festivals
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Tens of thousands of Brazilians gathered at Rio de Janeiro’s mega-festival Rock in Rio on Friday (Sept. 20), with many staking out spots of artificial grass all day to hear the headliner, Katy Perry. As her music keyed up, the enormous screens around the stage showed someone else in their bottom corners — a sign language interpreter.
The red-haired woman — with a chunky chain belt and a gem between her eyebrows — snapped her fingers and swayed, then pumped her arms as the beat gathered force.
“It seems like I’m on stage with her, in front of everyone,” the interpreter, Laísa Martins, told the Associated Press afterward. And as Katy Perry belted out her first verse, Martins started signing.
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Rock in Rio is featuring sign language interpreters on its big screens for the first time in its 40-year history. It’s one of Latin America’s biggest festivals, drawing 100,000 people a day over seven days, and Sunday is its last day.
Inside a container backstage, interpreters sign in front of a green screen, with their images appearing above the stage to ensure deaf people across the thronging crowd can follow. Organizers also invite dozens of deaf people and their companions into a VIP area, right by the stage and close enough to speakers to feel the music pulsing through their bodies.
How a 2015 law helped Brazil start championing accessibility
Interpreters have started popping up at festivals and concerts across Brazil in recent years. Their sudden ubiquity stems from Brazil’s ambitious 2015 inclusion law that sought to put the country at the global forefront of accessibility and, among other things, established that people with disabilities have the right to access cultural events while guaranteeing organizers provide means of doing so.
Some interpreters have drawn the spotlight themselves with their flair and flashy dress, gaining thousands of social media followers. Demand for them is surging so much that many start working before even finishing their education, said Lenildo Souza, president of the nationwide federation of sign language interpreters’ associations.
In Brazil, 2.3 million people are partially or completely deaf, according to the national statistics institute. But fewer than two-thirds of those who are completely deaf know how to use Brazilian sign language, and far less among those with some hearing. That’s because people opt for cochlear implants, learn only lip-reading, or go deaf later in life, said Souza.
As such, subtitles could be more effective at transmitting lyrics; Colombian singer Karol G sang so quickly at times Friday night that some words were lost on Amorim, who isn’t fluent in Spanish. But Amorim said interpreters convey more than just lyrics of songs, which they study intensively ahead of the show. They dance to the rhythm and pull faces to transmit the music’s energy and emotion — be it euphoria, rage, mystery or sensuality. That pumps up the crowd, deaf and hearing people alike.
“We express the whole idea of the song with our expressions, with our body. We want to express the entire musical context and use literally our entire body,” said Amorim, whose older sister is deaf. “Our feet are cut off there [on the screen], but during samba songs, we’re dancing samba. It’s just like that.”
Putting deaf people up front
Rock in Rio is already one of the most accessible festivals for deaf people in the world, said Thiago Amaral, coordenador de pluralidade (diversity coordinator). Still, his team is working to innovate, and future editions could include vibrating platforms or a product similar to the vibrating vests they tested last year, he said. This year was also the first that Rock in Rio offered audio description earpieces for those with limited vision.
One of the deaf people at Rock in Rio on Friday was Henrique Miranda Martins, 24. His whole family is big into music, especially samba — his uncles play the four-string cavaquinho and pandeiro, a handheld frame drum — and he was always around it growing up. But Martins can hear little from his right ear and nothing from his left, so could never fully connect or participate.
Last year, he went to his first-ever concert with sign language interpreters, Coldplay, and it became his favorite band — even before its single whose official video features people signing. Then Martins went to the Lollapalooza festival in São Paulo. And last week he traveled from São Paulo to party with his parents at Rock in Rio.
He was most hyped to see Brazilian singer Iza on Friday, and waited to enter the special section by the stage. Iza started playing, just off to his left, but he faced the opposite direction, watching her on the screen with an interpreter in its corner. He danced and signed along with the interpreter, often in synchrony.
“I can follow the interpreter and I’m very happy to be able to feel the music and live this experience,” Martins said, speaking through an interpreter. “For deaf people, it’s very important. We can’t be outside this here. We need to be inside, with accessibility, together with everyone participating in everything. I’m very happy.”
Rock in Rio’s camera scanning the crowd found Martins vibing and locked in. For a few seconds, he was up on the big screen for everyone to see, smiling wide with his head thrown back and shaking both hands in the air — the sign for applause.
One early autumn day, nearly four decades ago, at a stadium concert in the heartland of America, Willie Nelson made a pledge to help embattled family farmers who grow the nation’s food.
On Saturday (Sept. 21), Nelson and friends renewed that promise as the annual Farm Aid festival — the longest-running concert for a cause — drew some 21,000 fans to the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, New York, for a day of celebration, activism and song.
Nelson was joined by his fellow Farm Aid board members — Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Margo Price — on a bill with Mavis Staples, Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats, Lukas Nelson with the Travelin’ McCourys, Charley Crockett, Joy Oladokun, Southern Avenue, Cassandra Lewis, Jesse Welles and others.
The first Farm Aid concert — inspired by an impromptu call for support for America’s farmers from Bob Dylan during the Live Aid mega benefit in 1985 — was, improbably, staged weeks later that same year, on Sept. 22 in Champaign, Illinois.
Since then, Farm Aid has raised nearly $80 million to promote a strong and resilient family farm system of agriculture, while also building connections in the battles against climate change and social injustice.
New York State Gov. Kathy Hochul gave welcoming remarks before two indigenous acts — the ensemble known as Kontiwennenhá:W, from the Akwesasne community of northern New York, and the Wisdom Indian Dancers, who have performed at every Farm Aid since 1990 — began the joyous hours of music.
This was the third time Farm Aid has been staged in New York State, following a 2007 event at Randall’s Island in New York City, and a previous 2013 festival in Saratoga (during which surprise guest Pete Seeger gave his last major performance). Between 2017 and 2022, New York State lost 3,000 of 33,000 farms, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture Census, as farms across the nation suffer from rising production and labor costs, consolidation and climate change.
Here are the 12 best takeaways from the 39th annual Farm Aid.
Activists Show Up Early and Dig Deep
In a year fraught with festival cancelations due to increasing costs of production and severe weather events, All Things Go festival has taken the opposite approach and doubled down. After 10 years in Washington, D.C., All Things Go organizers announced they were adding a New York edition on the same weekend of Sept. 28-29 at Forest Hills Stadium. With more than 40,000 fans on a waitlist annually, according to ATG partner Stephen Vallimarescu, the additional location seemed less like a gamble and more about meeting demand.
“By hosting both festivals on the same weekend, we’re able to serve more of our community and deliver a lineup that we feel is best-in-class,” Vallimarescu tells Billboard.
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For several years, ATG has made a concerted effort to create lineups that reflect its growing community. Since 2018, the highest billed artists on their lineups have been women or non-binary musicians including Lorde, HAIM, Mitski, Maggie Rogers, Chvrches, Lana Del Rey, Boygenius, Carly Rae Jepsen, Charli XCX and more. And the equity isn’t only represented in gender. With performers including MUNA, Girl in Red, King Princess, Arlo Parks, Fletcher, MICHELLE, St. Vincent, Tegan and Sara and Ethel Cain, over the past five years ATG has landed some of the most LGBTQ+ filled lineups outside of LGBTQ+ events (and even many specifically LGBTQ+ events) and earning the nicknames “gaychella” and “lesbopalooza.”
This year ATG have landed some of the buzziest names in touring including Laufey, Remi Wolf, Hozier, Janelle Monáe, Reneé Rapp and Chappell Roan, who has been drawing record-breaking crowds across festivals.
“We’ve got Hozier, Conan Gray and Bleachers featured on our D.C.-area lineup alongside Laufey, Reneé Rapp, Janelle Monáe and Chappell Roan at the top of the bill,” says ATG partner Will Suter. “We’ve been able to see each of these artists perform live – either in a club or festival setting – and we’re expecting big sets from each of them.”
Billboard caught up with Vallimarescu, Suter and ATG manager of partnerships and experiential Carlie Webbert to discuss the festival’s growth, their embrace of the “lesbopalooza” nickname and how they managed to book the right acts at just the right time.
Why did you decide to add an additional All Things Go on the same weekend as the Washington, D.C. one?
Vallimarescu: After growing the festival for the past decade in Washington, D.C., and with over 40,000 fans on the waitlist annually, the decision to introduce an additional festival in New York City felt like a natural step. We were inspired by the success of festivals like Reading and Leeds and recognized that coordinating artists between both markets on the same weekend would allow us to curate the most compelling lineup possible. This approach is especially helpful for international artists, who constitute a growing portion of our lineup and often find it challenging to travel to the U.S. for a single show.
How did you land on New York for that second location?
Vallimarescu: New York City has always been on our radar, despite its reputation as a challenging market for festivals. The turning point for us was reconnecting with Mike Luba, the visionary behind Forest Hills Stadium. The unparalleled atmosphere he and his team have cultivated at the venue made it clear that this was the perfect location to bring the magic of All Things Go. There is clearly a void in New York City for a new festival experience centered around music above all else, and we’re thrilled to see the excitement around our inaugural year.
How has the reception been to the lineups for both editions?
Vallimarescu: The reception to the lineups for both editions has been phenomenal. Both festivals sold out instantly, with hundreds of thousands of fans joining the queue for tickets — a reaction we don’t take for granted, especially at a time when many established festivals are facing challenges.
Our approach to booking the festival, often more than a year in advance, focuses on building a lineup that peaks at the right moment and showcases the next generation of artists. This year, artists like Reneé Rapp, Chappell Roan, and Laufey are at the forefront of this new era, and we’re beyond grateful to be collaborating with them.
Why is it important for ATG to have a lineup with a heavy presence of women and non-binary artists?
Suter: So much of our artist booking is based on our audience feedback – and it’s become a clear direction that supports female and non/binary artist dominated lineups, especially as we’ve moved to multiple stages and homed in our genre-focus. The website Book More Women has a methodology that has our DC-area festival at about 58% female/non-binary and New York at 93%.
Was it your mission at ATG to become “gaychella” or “lesbopalooza”?
Suter: “Lesbopalooza” is a term that Naomi McPherson of MUNA coined closing out our Chrysalis stage in 2023 – and has definitely stuck. “Gaychella” popped up around the 2023 lineup announcement in a few TikTok videos. Our mission has been to create a festival and a space that’s reflective of our community – it’s a mission that has evolved over time as our direct communication with our fans has via Discord, our Boomfy’s Besties Fan Club and other fan-forward initiatives in addition to closer dialogue with many of the artists on the lineup.
What do you make of the moment queer women are having in pop culture now? With the dominance of Chappell, Reneé Rapp, MUNA, etc.?
Webbert: Queer women have a long history in the spotlight, but it feels like there has been a noticeable shift in the positive reception of these artists. With the growing fandom of this generation of pop stars, there has been an even stronger surge in self-expression and pride in being queer. Look at Chappell Roan, for instance, she grew up under the belief system that being gay was a sin. Many of the artists on the All Things Go lineup, along with their communities, share a history of shame around their sexuality. It feels like we are collectively shedding that repressed part of ourselves and creating an environment of acceptance. It’s beautiful — there’s a lot of embracing who we are and being truly seen happening.
Besides the lineup, how does ATG create an inclusive environment at the festival?
Webbert: There is a big emphasis for representation at the festival and how we platform advocacy/mission-based organizations, such as Propeller, The Ally Coalition, Reverb, Calling All Crows, Headcount, Women in Music and Amplify Her Voice. Last year, we had an activism village on-site at the D.C.-area festival where fans could interact with different non-profits and engage in a meaningful way. Our community is intentional, and by including LGBTQ+, environmental, healthcare, voter registration and other organizations, we acknowledge a clear passion for creating change that our community wants. All that said, we are hopeful that over the years this side of our festival will grow and we’re able to have an increased number of diverse voices represented throughout our programming.
Since Lollapalooza ushered in the era of the modern music festival in the early 1990s, one main power source has been driving them all: diesel generators. These mobile devices have been particularly crucial to the festival industry given that many of these events take place in open fields and parking lots that aren’t connected to the power grid.
But generators are also environmentally problematic. At the biggest festivals, they can burn through thousands of gallons of diesel fuel over a weekend, spewing carbon emissions that altogether make them the second biggest carbon emitters in live music, after emissions created by fan travel. They’re also loud, and they kind of stink.
“You can hear them from the stage, you can smell them from the stage,” says Adam Gardner of the band Guster, and who also co-founded the music sustainability nonprofit REVERB. “It’s just unpleasant.”
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But the live events industry, and the festival industry in particular, is amidst what seems to be a sea change in how events are powered. And increasingly, the more viable alternative to the diesel devilry is simple — batteries.
Last month, the Lollapalooza 2024 mainstage was powered entirely by batteries, which kept the lights, sound and other power components on during performances by Chappell Roan, Megan Thee Stallion, SZA, The Killers and more. A rep for Lollapalooza tells Billboard that with this effort, the festival saw a 67% reduction in both fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions over prior years, when batteries had not been used. This equates to the sparing of 26 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, or the equivalent to five homes’ electricity use for a year. The use of batteries also saved over 3,000 gallons of fuel. Lollapalooza says this initiative made it the first major U.S. festival to power its mainstage on a hybrid battery system.
“I’ve heard some rumors about competitors being maybe a little jealous that we were the first ones to do it,” says Jake Perry, the director of operations and sustainability at C3 Presents, which produces Lollapalooza.
Lolla’s effort helped demonstrate that what may seem risky is actually a reliable alternative that’s evolving power options for live events. “There’s a lot of fear and apprehension over providing the power that’s turning the show on,” says Perry. “But there were, like, zero issues.”
The battery set up at Lollapalooza 2024
Dusana Risovic
REVERB, a 501c3 nonprofit that’s focused on sustainability in music for 20 years and was co-founded by Gardner and his wife, environmentalist Lauren Sullivan, estimates that each year, U.S. festivals burn the equivalent of 46 million miles driven by gasoline powered vehicles. As battery technology evolves, they’re becoming a more viable solution to the issue, if organizers can be convinced that they’re reliable enough to use.
“If there’s a choice between sustainability and reliability, everyone’s going to choose reliability,” says Greg Landa, CEO of CES Power, the industry’s leading mobile power provider for festivals. “The pop star doesn’t want to be on stage if there’s no audio or lighting.”
But early adopters have demonstrated batteries’ efficacy. In May, Northern California’s two-day Mill Valley Music Festival was powered entirely by batteries. At the 2023 edition of Willie Nelson’s Luck Reunion near Austin, Texas, the REVERB team powered all four stages with batteries, setting up a temporary on-site solar array to charge them. By 2024, the entire event was battery powered, with the only generators on site being inside the tour buses of the artists playing. In total, 350 gallons of diesel fuel were used at Luck in 2022, with that number down by 90% in 2023 and 100% in 2024, tour buses notwithstanding. This year, REVERB also brought battery power to SXSW, using it to power an outdoor stage for public performances by artists including Bootsy Collins.
REVERB and Overdrive Solutions’ solar setup at Luck Reunion 2024
Courtesy of REVERB
These efforts were backed by REVERB’s Music Decarbonization Project, which aims to eliminate carbon emissions created by the music industry. The Project made headlines in 2023 when it brought a temporary solar array to Lollapalooza in Chicago, using it to charge the battery system that powered the mainstage during a headlining set from Billie Eilish, arguably the modern artist most vocal about sustainability. (Eilish helped launch and fund REVERB’s Music Decarbonization Project in 2023.)
Through this initiative with Eilish, “we were able to help Lollapalooza [get] to where they are now, where they were able to take it upon themselves,” says Gardner, “which is exactly the point of the Music Decarbonization Project.”
Lollapalooza’s use of battery power in 2024 came after years of the fest searching for the battery technology to make it happen, with C3 testing batteries from myriad manufacturers over the last few years at events including Austin City Limits and North Carolina’s High Water.
“The technology is evolving very quickly,” says Perry. “This year it finally got to a point where it was big enough and capable enough to put it into an installation this size.” The effort falls into Live Nation’s goal of cutting its emissions by 50% by 2030.
Battery power at a festival functions in essentially the same way as in a hybrid car; think of battery systems as a hybridization of the stage. How long batteries last depend on what’s being powered (i.e. a stage, a lighting source, a food vendor, etc.), how long it’s powered for and the battery’s storage capacity.
Partnered with CES, Lollapalooza 2024 used lithium ion batteries made by industrial equipment manufacturer Atlas Copco. All batteries, regardless of manufacturer, can carry only a certain amount of charge and must have charge added during the event. Each battery is connected to a secondary power source that charges it back up when necessary.
As such, how green batteries actually are varies by the way they’re charged. Batteries can be powered off the grid if utility power is available, or from a generator running off diesel (the most common option) or biodiesel, which has less of a carbon footprint but can be hard to source. Solar panels don’t require any fuel to be burned, although setting up the necessary solar array at an event can be time- and space-intensive.
But even when using diesel backup generators, batteries are more efficient. Landa says that if the company put a 60 kw battery at an event site, it’s unlikely the battery would ever be using that full 60 kw power, with levels more likely to be at 30-45 kw depending on what it’s powering. At that rate, the battery would likely last four to five hours before being charged by the generator, thus using less fuel.
“That’s the hybrid approach we’re talking about,” Landa says.
Batteries also have built-in computers, making them able to report how much power they’re using at any given time. When they need to be charged, they automatically turn on their power sources. When they reach the necessary level of charge, they automatically turn this backup source back off. And because batteries are intelligent, if a failure occurs, they’ll instantly flip on the backup source to avoid power interruptions.
“They’re telling you everything in real time,” says Gardner. “You can literally monitor your power usage on an iPhone as it’s happening.”
According to Landa, the top mobile battery suppliers are currently Caterpillar, Atlas Copco and portable power solutions supplier POWR2. The Vermont-based Nomad offers transportable battery systems designed for rapid deployment and operation at the utility (or grid) level, although Alex Crothers of the Burlington-based music production company Higher Ground incorporated Nomad batteries into the company’s 2024 summer season, along with batteries from Overdrive Solutions. Crothers is currently exploring how to make these batteries into backup power for the venues he co-owns, given that the concert series only happens a few times a month due to the weather. Meanwhile, Overdrive Solutions provides battery power stations and systems and has partnered with AEG on myriad events, assisting with planning and on-site execution.
“A lot of them use the same technology in their guts,” Gardner says of all these products.
As battery technology improves, there could come a time when they can be charged with utility power before being transported to a festival, then run for the duration without being recharged. “That is not where we are today,” says Landa. “But that is the goal.” As batteries become more efficient, they’ll also likely become smaller, which will allow more of them to fit on a shipping truck and reduce costs and carbon emissions related to transport. Some batteries currently being made by Overdrive Solutions are already as small as a rolling suitcase.
The current hybrid battery model is what makes it possible for artists to say that their shows are completely battery powered, even though there are generators on site. “When you hear about Coldplay, they brought just as many generators as they brought batteries,” says Landa. “While Chris Martin was on stage, he may have been without any emissions, but there were diesel generators charging those batteries [after]. I’m not trying to greenwash this.”
At Lollapalooza 2024, generators ran on b14 biodiesel, a blend of diesel and biodiesel, with C3 partnering with CES and sustainability consultancy ZAP Concepts (who worked with Coldplay on their Music of the Spheres Tour, which pledged to reduce the band’s direct carbon emissions from production, freight and band and crew travel by at least 50%) to make the project a reality.
Of course, batteries have many festival applications beyond powering stages. REVERB worked with Coachella and Stagecoach to put up battery-powered light towers that were charged by solar. “Festival organizers loved it,” says Gardner, “because they didn’t have to run out to light towers on the outskirts of the festival in their golf carts and fill up the diesel generators.”
REVERB and Overdrive Solutions’ solar setup at Coachella
Courtesy of REVERB
Perry of C3 says that after the success of 2024, Lollapalooza will likely roll out additional battery usage incrementally, ultimately working to entirely replace the roughly 70 generators on-site annually. This endeavor will become easier as the general supply of batteries increases, as currently, Perry says, “these types of high-capacity batteries are low supply, high demand.”
He adds the price of the Lolla mainstage project was “not cheap,” with the festival partnering with CES, Live Nation’s sustainability program Green Nation and T-Mobile to cover costs. Landa says that while lithium-ion batteries currently cost about five times the price of diesel generators, batteries are rechargeable and built to work for a decade or longer, so buyers can spread the cost out over time.
Landa predicts that, as with electric cars and iPhones, prices will come down as technology evolves, with a trickle-down effect likely to occur. “Think electric vehicles at the top,” he says, “then think industrial applications, then think events and entertainment at the bottom of the funnel. We need the guys ahead of us to drive down cost and increase the supply chain so that it makes sense by the time it gets to the bottom of the funnel.”
As this happens, and as the industry grapples with sustainably — particularly in the face of events being affected by major and extremely freaky weather events — initiatives like REVERB’s work at Luck Reunion and SXSW and what C3 did at Lolla 2024 are meant to build broad trust, showing the industry what this technology is and that it works.
“I think the most positive feedback that I got was that it went unnoticed,” Perry says of Lolla’s batteries. “For me, an operational person, the biggest kudos is to be smooth and unseen.”
This past July, the Desert Hearts crew road-tripped out to Arizona for their first edition of the festival outside California.
After being bounced around SoCal a bit after launching the festival near San Diego more than a decade ago, then moving to Riverside County in 2022, then to downtown Los Angeles in 2023, over the July 4 weekend, the team assembled in what seems to be a viable new home at the Playa Ponderosa ranch near Flagstaff, Arizona, throwing the festival in partnership with the Phoenix-based Walter Productions.
For this edition, Desert Hearts also went back to its origins, returning to its original single stage format for its 72 hours of house and techno. The lineup included Anja Schneider, Ardalan, Coco & Breezy, Rinzen, Life on Planets, Lubelski, Mary Droppinz, Walker & Royce and many more, including, of course, the Deserts Hearts founders/house DJs, each of whom played separately and then together for a closing set.
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Hear this closing set exclusively below, along with sets from Desert Hearts’ Lee Reynolds, Los Angeles legend Doc Martin and club maven Öona Dahl.
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In a statement posted to social media after the event, the Desert Hearts team wrote that their goal with the 2024 festival was “to return Desert Hearts to the quality of events we hosted at Los Coyotes Indian Reservation. The result surprised us and far surpassed anything we’d ever done!”
They continued by saying that “The last five years have been incredibly challenging for DH since losing our long-time home during the pandemic. Canceling the 2023 camping festival was the hardest thing we’ve had to do since founding Desert Hearts. But it was your resilience and unwavering support that kept us going.”
Keep it going yourself with these seven hours of music from the fest.
The Desert Hearts Crew
Öona Dahl
Doc Martin
Lee Reynolds
As three wildfires rage throughout Southern California, electronic music festival Nocturnal Wonderland has been canceled due to its proximity to the blazes.
Produced by Insomniac Events, the festival was set to take place this weekend (Sept. 14-15) at the Glen Helen Amphitheatre in San Bernardino, Calif. But producers announced Wednesday (Sept. 11), that the festival will not happen because of the Line Fire, which is burning near the venue.
“We are saddened to inform you that new fires in the San Bernardino area have ignited over the last 35 hours and are now approaching the Glen Helen Amphitheatre,” the festival announced on social media. “The health and safety of festival attendees and staff is our highest priority. After further discussions with local authorities, due to the impact of the fires surrounding the venue, we will be unable to proceed with Nocturnal Wonderland.”
The statement notes that ticketholders will receive an email regarding ticket refunds in the coming days, along with information about how ticketholders can support local firefighters and the residents of affected areas.
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The Line Fire has been burning in the San Bernardino National Forest since Sept. 5, and expanded to 34,659 acres burned as of Sept. 11. As reported by the San Bernardino Sun, local authorities announced on Wednesday that “the worst is getting behind us” in terms of getting the fire contained. Two other fires, the Airport Fire and the Bridge Fire, are currently also burning in Southern California, forcing evacuations and affecting air quality throughout the region.
These blazes continue on the tail end of a signficant heatwave, which gripped the region over the last week and brought temperatures up to 112-degrees in parts of the city. Amid this heatwave, the Hollywood Bowl lost power on Sept. 8 and was forced to cancel a show by singer-songwriter Vance Joy. The region also experienced a 4.7 magnitude earthquake at approximately 7:30 a.m. local time on Thursday (Sept. 12).
Nocturnal Wonderland is Insomniac Events’ longest running festival, with the 2024 iteration having scheduled featured performances by artists including Kaskade, RL Grime, Slander, Flosstradamus and other genre-spanning electronic acts.
In the comments section of the announcement, Insomniac Events Founder Pasquale Rotella wrote, “My thoughts and prayers go to all those affected by the fires. Heartbroken about the cancellation. Your support means the world. Can’t wait to celebrate together in the future.”
Oasis’ Liam and Noel Gallagher could not have chosen a better time to hit the road for their reunion tour — they don’t have to do press, they can skip the big festivals and they won’t be running into their ’90s Brit-pop rivals Blur.
Blur and frontman Damon Albarn already reunited last year and dropped a documentary in July, with plans to exit the road and go off-cycle in 2025. And instead of suffering through an NME interview or having to address their colorful history with TV host Graham Norton, the Gallaghers can just log on to Instagram and share a post with the band’s 3 million followers.
The on sale, covering 17 stadium shows — including three at the last minute due to demand — likely grossed $200 million to $225 million based on Billboard’s own calculations, conservatively estimating that each concert will gross $11 million to $13 million per show. Add in the two new shows the group announced earlier today — Sept. 27-28 at Wembley Stadium — and the potential gross jumps up to $209 million to $251 million for all 19 dates.
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Those huge grosses are not possible in a festival setting. Unlike the brothers’ final show on Aug. 22, 2009, at the now defunct V Festival at Weston Park in the U.K., the economics of touring have changed so much in the last decade that the band is forgoing all festivals in 2025, according to their Instagram page. Instead, the Gallaghers are playing only headline stadium shows in the U.K, where they will make far more money — possibly eight to 10 times as much as they would appearing atop the bill for Coachella, Glastonbury or any other festival.
For the only announced leg of the tour so far, the band is playing gigs in huge stadiums like Dublin’s Croke Park, which holds 80,000 people. While prices for the current tour vary greatly, the average sticker price for the top 20 stadium shows of 2023 was $138.
That means that if Oasis can pull off all 19 concerts, the boys could stand to gross $209 million, or about $11 million per show, just on the average ticket price of $138, not including platinum and VIP. Compare that to festivals, where attendance typically fluctuates between 30,000 to 80,000 fans who on average spend $133 per day on a ticket, often buying a weekend pass for $399. With that number in mind, about 30,000 tickets sold would generate $12 million, while 80,000 tickets would generate $32 million in sales. Not bad — but that gate money would have to be split between all headliners and all other performers across the festival’s three days.
Stadium shows have other advantages over festivals. Using pricing tools, promoters can charge more money per seat, while the best festivals can do is upcharge for VIP sections. And unlike festivals, stadium concert promoters can easily add additional concerts based on demand. By asking fans to register in advance, promoters from SJM Concerts and Live Nation already have a decent idea of how many people want to buy tickets and can add shows based off those numbers.
That’s bad news for festivals like Coachella and Glastonbury, which have built their reputations on reunion tours. However, there are still plenty of superstar acts looking for platforms to rip through another gig. Last year, No Doubt — one of the biggest bands of the 1990s — played a reunion set at Coachella, along with their Long Beach reggae-punk brethren Sublime; French DJ trailblazers Justice; and Blur, who could probably have toured after their Coachella set but instead decided to make a statement high up the lineup on the world’s biggest festival stage.
Sure, Blur would have made more money grinding their way around the world on a multicity tour — but sometimes bands have different priorities, and a high-profile set at Coachella is a major milestone that many acts want. But when it comes to cashing in on a reunion toward the $100 million mark, there are just not enough festivals to generate that much money.
Organizers for the California festival Desert Daze have called off this year’s event. In an announcement organizers stated, “It is no longer possible to execute the weekend as planned.” Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news The event, which has remained independent since launching in 2012, was unable to […]
Lana Del Rey‘s microphone was turned off during her Saturday performance at the 2024 Reading & Leeds Festival, unexpectedly cutting her set short last night (Aug. 24). As The Hollywood Reporter noted, Del Rey was headlining Reading at Richfield Avenue when fireworks began toward the end of her set. At that time her sound went […]
The iHeartRadio Music Festival lineup is heating up even more, with A$AP Rocky, Coldplay’s Chris Martin and The Weeknd joining the performers list, Billboard can exclusively reveal.
They join previously announced performers Big Sean, Camila Cabello, Doja Cat, Dua Lipa, Gwen Stefani, Halsey, Hozier, Keith Urban, New Kids on the Block, Paramore, Shaboozey, The Black Crowes, Thomas Rhett and Victoria Monét. Hosted by Ryan Seacrest, the festival will also include one-of-a-kind collaborations and surprise performances.
Ahead of his iHeart performance, The Weeknd will livestream a “one-night-only” concert from Sao Paolo, Brazil. Martin is currently on tour with Coldplay, with the band joining forces with Maggie Rogers this week during a stop in Vienna to cover Taylor Swift after the superstar was forced to cancel her Eras Tour shows in the Austrian capital due to an alleged terror plot. And current Billboard cover star A$AP Rocky says his Don’t Be Dumb album is finally coming out this fall, so the iHeart crowd could hear some brand-new music from the rapper.
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The event will take over Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena on Sept. 20 and 21, with tickets available via AXS here. For those who can’t catch the action in person, the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Festival presented by Capital One will broadcast live for fans via iHeartMedia radio stations throughout the country. Additionally, Hulu will be the official streaming service for the festival, with performances broadcast live each night to all Hulu subscribers at no additional cost.
“The iHeartRadio Music Festival is the one time each year when the best-in-class superstar artists from all genres of music come together to share one stage for a weekend of live music,” said Tom Poleman, chief programming officer, and John Sykes, president of entertainment enterprises of iHeartMedia. “And with Hulu as the Official Streaming Destination, the festival will reach even more fans across the country.”
For more details about the iHeartRadio Music Festival visit iHeartRadio.com/festival.