an impasse right now. Fans want to see live music after a two-year absence, but not all the details will remain, and some long-standing events will possibly not pass.
“In Europe and the United States there are many festivals, and in the coming years they will all survive,” he said. “The key is to have a story. It’s just about building a fan.
This story gave the impression in the Los Angeles Times.
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