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Touring

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The Music Performance Trust Fund (MPTF), established 75 years ago and still one of the industry’s best-kept secrets, has announced its funding support allocation for the upcoming fiscal year.

“We were going to go to $3 million and now we’re looking at moving it to $3.3 million from the fiscal year that begins May 1,” says MPTF Trustee Dan Beck. That’s up from the current fiscal year, when the Fund distributed over $2.7 million in grants.

The New York City-based non-profit supports a wide array of admission-free events and initiatives aimed at enriching lives and uniting communities through music. In April, the trust fund aims to support over 250 live music performances in celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month, and later will be partnering with local businesses and organizations in events celebrating Juneteenth, as well as providing support for the Chicago Lyric Opera, the French Quarter Festival in New Orleans, the Make Music Alliance and the Broadway League’s annual Curtains Up! event held in Times Square.

The MPTF receives funding from the three major labels, as well as Walt Disney Records, and works closely with the American Federation of Musicians (AFM).

The numbers from the fund’s current fiscal year, ending April 30, are impressive; across North America, it helped pay for 1,200 concerts in parks and public spaces, 400 music events at schools, over 1,000 performances at senior centers and over 1,300 live virtual music events. These 3,500-plus performances, covering all genres, drew over 1 million people in total across in-person and virtual events, according to the fund. All performances must be free to the audience, with MPTF paying union musicians for their work at these events. 

Confirming this, Beck says, “They’re all free, and that’s a requirement that has been part of the trust fund since the beginning. It all has to be admission free, can’t be tied to any other material event or political rally or anything like that. It must be something that’s…for the good of the community and to get the musicians paid a fair wage.” 

To receive funding for an event, local unions apply to the MPTF for a grant to stage a musical performance and line up a local sponsor to match the grant to provide a fair wage payment for the musicians performing. In some instances, MPTF approaches unions and offers a themed event concept to bring to their local markets, but in most cases, the unions and their matching grant partners choose which union musicians and events their efforts will back.  

“A lot of times it’s the municipal government or the Parks Department, or an Arts Council in the local city” that co-sponsor events, says Beck, who has been with the fund for 10 years. Beck was president of V2 Records North America before the turn of the century and also spent over two decades with Epic Records prior to that, rising to senior vp of sales and marketing, according to his LinkedIn profile.  

Beck says MPTF proactively supports local unions’ efforts to organize community performances. “We monitor the budget limits and rules and try to help the locals successfully access our funds equitably and fairly,” he says, adding that events funded by the organization run the gamut. “Some locals have 30 members. Others have thousands. We are working with full orchestras and solo musicians.” 

The funding that the MPTF distributes to local unions in the United States and Canada comes from a negotiated agreement between the labels and the AFM known as the Sound Recording Labor Agreement. That agreement, based on the labels’ annual sales and streaming revenue, calls for those companies to funnel payments directly to three funds: the American Federation of Musicians and Employers’ Pension Fund; the Sound Recording Special Payments Fund; and the Music Performance Trust Fund.

Beck is bullish about this year’s prospects. In addition to musical performances, the organization aims to fund over 500 music education programs in 2023-24 through partnerships with national and local organizations such as Save the Music and Young Audiences Arts for Learning. As part of its educational efforts, it will fund a minimum of $150,000 to be awarded to students in the fall of 2023 through its two scholarship programs, Music Family Scholarship and Music’s Future Scholarship. Last year, more than 90 Music Family Scholarships were given to AFM musicians with family members attending college, while 30 Music’s Future Scholarships went to music students unaffiliated with the union.  

On the live performance front, the organization says it will bolster its signature national MusicianFest initiative that brings live music to senior citizens, a segment of society that has been strapped by fixed incomes, inflation, immobility and the devastation wrought by the COVID-19 virus. 

While MPTF prefers the local unions to bring in a local funding partner, when the organization is trying to raise its funding distribution outlay, “we have selected certain times where we’ll go to the union locals and say, ‘Look, we will fund 100% if you have something for Black History Month,’” says Beck. For Juneteenth, MPTF did an event with Broadway League, funding a 12-piece band performance in Times Square. “Then we got to thinking about it and [said], ‘Hey, why don’t we take that and offer a Juneteenth event out to all the locals?’ And the response was just great,” Beck adds. “We’ll be doing that again; we will start that offer for Juneteenth literally the day after Jazz Appreciation Month ends.”

While things are looking good going forward, Beck says that MPTF faced major challenges when the pandemic hit — though Beck notes that it also created new opportunities for the fund, with livestreamed performances via Facebook coming to the rescue. “It didn’t matter what type of music someone played, we were able to crank up the livestream thing,” he says. “We have a small staff [of five], I was stunned that we could actually do it. Thankfully, our little grant management team that coordinates all the grants did a remarkable job working with each other. There are 175 union locals across North America, and we were generally working with half of them.”

Certainly, the parent umbrella union’s participation and support remain crucial. Ray Hair, international president of the AFM, said in a statement provided to Billboard that “MPTF is well-positioned to expand its mission throughout the U.S. and Canada for many years to come.” Other prominent supporters include the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), whose chairman/CEO Mitch Glazier and COO Michele Ballantyne said in a joint statement: “RIAA Members are honored to support this dynamic, living testament to the tapestry of American music.”  

Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, also weighed in with a statement to Billboard regarding the MPTF, saying, “Your commitment towards supporting musicians, making music a part of every child’s life, and adding to public knowledge about music, is unmatched.”

Beck feels his music industry experience has been beneficial in handling the demands of his position. He recalls working in the major label distribution branch system pre-2000 when those companies had sales offices “around the country, and each had a special relationship with their accounts and with the markets that they worked in. I find that’s kind of very similar to what the union locals are like.”

For his part, Beck is just happy to serve. Referencing the Fund’s mission statement, he sees music as a unifying and healing force.  

“I’m very grateful that opportunity came my way,” he says. “Where I am in life, there’s no better way to do things than to be working with people who are trying to make some nice community events happen. As divided as people can be, you put them in a little park together [for a musical event] and they all seem to have a good time and speak nicely to everybody else.”

The country’s two leading concert companies, Live Nation and AEG, are at odds over how Congress should address the future of ticketing after a disagreement over Taylor Swift’s record-breaking The Eras Tour.

Long before the pop star’s Nov. 15 sale dominated the news cycle, where hundreds of thousands of Swift fans experienced service disruptions that kept them from buying the tickets they wanted, the two companies had signed an agreement that many thought might take AEG out of the ticketing business entirely. In 2021, when AEG announced that its facility management division ASM had struck a deal to make Ticketmaster its preferred ticketing partner, many assumed that meant the company was on the way to shutting down its own ticking platform, AXS Tickets.

Instead, ASM’s contract with the Live Nation-owned Ticketmaster would pave the way for an expansion of AEG’s AXS, thanks to a provision in Ticketmaster’s exclusive agreement that granted AEG the right to use AXS to sell tickets to AEG-promoted shows at ASM venues, sources tell Billboard. AEG tours like Kane Brown, Elton John and Luke Combs could opt out of using Ticketmaster when playing ASM-client venues such as Soldier Field in Chicago, U.S. Bank Stadium in Minneapolis and Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Ariz., and use AXS instead. This marked the largest carve-out in Ticketmaster’s exclusivity contract to date, potentially allowing hundreds of arenas, stadiums and performing arts centers to use AXS for the first time, like the new Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas — the highest grossing stadium on Billboard’s 2022 year-end Boxscore chart.

The provision was a sort of double victory for AEG, Live Nation’s leading competitor: The company was able to leverage its control over 350 ASM venues to get those clients large payouts for re-signing with Ticketmaster without forsaking its own ticketing service. AEG officials had also hoped this might mark the beginning of a more open ticketing ecosystem away from the sorts of exclusive deals that have helped Ticketmaster gain such dominance in the space. But less than two years later, AEG and Live Nation find themselves at odds, divided over the handling of Swift’s The Eras Tour.

AEG is now refusing to join a coalition of music companies supporting Live Nation’s Fair Ticketing campaign, a piece of proposed anti-scalper legislation born out of the bot attack on Ticketmaster’s Nov. 15 presale for Swift’s tour. While Universal Music Group, Red Light Management, Irving and Jeffrey Azoff, and all four major talent agencies are backing the FAIR Ticketing reforms to ban scalping practices like “speculative” ticket selling and mandating all-in pricing across all ticketing marketplaces nationally, AEG has been taking a different approach to what they see as some of ticketing’s biggest problems. Sources tell Billboard that AEG executives have been quietly lobbying the Department of Justice to investigate Ticketmaster’s use of exclusive ticketing contracts to lock up the ticket market as a possible violation of its consent decree governing its merger with Live Nation in 2010. AEG leadership is also lobbying politicians to include restrictions on such exclusive ticketing practices in new legislation that could be introduced as soon as this week.

Sources say Live Nation executives have been careful not to engage with AEG publicly about its exclusivity agreements. Privately, they have accused AEG of trying to have it both ways, accepting the money that comes with exclusive ticketing contracts, while trying to expand AXS ticketing beyond the ASM deal into all NFL stadiums ticketed by Ticketmaster.

“This is a bad look for them,” one source at Ticketmaster tells Billboard.

Since Live Nation merged with Ticketmaster in 2010 and AEG launched its own ticketing platform in 2012, both companies have found they can earn more from the concerts they promote if they also control the ticketing, collecting more fees for themselves, while keeping data generated by the concert in house. The additional revenue for a promoter like AEG could be substantial, especially for an artist like Swift, who sold a total of 2.4 million tickets for The Eras Tour.

With Swift’s tour, sources say AXS was expecting to handle some of the ticketing under the ASM-Ticketmaster provision, since AEG was a co-promoter with partner Messina Touring Group. ASM managed five stadiums, representing 12 shows on the 52-date trek, and sources say AXS officials were hoping its ties to the tour could lead to it getting some, if not all of the tour. Except that Ticketmaster executives said their exclusive contracts with more than a dozen NFL teams (and the venues they own) superseded AXS’ claim. Under that reading of the deal, two of the 12 ASM dates — a pair of concerts at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz. — would be ticketed by SeatGeek under its exclusive deal with the Arizona Cardinals. Making matters worse, two of ASM’s management clients decided to partner with Ticketmaster for the sale.

Down to just five shows at two stadiums, AEG dropped the matter. According to a source, AEG executives have since spoken with the Department of Justice, encouraging them to look at Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s use of exclusive contracts as anti-competitive.

Relations only worsened in the days following The Eras Tour presale. After the fiasco, Live Nation chairman Greg Maffei appeared on CNBC to defend Ticketmaster and cited the company’s arrangement with AEG in response to claims of monopolistic behavior. “AEG, who is the promoter for Taylor Swift, chose to use us because, in reality, we are the largest and most effective ticket seller in the world,” he said. “Even our competitors want to come on our platform.” AEG leadership was quick to respond with a statement, saying the promoter had no choice but to use Ticketmaster. “Ticketmaster’s exclusive deals with the vast majority of venues on The Eras Tour required us to ticket through their system,” an AEG spokesperson said. “We didn’t have a choice.”

AEG hopes its private lobbying of politicians and anti-trust officials will lead to regulatory change that could include abolishing exclusive ticketing contracts in the United States and ultimately move toward an industry more similar to Europe, where promoters generally don’t sign exclusive ticketing deals and work with multiple partners to sell tickets.

Despite the disagreement, the ASM-Ticketmaster deal remains in place, and AEG officials have had success convincing buildings like the Greek Theater in Los Angeles and the Quicken Home Arena in Cleveland to avoid exclusive ticketing agreements and remain open to multiple systems.

Live Nation and AEG declined to comment for this story.

Harry Styles took his Love on Tour to Seoul’s KSPO Dome on Monday (March 20) as part of the trek’s Asia leg, which found several K-pop musicians in attendance.

Before the show kicked off, fans in the arena were treated to K-pop hits on Styles’ pre-show playlist that included NewJeans’ “OMG,” STAYC’s “Teddy Bear,” BLACKPINK’s “Pink Venom” and BTS’ “Dynamite.”

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After the show began, BLACKPINK‘s Rosé shared footage of her and fellow group mate Jennie enjoying Styles’ set and singing along to 2022’s official Song of the Summer, “As It Was.” When the show wrapped, the “On the Ground” singer took a pic with Styles backstage at the event. The pair shared a one-armed embrace as he gave the camera a thumbs up and a wide smile. “Yayyy thank you @harrystyles for coming to Korea,” she captioned the photo on her Instagram Story.

Rosé and Jennie were far from the only K-pop stars in the audience; several BTS members appeared amongst the crowd, with the duo Taekook — Taehyung (V) and Jung Kook — trending on Twitter for energetically dancing while Styles performed One Direction’s “What Makes You Beautiful.” RM and Suga also were spotted in the audience, but sat in separate locations from V and Jung Kook.

ENHYPEN‘s Jay, Jake, Sunghoon and Ni-Ki took their spots among the audience, wearing face masks to conceal their identities, while MONSTA X‘s Hyungwon and Ateez‘s Wooyoung went to the concert, too. TWICE, Aespa, Super Junior and more also showed their support for the English pop star.

See Rose’s Instagram Story featuring Styles before it disappears here.

MELBOURNE, Australia — Live Nation Australia has secured a multi-year lease to operate Festival Hall, the iconic Melbourne live music and sports venue.
Through the arrangement, confirmed late Friday (March 17), LN is expected to invest in several upgrades on the versatile space, which was built during WW1 and currently boasts a capacity of 5,405.

Festival Hall slots into the concerts giant’s existing portfolio of venues, which includes The Palais Theatre in Melbourne, the Fortitude Music Hall in Brisbane, the Hindley Street Music Hall in Adelaide, and Anita’s Theatre, a historic venue in Thirroul, a northern seaside suburb of Wollongong, which last year became LN’s first push into regional Australia.

“We are extremely excited to be delivering the next chapter of Festival Hall’s life,” comments Roger Field, president LN APAC, “not only because it will help support the growing demand of shows that are coming down the pipeline across the industry, but also to put the iconic venue firmly back on the global live entertainment map.”

LN’s vision for Festival Hall, Field continues, is to ensure that the venue “remains a cornerstone of the State’s live music scene for artists, industry, and fans alike.”

The launch of this new project will support 200 full-time equivalent jobs on event days, sources say.

Festival Hall has a storied history. The multi-purpose space at 300 Dudley Street, in West Melbourne, was originally built back in 1915 by John Wren, chairman of Stadiums Pty Ltd. Fire ripped through the room in 1955, but a rebuild was completed in time for the 1956 Olympics Games, where hosted gymnastics and wrestling.

Over time, the likes of the Beatles, Bill Haley, Johnny Cash, Frank Sinatra, Liberace, Shirley Bassey, Foo Fighters, Ed Sheeran and Lorde have played to packed houses at Festival Hall.

In October 2020, the venue was purchased by Hillsong Church with the intention to create a community hub to support live music, entertainment, and other events. At the time Hillsong stated, “it’s a way to give back to Melbourne and continue the venue’s legacy.”

It’s understood the church will continue to use the venue for weekend services and other events.

Madison Square Garden chairman James Dolan remains defiant in the face of an existential crisis at 4 Pennsylvania Plaza, where a lawsuit filed by two dozen ticket scalpers has mushroomed into a multi-pronged fight with some of New York state’s most powerful political forces — ostensibly at the worst time possible for the World’s Most Famous Arena.

Dolan is currently facing the revocation of Madison Square Garden’s alcohol license from the State Liquor Authority (SLA), a push by New York state Senate Democrats to revoke a $42 million tax break granted to the Garden four decades ago and an investigation by New York Attorney General Letitia James.

It all stems from a lawsuit filed against MSG in October, after more than two dozen longtime season ticket holders identified by Madison Square Garden as scalpers were told that their Knicks tickets were not being renewed for the 2023/2024 season. The brokers sued, arguing that team officials were booting them out of their seats just as the Knicks were finally getting good (the team is expected to make the NBA playoff this season).

Dolan responded to the lawsuit by barring the broker’s attorney, Larry Hutcher, and all lawyers from his firm, Davidoff Hutcher & Citron, from entering venues owned and operated by MSG. Soon, the policy was expanded to all law firms suing MSG, leading to a lawsuit from Hutcher and outrage from city and state officials.

The policy affects about 90 law firms and is being enforced using facial recognition software at all MSG properties, including Radio City Music Hall, where a mother chaperoning a Girl Scout troupe to see the annual Christmas Spectacular was pulled aside by security and forced to leave the venue after being identified as an attorney working at a firm with pending litigation against MSG. In that instance, the attorney was forced to wait outside while her daughter and friends attended the show.

The lawyer ban is unfolding just months ahead of a key hearing in July when MSG officials plan to ask city lawmakers to renew a special permit required for all 2,500-plus capacity venues to operate in the city — an ask complicated by a current disagreement over whether to relocate MSG’s namesake venue.

Madison Square Garden sits atop Penn Station, a long-in-decline rail station used by passengers coming in from Long Island and New Jersey. MSG bought the original Penn Station in 1960, demolished the above-ground structure and relocated the station below street level. Today, more than 600,000 passengers use the station each day. That’s led to calls from the Metropolitan Transit Authority (MTA) and state officials, including multiple past governors, to move Madison Square Garden and fix Penn Station. As a result, city and state leaders are facing increasing pressure to deny MSG’s request for a permanent permit — and Dolan’s ongoing antics aren’t helping.

In the state Senate, Democrats led by Sen. Brad Hoylman (D-Manhattan) have put Madison Square Garden’s $42 million property tax break on the chopping block over the facial recognition brouhaha. Hoylman wants any revenue created by stripping away the tax break sent to the MTA, an overtly symbolic gesture referencing the MTA’s battle with MSG over the future of Penn Station.

In response, MSG released a statement that read, “It’s interesting that Senator Hoylman is rallying to end governmental subsidies for corporations when just last year he voted in favor of legislation that extends a $420M governmental subsidy for the film industry and currently sponsors legislation to create new subsidies for the musical and theatrical production industry. Madison Square Garden is a significant job creator and an economic leader within both our community and the city. Our tax abatement is no different than the government subsidies that every single stadium and arena in New York City and state receive and in fact, is hundreds of millions of dollars less than most other venues.”

Next came a letter from an SLA investigator notifying MSG that it was considering revoking the liquor license of all MSG-owned and operated venues for violating a city rule that licensed establishments be “open to the public.”

“As a condition of your license your premises must remain open to the public, i.e., groups or individuals cannot be excluded on the basis of criteria that are not directly related to your duties under your SLA license, and that you must exercise a high degree of care and supervision to prevent any violations of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Law and the Rules and Regulations of the State Liquor Authority,” said the SLA in the letter.

Days later, the SLA demanded Dolan stand before the liquor authority and explain why MSG’s license should not be stripped away.

Dolan responded with a press release calling the SLA a “gangster-like governmental organization has finally run up against an entity that won’t cower in the face of their outrageous abuses.”

Dolan’s attorney, Randy Maestro, proceeded to file a Rule 78 petition against SLA — a measure used in New York State court to challenge a ruling or determination by a state agency. In a 47-page filing in New York Supreme Court, Dolan accused the SLA of a long history of corruption and even attacked one the SLA’s investigators, accusing him of racial bias and corruption while serving in the NYPD for 19 years.

The lawyer ban, Maestro wrote, is meant to stop lawyers seeking to “improperly leverage their access to MSG’s venues to craft and develop discovery strategy by engaging in improper communication with MSG employees during pending litigation.” He also argued that the policy “temporarily limits the admission of less than 0.8% percent of New York lawyers, less than 0.03% of the five million visitors to MSG’s venues every year, and less than 0.01% of all New Yorkers.”

A hearing on the SLA article 78 motion is preliminarily scheduled for March, while a decision on the tax break is due April 1 in Albany.

On Wednesday, March 15, Billboard editor Taylor Mims moderated a panel at SXSW that discussed the touring industry’s post-pandemic status. Featuring panelists Sara Mertz (VP of music partnerships at Tixr), Liz Norris (manager at Activist Artists Management) and Sarah Tehrani (music touring agent at WME), the panelists voiced concerns about saturation on the road, rising touring costs and the increase in specialized live experiences.

Mertz recalled how as quarantine restrictions lifted and tickets went back on sale, there was “lots of excitement” and a massive rush back to get back the road. But then the industry was then hit with subsequent variants, leading to cancellations en masse. “What we’ve been experiencing the last few years is a pendulum,” she explained.

And while Tehrani added that she has hopes for the industry to level out next year — for which agents at WME are already booking now — Norris explained that “nothing will be the exact same as it was in 2019,” given consumer behavior has changed over the last few years, along with other factors.

“People want a more specialized, curated experience than ever,” said Tehrani. “Rather than these big, throw-everything-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks festivals that are focused on going and discovering new music, we’re seeing more interest in boutique festivals.” For example, music fans seem more interested, in Tehrani’s approximation, to see a one-day legacy hip-hop festival than ever, and meanwhile larger-scale, broad appeal festivals are struggling to get the same sales as they once did.

Some artists Tehrani works with, like R&B singer-songwriter UMI, have even tried incorporating new elements to make their tours stand out, like adding in a meditation practice offered as a VIP experience at her shows to boost fan engagement and spread her passion for wellness.

Such experiences are becoming more crucial as the cost of touring continues to rise with inflation — and as a result of cutbacks on positions like bus drivers and sound engineers — leaving consumers to be pickier about which shows they attend.

But still, this strategy is challenged by a high no-show rate. “Attrition remains an issue,” said Mertz. “I don’t know what it is. I was just meeting with a couple of clients last night and they’re like, ‘We don’t understand it, at our sold-out shows, still 20-25% of people are not showing up. Why?’”

In 2021 the issue was attributed to lingering pandemic concerns, but now one of the only explanations the panelists provided was the possibility of increasingly cunning scalpers. “I do think that scalper activity has increased a lot over the last few years,” said Mertz. “It’s a business now.”

For Norris, whose management firm represents Dead & Company, Michael Franti, and the Lumineers, she said one of the industry’s most pressing concerns is “to do a lot of work to make sure the fans aren’t the ones that pay the price” of today’s higher touring costs.

At the same time, the panelists did identify some positive changes that have emerged in live music over the last few years. “Mental health is now at the forefront,” said Norris.

“Having a therapist and physical therapists on the road is new,” added Tehrani. “We’ve always had vocal coaches and stuff like that, but people are definitely thinking about how to take better care of each other. That’s a very good thing”

Willie Nelson announced on Tuesday (March 14) he’s bringing back the Outlaw Music Festival in 2023 for a string of dates this summer.
The annual festival, which serves as a celebration of Nelson’s life and legacy, will see the country rocker bringing friends and family on the road to celebrate his upcoming 90th birthday. Guests will include Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, The Avett Brothers, John Fogerty, Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats, Whiskey Myers, Gov’t Mule, Marcus King, Margo Price, Trampled By Turtles, Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway, Kathleen Edwards, Flatland Cavalry, Kurt Vile And The Violators, Brittney Spencer and Particle Kid.

“I can’t wait to be on the road with the amazing group of artists joining us on this year’s Outlaw Music Festival Tour,” Nelson said in a press release. “It is always a great day of music and fun with family, friends and the incredible fans, and even more special this year in celebration of my 90th birthday.”

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The Outlaw Music Festival will kick off in Somerset, Wash. on June 23, making additional stops in Dallas, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Cleveland and more before concluding in Cinncinati on Aug. 30. Fans looking to get tickets can do so through a Citi cardmember presale beginning Tuesday, March 14, at 10 a.m. local time until Thursday, March 16, at 10 p.m. local time. General onsale starts on Friday, March 17, at 10 a.m. local time via OutlawMusicFestival.com.

See the full tour announcement and the day-by-day lineups for Outlaw Music Festival below.

Friday, June 23, 2023Somerset, WI – Somerset Amphitheater

Willie Nelson & Family

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

Trampled By Turtles

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway

Particle Kid

Saturday, June 24, 2023East Troy, WI – Alpine Valley Music Theatre

Willie Nelson & Family

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss                              

Trampled By Turtles

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway

Particle Kid

Sunday, June 25, 2023St. Louis, MO – Hollywood Casino Amphitheatre

Willie Nelson & Family

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss

Trampled By Turtles

Molly Tuttle & Golden Highway

Particle Kid

Thursday, June 29, 2023Rogers, AR – Walmart AMP

Willie Nelson & Family

Margo Price

Flatland Cavalry

Particle Kid

Friday, June 30, 2023                                          Dallas, TX – Dos Equis Pavilion

Willie Nelson & Family

Whiskey Myers

Flatland Cavalry

Brittney Spencer

Particle Kid

Sunday, July 2, 2023The Woodlands, TX – Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

Willie Nelson & Family

Whiskey Myers

Brittney Spencer

Particle Kid

More To Be Announced

Friday, July 28, 2023Columbia, MD – Merriweather Post Pavilion

Willie Nelson & Family

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats

Kurt Vile and The Violators

Kathleen Edwards

Particle Kid

Saturday, July 29, 2023Bethel, NY – Bethel Woods Center for the Arts

Willie Nelson & Family

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats

Gov’t Mule

Kathleen Edwards

Particle Kid

Sunday, July 30, 2023Darien, NY – Darien Lake Amphitheater

Willie Nelson & Family

Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats

Gov’t Mule

Kathleen Edwards

Particle Kid

Wednesday, August 2, 2023Gilford, NH – Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion

Willie Nelson & Family

The Avett Brothers

Kathleen Edwards

Flatland Cavalry

Particle Kid

Friday, August 4, 2023Hershey, PA – Hersheypark Stadium

Willie Nelson & Family

The Avett Brothers

Marcus King

Flatland Cavalry

Kathleen Edwards

Particle Kid

Saturday, August 5, 2023Philadelphia, PA – TD Pavilion at The Mann

Willie Nelson & Family

The Avett Brothers

Marcus King

Kathleen Edwards

Flatland Cavalry

Particle Kid

Sunday, August 6, 2023Holmdel, NJ – PNC Bank Arts Center

Willie Nelson & Family

The Avett Brothers

Marcus King

Kathleen Edwards

Flatland Cavalry

Particle Kid

Friday, August 11, 2023Cleveland, OH – Blossom Music Center

Willie Nelson & Family

John Fogerty

Kathleen Edwards

Flatland Cavalry

Particle Kid

Saturday, August 12, 2023Pittsburgh, PA – The Pavilion at Star Lake

Willie Nelson & Family

John Fogerty

Flatland Cavalry

Kathleen Edwards

Particle Kid

Sunday, August 13, 2023Cincinnati, OH – Riverbend Music Center

Willie Nelson & Family

John Fogerty

Gov’t Mule

Kathleen Edwards

Particle Kid

Malachai Johns of the Aliive Agency has spent most his professional career in Washington, D.C.’s go-go scene, first as a teenage guitar player linking up with the Northeast Groovers before creating and producing the band Mambo Sauce, whose 2007 hit “Welcome to DC” charted on the Billboard charts. 
“We were trying to do for go-go what No Doubt had done for ska,” explains Johns, who laments that the song didn’t popularize the genre but takes pride knowing it’s played at the home games of the Nationals (MLB), the Commanders (NFL) and the Capitals (NHL), and is the walk-on music for the Wizards (NBA).

Today, he works as a promoter and talent agent and go-go apostle working non-stop to grow the genre and create a new audience for artists he’s known most of his life. “My overall objective is to expose the rest of the world to the amazingness that is go-go music,” said Johns, who now lives in Long Beach, Calif.

Go-go music dates back to the late 1970s in D.C., thanks to groups like the Young Senators and Agression, and later the music of singer-guitarist Chuck Brown, long credited as the Godfather of go-go.

Brown was a fixture on the Washington, D.C. music scene with his band the Soul Searchers and developed a relaxed style of funk and Afro Caribbean rhythm that he would infuse into go-go. One of Brown’s signatures was the use of percussive breaks in between sets. Having to compete with DJs spinning Top 40 records, Brown would pepper his sets with drum breaks during lulls, finding a way to keep the audience engaged at all times, Johns explained.

Go-go music would reach its zenith in the mid-80s and early-90s with artists like Kurtis Blow and E.U., Slim and Junk Yard Band — but the genre largely remained centered in Washington D.C., where go-go performances still take place most nights.

Johns will host South by Southwest’s first-ever go-go showcase. “SXSW A Go-Go” will feature the all-star house band Crank Caviar with sets by Big G and Weensey from Backyard Band, Chris “Rapper Dude” Black with the Northeast Groovers, Frank Scooby Sirius of Sirius Company and the Chuck Brown Band. 

“SXSW A Go-Go” runs from 8 pm to 2 am on March 15 at The Venue,  516 East 6th Street in Austin.

Welcome to Swift City! On Monday (March 13), Mayor Jerry Weiers of Glendale, Ariz., officially renamed the city to honor the kickoff of Taylor Swift‘s The Eras Tour this weekend.

“And now therefore, I, Jerry P. Weiers, mayor of the city of Glendale, on behalf of our city council, do hereby proclaim that on March 17 and 18, 2023, the city of Glendale will be renamed Swift City,” he said in a ceremonial press conference to share the news before sneaking in a couple of lyrical references. “And all Swifties are encouraged to share their smiles that could light up this whole town on all the social media platforms because the best people in life are free.”

After the back-to-back shows at the newly christened Swift City’s State Farm Arena, Swift will chart a course to Las Vegas; Arlington, Tex.; Tampa, Fla.; Houston; Atlanta and beyond.

On the same day that Glendale became Swift City, the superstar also launched a new tour-centric portal on her official website, complete with access to The Eras Tour merch, personalized playlists, countdowns to each and every stop on the tour and more.

GAYLE, who will be opening the Arizona shows along with Paramore, recently shared her own reaction to the “Anti-Hero” singer asking her to come on the tour. “It just means the world to me and it just was really validating for me, and especially at a very overwhelming time,” the “abcdefu” singer said in an interview with Apple Music 1. “I had no clue what I was going to do this year. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I had the best year of my life. What am I going to do next year?’ And she was like, ‘Here’s something to add to your calendar.’”

Watch Mayor Weiers temporarily re-christen his town from Glendale to Swift City below.

Ad.Ventures, the collective of over 120 independent venues and festivals across the U.S., has announced a new program with Web3 credentialing platform Dentity, bringing the company’s identity verification tech to the events industry. Throughout the week, Ad.ventures and Dentity will unveil new features of the platform at SXSW and showcase new opportunities for fans, venues and artists.

Ad.Ventures was formed by organizers of the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA), who launched the “Save our Stages” advocacy movement in 2020 in response to the pandemic shutdown, successfully securing a $16.2 billion relief program to benefit independent venues, artists and professionals. In an announcement, it said it “remains dedicated to preserving the ecosystem of independent venues, promoters, and festivals throughout the United States. This includes providing them access to the best partners and providers so they can continue scaling, enhancing, and improving their operations and offerings.”

Dentity enables consumers to securely store the most sensitive elements of their identities and public personas — from government IDs and memberships to digital event credentials — securely in one Web3 digital wallet.

“Our growing network of independent venues handles a volume of more than $100 million in ticket sales each year and services more than 10 million customers across thousands of events,” said Ian Fine, vp of partnerships for Ad.Ventures. “Dentity’s Web3 credentialing platform provides venue operators with new technology to improve how they produce their events, whether through the lens of consumer data privacy or by implementing sophisticated, sponsored digital loyalty passes, VIP experiences on-site, exclusive offerings, and content. Our goal is to redefine what a ticket provides before, during, and after an event.”

Jeffrey Schwartz, founder and chief executive of Dentity says the company’s unveiling at SXSW is the “first of many we plan to make which impact the event experience and redefine access management.  Thousands of ticket holders have already downloaded their Web3 credentials alongside their Apple and Google wallet passes and are experiencing the benefits of Dentity’s platform in Austin today.”

Ad.Ventures is hosting the 11th Annual Music Tech Mashup showcase powered by Dentity today (March 13) at the Empire Control Room & Garage in Austin, as well as an official SXSW panel called “The Power of Connection With Emerging Technologies.” Dentity collaborated with Ad.Ventures to power a number of other SXSW events as well, including BrooklynVegan: Lost Weekend, FloodFest, Brooklyn Bowl Family Reunion and Stereogum, among others.  

To enhance the fan experience during and after SXSW, credential holders will be provided with unique offerings on-site and will get access to exclusive discounts and experiences at locally owned and culturally diverse businesses throughout Austin.