Touring
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Billboard, in partnership with AEG Presents and Live Nation, has announced the second round of industry leaders participating in this year’s Billboard Live Music Summit and Awards, taking place on Thursday, Nov. 14 in Los Angeles. Bringing together the brightest stars and leaders in music, the day will be an unparalleled celebration of creativity and achievement in the live space through exclusive panels and conversations.
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The second-round lineup includes:
Inside Global Touring Today: A Conversation with Arthur Fogel & Bobby Campbell: Join Live Nation’s Arthur Fogel as he sits down with artist manager Bobby Campbell to explore the evolution of global touring. From the growing demand for live experiences to advancements in large-scale production, Fogel and Campbell will share insights into how the industry continues to push boundaries and create unforgettable moments for fans around the world.
Trends In Ticketing: The Latest In Innovation and Tools: Sponsored by AXS, this panel will take a deep dive into how artists and their managers are improving the live experience at the point of purchase. Moderated by Greg Schmale from AXS, this panel will include Amanda Gray from Goldenvoice, Katie Nowak from TBA Agency, Thomas Cussins of Ineffable Music and Fielding Logan from Q Prime.
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The Life And Times of Disco Donnie: Veteran dance and EDM promoter James “Disco Donnie” Estopinal sits with Billboard Live Senior Director Dave Brooks to talk about his long career in live music and the future of the fan and artist relationship.
Previously announced talent and industry leaders include:
Multi-platinum singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo will be a part of the Superstar Q&A and will receive Billboard’s editorially selected Touring Artist of the Year award.
Louis Messina will be honored with the prestigious Touring Titan Award and recognized as the Executive of the Year in honor of his work producing Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour, as well as tours for Eric Church, George Strait, Kenny Chesney and many more top grossing artists. Following the award presentation, he will sit with Billboard’s Melinda Newman for The Power Players Conversation. Together, they will delve into Messina’s remarkable career, covering his time with Pace Concerts, his work with artists like Tim McGraw, Ed Sheeran and Shawn Mendes, as well as his plans to build the next generation of touring superstars. This fast-paced, insiders-only conversation will offer attendees a rare glimpse into the business mindset of the 21st century’s most successful concert promoter and showman.
John Summit and his longtime manager Holt Harmon will take part in an exclusive conversation, Inside the Rise of John Summit. Moderated by Billboard’s Katie Bain, the duo will discuss Summit’s explosive rise and the strategy behind it, exploring how the producer went from playing small bars and clubs to becoming one of the leading artists in the global dance scene. They’ll share insights into the creative process behind Summit’s chart-topping hits, the evolving relationship between artists and audiences and the challenges and opportunities DJ’s face in an ever-changing market.
A powerhouse lineup of agents are set to share their insights and expertise during the Agents Power Panel: A New Era of Uncertainty, moderated by Billboard’s Jason Lipshutz, and featuring industry heavyweights like Avery McTaggart of TBA Agency, Brent Smith from Wasserman, David Zedeck of UTA, Jarred Arfa from IAG, as well as Kirk Sommer from WME and Rick Roskin representing CAA. This panel is sponsored by Allegiant Stadium and a must-attend session for anyone involved in talent booking. The Agency Power panel will cover all things related to artist development and representation with a focus on building superstar talent for a growing global audience.
L-Acoustics, the leader in professional audio technologies, is sponsoring the The Immersive Experience: The Future of Sound, Visual and Interactive Programming at Festivals panel. A distinguished group of executives will take center stage to discuss how innovations in sound, video and immersive media are transforming the festival experience. Moderated by Amber Mundinger (L-Acoustics Global Director of Artistic Engagement), the panel features Dave Rat, President of Rat Sound Systems, Polygon’s David Lopez de Arenosa, and WME’s Josh Kurfirst. They will explore the critical role of sound design and technology, including deploying large-scale spatial audio, immersive sound and projection mapping. From deep diving into Electric Forest’s sellout success to new initiatives for developing artists, the Festivals of the Future panel will serve as a roadmap for the next generation of experienced creators.
The Live Music Awards, which will honor touring acts as well as some of the visionary executives behind them, are based on a number of criteria ranging from revenue to tour demand, production, technical ambition, fan engagement, momentum and cultural impact.
Programmed by Brooks, who has worked at Billboard since 2017, the Billboard Live Music Summit and Awards will bring an unforgettable experience, spotlighting some of the biggest names in music and emerging artists who are shaping the future of the industry. The event will feature a series of keynote panels as well as the Billboard Live Music Awards, honoring artists and industry professionals who have made significant contributions to the world of live music.
In addition to exclusive panels and conversations with the brightest stars and industry leaders, the summit will feature insightful panels with leading figures from AEG Presents and Live Nation, exploring trends, challenges, and innovations in the live music sector. The summit aims to foster dialogue and inspire future developments in the industry.
Additional information will be distributed in the coming weeks. For more information on this year’s Billboard Live Music Summit and Awards, visit billboardlivemusicsummit.com.
Hank Azaria says that learning to sing Bruce Springsteen songs to front his EZ Street Band is “by far the hardest I’ve worked to do any vocal for anything,” even if it is “a genuine joy” for the bona fide Boss fan.
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Still, that’s saying something for a guy who’s won six Primetime Emmy Awards (four of them for voicing numerous characters on The Simpsons, including Moe Szyslak and Chief Wiggum) and has a lengthy resume of film, television, theater and video game roles.
Nevertheless, Azaria assures Billboard that he’s “extremely all-in” on the EZ Street Band. The band hits New York City’s Brooklyn Bowl on Nov. 8 and heads to the Stone Pony in Asbury Park, N.J., on Nov. 15, with more dates to come through 2025. He’s using proceeds from the shows to fund his 4 Through 9 Foundation for social justice, education and recovery causes.
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“I tell stories about myself, as Bruce, on the night,” says Azaria via Zoom, adopting Springsteen’s voice with an earnest, intense expression on his face. “Some of them are what a song means to me. Some of them are just kind of repeating the way Bruce introduced the songs. Some of them are the back stories of how the songs were written that I found fascinating. It creates this evening of theater, of trying to be the best Springsteen band we can be and trying to mimic his vocal and the E Street Band sound as closely as we can. But I’ve never worked harder to prepare for any role I’ve ever done than I did for this.”
Azaria, who’s played a handful of EZ Street Band shows so far — starting with his 60th birthday party at City Winery in New York in April — is hoping there will be an audience for his take on Springsteen. And United Talent Agency, which is booking the shows, is sure of it. “It’s a masterclass of homage,” says UTA’s Ryan Edmundson. “Hank and the band’s devotion to their craft is evident on stage. Their faithful portrayal of the real-life icon Bruce Springsteen honors his legacy in a way we have never seen before. We’re thrilled to introduce the band’s unique artistry to larger audiences.” Glee veteran Michael Novick is managing Azaria’s EZ Street concerns, while his publicist, Seth Cohen, spent nearly a decade as Springsteen’s day-to-day representative with Shorefire Media.
Azaria, who’s met Springsteen twice over the years (more on that later), also received some tacit approval from the man himself.
“A few weeks ago, I got a text from a buddy of mine who’s a dentist in New York,” he says. “He says, ‘Please, please, please, ASAP, send me your favorite video of your band.’ I sent him a video of us doing ‘Thunder Road.’ Later that night he calls me and said Patti Scialfa [Springsteen’s wife and an E Street Band member] was in my dentist chair. I’m like, ‘Omigod, if I’d have known that I assure you I wouldn’t have sent the video.’
“He said he played it for Patti and apparently she loved it. And later that night I got another text saying Patti played it for Bruce and they loved it. They took it for how it’s meant, which was a loving tribute.”
Springsteen and company have an off night when Azaria and the EZ Street Band play the Stone Pony, by the way. But the actor doesn’t need more to get him excited about that particular show. “I can’t wait — it is the mothership,” he says. “Look, I think what carries me through any kind of nerves is this so genuinely comes from this joy of sharing this. I’ve earned my stripes as a Bruce fan.”
Growin’ Up
That devotion dates back to Azaria’s youth, including seeing Springsteen for the first time when The River tour played New York’s Madison Square Garden during 1980. “When I grew up, he was like an uncle — that’s how much I connected to him,” Azaria remembers. “His music and his (in-concert) talks got me through some very hard times as a teenager. I’d say he, almost more than anybody else, encouraged me to try to be a creative person. That was his message to me, for real.”
Azaria got to tell Springsteen about that, too, although neither meeting with Springsteen went quite as he hoped or planned.
While playing “Growin’ Up” during the EZ Street Band shows, Azaria tells the story of when Springsteen came backstage to see him during his Tony Award-nominated run in Monty Python’s Spamalot on Broadway.
“There’s a knock on my door and Bruce is standing there, alone,” Azaria recalls. “I almost had a heart attack. I absolutely lost my mind, to a point. He was very sweet and connected and present. He kinda gave me his review of the show, which he really enjoyed, in detail. We chatted long enough for me to tell him what his music meant to be, but it came out about nine octaves higher than my regular voice and very rushed, kind of screaming at him, as a fan boy. He was very sweet about it, but it was ridiculous.”
The same thing happened, he says, when he attended a Springsteen on Broadway performance and was part of the backstage meet and greet. “Before he could even say hello I started (makes babbling noises). He was very sweet again but kinda patted me on the shoulder and got out of there, and I don’t blame him. My wife just turned to me and said, ‘What is wrong with you?!’ My friend calls it Bruce Juice. It kind of overtakes you.”
Born to Run
The inspiration for the EZ Street Band, Azaria says, was his impending 60th birthday, which “bothered me a bit.” He came up with the idea as “a distraction,” working with keyboardist Adam Kromelow, his son’s former piano teacher, as musical director and studying a wealth of live recordings to familiarize himself with Springsteen’s vocal mannerisms and nuances. “I find that raspy sound he has easier to imitate, and that’s what I’ve always imitated, but (Springsteen) has a lot more than that,” notes Azaria, whose natural singing voice is deeper than Springsteen’s. After employing his well-practiced “homegrown mimicry process” he bought in vocal coach (the EZ Street Band’s Hannah Juliano) to bring him closer to the mark.
“I’m such a singing neophyte that I didn’t realize that these songs were unattainable for me,” acknowledges Azaria, who was had to overcome an anxiety that almost scotched the birthday party performance — where E Street Band drummer Max Weinberg joined the group for a couple of songs. “I started out four or five steps below Bruce; I’ve now kind of, through singing training and practice, worked up to almost at his key, just a step or two below. And the closer you are to his key the more authentic you sound. It’s been a very steep learning curve.”
With the eight-member EZ Street Band, however, he’s found some kindred spirits.
“They are kids in this band,” Azaria says. “They didn’t grow up with this music; only the bass player (Jeff Koch) knew any of it ’cause his dad was a huge fan. They’re all professional musicians, and now they do play it as if they did grow up with it ’cause they’re so good. And one of the joys of this is how much they’re discovering Bruce’s music, and they love it now. They love playing it even more than hearing it. They report to me as musicians how much fun these songs are to play.”
Since the birthday party Azaria and the EZ Streeters have also performed outside of a New York Mets game at CitiField and also at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York. The repertoire is growing: “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” “Candy’s Room,” “The Price You Pay” and “Jersey Girl” are slated to be played this month, and Azaria voices a desire to take on “The River” and “Atlantic City.” But don’t expect to see the EZ Street Band match the multi-hour extravaganzas that are Springsteen and the E Street Band’s routine.
“We’ll never get there, I promise you that,” Azaria says with a laugh. “An hour 20 (minutes), an hour 30. We’ll never get to two and a half (hours), I don’t think. But it’s getting better and better, and it’s such a joy. People ask me, ‘Do you feel like a rock star up there? Are you living out a rock star fantasy?’ On a certain level I am, but what I much more feel like is what I am, which is a lucky Bruce fan who’s gotten to go up there and share his version of Bruce love with everybody else — with the ability to mimic it better than most have.”
Olivia Rodrigo and John Summit easily had two of the biggest tours in 2024. They will both appear on November 14 at the Billboard Live Music Summit and Awards in partnership with AEG Presents to talk about their experiences on the road and how they’ve grown as touring artists. AEG Presents is a world leader in the music and entertainment industry. From the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival to global tour promotion for superstars like Taylor Swift, Sabrina Carpenter and many more, they are a part of every step of creating a live music experience, which will all be covered at the Billboard Live Music Summit and Awards. There will be panels featuring top agents, leaders in sound design, and Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour producer, Louis Messina.
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Olivia Rodrigo will take part in a superstar Q&A where she will talk about upgrading from theaters to arenas for her GUTS World Tour, selecting opening acts like Gracie Abrams and Chappell Roan, and integrating her Fund 4 Good initiative into her massively successful shows. She will also receive the Touring Artist of the Year award.
John Summit will sit down with his longtime manager Holt Harmon for a conversation moderated by Billboard’s Katie Bain. Inside the Rise of John Summit will explore how he went from playing small bars and clubs to selling out Madison Square Garden. They’ll share insights into his creative process and how he created his chart-topping hits.
Louis Messina will receive the Touring Titan Award and be recognized as the Executive of the Year for his work on Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour. He will also sit down with Billboard’s Melinda Newman for The Power Players Conversation to talk about his past experiences working with artists like Ed Sheeran, Shawn Mendes, and Tim McGraw, and plans for the future, shaping the next generation of touring superstars.
This year’s Billboard Live Music Summit and Awards will also feature the Festival of the Future panel where top executives will discuss how innovations in sound, video, and immersive media are transforming the festival experience. The Agents Power panel will bring together top agents from WME, CAA, UTA, AGI, and Arrival Artists to cover all things related to artist development and representation.
Billboard Live Music Summit 2024 returns on November 14 in Los Angeles. Click here for more information, the programming schedule, and to buy tickets.
Political spending among the major players in the live music industry has largely remained flat this election cycle, while contributions by individuals working at Live Nation were up slightly over past years and money spent on lobbying members of Congress dropped in 2024, according to election data reviewed by Billboard.
At Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), owner Phil Anschutz spent $1.9 million supporting this year’s Republican reelection efforts but opted not to throw any support behind presidential candidate Donald Trump. Anschutz has never supported the brash presidential candidate, but though AEG boss is sinking millions of dollars into efforts to flip the Senate for Republicans.
Live Nation chief executive Michael Rapino, on the other hand, gave $25,000 in political donations to mostly Democratic Senate candidates and causes, records show, while the usually politically active James Dolan, chairman of Madison Square Garden Entertainment, made a single $25,000 donation this election cycle to Secure NYS PAC, a shadowy political action committee created to defeat House member Tom Suozzi (NY-D).
At Live Nation, executives donated about $387,000 to mostly Democratic candidates, a drop of about 6% compared to 2020, when executives donated $410,000.
The spending cycle comes during an unusually politically active year for the concert business, with a major ticketing reform package inching forward in Congress and the Department of Justice’s investigation of Live Nation on anti-trust grounds making its way through the courts.
Neither political cause has driven major spending by Rapino or his long-time rival Anschutz, who has once again sunk hundreds of thousands of dollars into an effort to flip the Senate over to the Republicans. Anschutz, a Colorado billionaire who made large parts of his fortune in energy, railroads and communications, has long supported groups like the National Republican Senatorial Committee. This year, Anschutz made more than 200 donations totaling $1.9 million to right-leaning political groups, the bulk of which went to political groups supporting Senate Republicans like John Cornyn, John Thune and former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Anschutz also spent $1.9 million during the 2016 cycle and $836,000 during the 2020 cycle.
Rapino spent considerably less than Anschutz this election cycle, with his biggest political contribution being the $10,000 he donated to Live Nation’s political action committee, which gave $200,000 to candidates from both political parties this cycle. As an individual donor, Rapino cut about $4,600 in donations to Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jacky Rosen in Nevada and supported Adam Schiff’s campaign for Senate in California, as well as the campaigns of high-profile California House members Katie Porter and Eric Swalwell.
Meanwhile, Gregg Maffei, president/CEO of Liberty Media and the chairman of Live Nation Entertainment, spent more than $112,000 on conservative politicians and political causes, mostly supporting the presidential candidacy of Trump and Senate Republicans. That’s significantly down from the 2020 election cycle when Maffei spent $420,000 on right-wing political causes and politicians, and the 2016 cycle when he spent $324,000.
Over the last year-and-change, Charli XCX and Troye Sivan launched two album campaigns, topped Billboard charts, earned Grammy Award nominations, and took their careers to new heights. The pinnacle of their synergized success was their North American co-headlining arena tour.
Charli XCX and Troye Sivan Present: Sweat played 22 shows in the U.S. and Canada in September and October, wrapping with $28 million and 297,000 tickets sold, according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore. This surpasses Billboard’s own projections of $23.5 million and 270,000 from just last month.
From the tour’s April announcement, tickets gradually encroached on sell-out territory. Major markets like New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco blew out immediately, but overall, the tour averaged 67% after the first weekend of sales. As Sivan toured Europe and Charli turned the summer green, sales grew to 70% by the end of May, 80% by mid-June, 90% by the end of July, and to 97% by opening night. With final numbers reported, the tour was completely sold out, even if Sivan once lovingly joked that they were “flopping” in Nashville.
Jared Braverman (SVP of Global Touring at Live Nation) commented to Billboard, “The Sweat Tour selling out all 22 shows is a true testament to both Charli and Troye as arena-level acts. We believed in their ability to fill these venues from the moment we announced the tour and went on sale back in April. The success reflects the strong fanbases they’ve built and how their music continues to connect deeply with fans live.”
Los Angeles was the highlight, where they played two nights at Inglewood’s Kia Forum, pulling in $3.2 million from 29,500 tickets sold. Closing night (Oct. 23) at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena scored the tour’s best single-night attendance (15,016), while the Sept. 23 show at New York’s Madison Square Garden posted the highest one-night gross ($1.7 million).
On average, the Sweat shows grossed $1.3 million and sold 13,479 tickets per show. That’s more than ten times either artist’s previous best as a solo headliner, even considering shows they played earlier this year.
It’s rare for artists who make pop and dance music to sell out arenas without an extensive slate of chart hits. In conversation with Zane Low, Charli reflected that “niche is being rewarded in a way that we haven’t seen for a while.” The world-building that each artist has done with their recent albums and throughout the Sweat tour with guest stars in their orbit like Addison Rae, Kesha and Lorde, super-served fans. In Charli’s words, “We just have to do it for them. And we have to make them feel so special, because they are, because they’ve championed me and us for so long.”
Live Nation’s Lesley Olenik (SVP, Global Touring) agreed, calling it “the can’t-miss live event of the year.” She continued, “What made it truly special was the energy — fans were free to express themselves in ways we haven’t seen in years, and Charli and Troye fed off that vibe every night. It was a no-judgment zone where everyone could unapologetically be themselves.”
That’s not to say that they have not broken through on a mainstream level before. Charli reached the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in 2014 and even claimed that year’s Song of the Summer as a featured guest on Iggy Azalea’s “Fancy.” Sivan has four top 10s on the Billboard 200 and nine hits on the Hot 100. In the last year, both acts hit No. 1 on Top Dance/Electronic Albums and logged multiple top 10s on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, separately and together.
Both artists will return home for brief runs of shows in November. Sivan will re-up the Something to Give Each Other Tour with six shows throughout Australia and New Zealand. After hosting and performing on the Nov. 16 episode of Saturday Night Live, Charli will launch the Brat Tour with four shows in the U.K. Combined, they’ve already moved 419,000 tickets and earned $34 million on the road in 2024. By year’s end, those numbers will swell beyond 500,000 and $45 million.
While Shygirl was crushing performances onstage as the supporting act for Charli XCX and Troye Sivan‘s recently wrapped Sweat tour, a lot more was happening behind the scenes and on the road. “We would get off the tour bus at every truck stop just to look at and buy every souvenir that caught our eye,” […]
AXS, the AEG-owned ticketing company, on Nov. 4 announced the acquisition of a white-label ticketing company called white label eCommerce. The latter company, a Hamburg start-up founded in 2012 that has about 35 employees, currently sells tickets to festivals, sports events and some concerts, but not under its own name. White label eCommerce will become […]
And in the end, the love Taylor Swift took from Swifties at the last-ever U.S. Eras Tour show on Sunday night (Nov. 3) in Indianapolis was more than equal to the love she gave. There were tears of joy and glitter galore, elation and wonder at being the last ones in the room as Swift brought a close to 141 shows on the tour that spanned the globe, and her career over the last 20 months.
And while Sunday’s was, by most accounts, a standard Eras show — none of the surprise guests or big announcements fans buzzed about before the gig — the 69,000-plus attendees at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on night three went home secure that they saw the same type of over-the-top musical masterpiece as the Swifties who attended the tour kick-off in March 2023.
But, also, the last Eras gig ever in the U.S.
Swift, of course, treated them to one more magical mash-up of favorites during the surprise song segment near the end of the show in the city that, like all the others, gratefully gave itself over to the sparkling, happy-to-spend Swiftie mobs. The singer, literally, strode like a Colossus over the Midwestern town better known for its thirst for professional and college sports, via a 330-foot mural of the pop icon plastered on the facade of a downtown hotel just blocks from Lucas Oil Stadium.
It was a fittingly way-larger-than-life image for a spectacle that was all-encompassing, touching everything from the mundane — the check-in clerk with a flowing weird beard manning the desk at a hotel near the stadium who had Swift’s favorite number (13) drawn on the back of his hand above one of the tour’s ubiquitous friendship bracelets — to the sublime: a burly cop with an wrist-full of colorful bracelets signing a little girl’s white Tortured Poet’s Department dress as she skipped her way into the venue.
For the final curtain before the tour finishes up for real in Canada with eight more shows later this month, as in other cities on the Eras Tour, Indianapolis rolled out the red carpet for the singer. The state capital was transformed into TaylorTown for the weekend. Everywhere Swifties went, there Taylor was.
More than 30 streets around downtown were temporarily transformed into Eras avenues, including The Man Dr., London Boy Ln., So High School St., … Ready For It? Rd., Bad Blood Blvd, and, of course, Cornelia St., which also happened to be one of Sunday night’s surprise songs.
The Indianapolis Zoo declared itself “In Our Wildest Era,” local vendors threw “Taylor” terrarium building parties and there were Tay-themed drink at bars all over town (Sun King Brewery’s ‘1,2,3 Let’s Go B*tch” Cherry Limeade Ale and an Eras Cider Box from Ash & Elm Cider Co. As well as snacks in Lucas Oil (Back to Decemberger Basked, Fearless Fries), a “Sweat Stretch Simmer” Swift-themed hot yoga class and even an “Era Sparkle Party for Voter Registration” at the Easley Winery in the lead-up to Tuesday’s (Nov. 5) presidential election, in which Swift has endorsed Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris.
It was all in honor of the singer whose tour created its own ecosystem, with new traditions (trading themed friendship bracelets, dressing in different Eras costumes) and a radiant joy that kept event the youngest fans staving off yawns as they danced in their light-up shoes and sequined skirts well past their bedtimes.
“The fact that you would do that for us, for me, for my band, my crew, my fellow performers. You have just completely confirmed that we chose the right 69,000 people to spend our last night with,” Swift told the capacity crowd on the third night in a row that she set attendance records at the stadium.
Check out our eight best moments from the final Eras Tour U.S.l show below.
The Shirts
Three days after former president/felon Donald Trump held a vengeful, race-baiting rally at Madison Square Garden, Cyndi Lauper – a musical icon and champion of LGBTQ and women’s rights – sought to cleanse the air at the iconic New York City venue on Wednesday (Oct. 30) during her Girls Just Wanna Have Fun Farewell Tour.
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“It’s about time [women] start stepping forward and voting for ourselves. We need equality – and I ain’t going back, that’s for sure,” she said early in the evening, before alluding to Sunday night’s MAGA rally: “We need a lot of love here tonight to dissipate a lot of the hate that was here. I wasn’t going to say this, but then I did,” she added with an unapologetic shrug. And she’s putting her money where her mouth is, too, donating proceeds from wig sales at her merch table toward her Girls Just Want to Have Fundamental Rights Fund at the Tides Foundation, which collects funds for “safe and legal abortions… women’s healthcare, prenatal care, postnatal care, cancer screenings — women’s health.”
The Billboard Hot 100-topping, EGT-winning musical icon has never shied away from being politically, creatively and musically outspoken – and the world has been better off for it. So while a Cyndi Lauper farewell tour is a bittersweet affair (one audience member vehemently screamed “no!” when she talked about this being her last major trek), you can’t blame her for wanting to go out while still in peak musical form.
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At 71, Lauper has not lost an iota of her distinctive vocal power. She roared through “She Bop,” belted “I Drove All Night” with 100mph gusto and brilliantly wove through her vocally fragile yet formidable cover of Prince’s “When You Were Mine.” For those ‘80s classics, her band – led by musical director William Wittman, who played on her career-launching classic debut She’s So Unusual (1983) – wisely hewed close to the original arrangements, bringing a crackling new wave punch to the material instead of trying to recast them through a modern lens. When you’re hearing these songs, you want those floating synths, snap percussion and sprightly guitars – not to mention the sublime recorder solo on “She Bop” that Lauper herself performed onstage.
Having a band that tight and well-oiled also afforded Lauper the freedom to stretch out vocally and let loose physically – which was abundantly clear toward the end of an ass-walloping “Money Changes Everything” where she hammered out various riffs on the chorus while writhing around on the ground.
Lauper’s setlist doesn’t shortchange on the hits, but half of the fun of the show is her off-the-cuff banter, delivered in that indelible, no B.S. Brooklyn fashion. “I still can’t parallel park for sh-t,” she quipped after “I Drove All Night”; while sharing a story about a famous actor who told her he was a big fan of The Goonies, she assured the crowd she would never namedrop, then paused significantly and said “Andrew Garfield” before singing the bouncy “The Goonies ‘R’ Good Enough”; and when introducing “I’m Gonna Be Strong,” a Gene Pitney cover she used to sing with her pre-fame band Blue Angel, she joked about struggling to figure out the song before learning proper key changes: “I tried to sing like him and I kinda sounded like Ethel Merman.” Rolling her eyes, pulling faces and delivering one-liners out of the corner of her mouth, Lauper is a naturally hilarious human who effortlessly commands an audience’s attention. (It’s a shame the 1988 adventure comedy Vibes, which she starred in alongside Jeff Goldblum and Peter Falk, was a box office flop, because she’s genuinely fantastic in it — you can’t help but wish she’d done more big screen work.)
Like so many funny people, Lauper can also use humor to help land an emotional gut punch. “Can you imagine if men could get pregnant?” she asked before singing “Sally’s Pigeons,” a harrowing, real-life-inspired tale of a back-alley abortion that ends in death. “What did Gloria Steinem say? It would be a sacrament.” Eyes were also glistening during “True Colors,” which Lauper performed on a small stage in the middle of the arena while a colorful scarf twisted through the air; her extended pause after delivering the “don’t be afraid” lyric at the end was particularly poignant.
And, of course, “Time After Time” had more than a few people wiping their eyes – not to mention dropping their jaws when surprise guest Sam Smith came out to join Lauper on the Hot 100 No. 1, blending their dulcet tones with her restrained, emotive delivery. (Smith watched the remainder of the show completely rapt from the side of the stage.)
The show wrapped, naturally, with “Girls Just Want to Have Fun,” which Lauper performed in a red polka dot outfit from Yayoi Kusama. After singing the line about “boys [who] take a beautiful girl and hide her away from the rest of the world” and wailing “I want to be the one to walk in the sun,” Lauper added a post-Roe appropriate lyrical update: “Everyone wants to have fundamental rights.” Before leading fans in a final sing-along of the chorus, she urged the crowd to give it their all: “Say it loud enough to get rid of all the bad energy in here,” she shouted, smiling. Based on the vitality, power and joy she brought to the MSG on Wednesday, it’s safe to say that the famed Manhattan arena has gone through the musical equivalent of a sage burning, fumigation and re-sanctification under her watch.
When hearing the term “national park,” most people probably don’t think of Trey Anastasio noodling a guitar solo or Nas performing “N.Y. State of Mind.” But at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, both of those things, and much more, happened over the summer.
Located in the Washington, D.C., suburb of Vienna, Va., Wolf Trap is the only national park that’s also a performing arts center and exists solely to be a venue. The park’s centerpiece, the 7,000-capacity amphitheater Filene Center, hosts more than 70 musical performances each season, the 2024 edition of which ended last month with a two-night run by James Taylor.
This season, the park also unveiled a collection of new and updated facilities. Because it’s on designated federal land, this new construction was mandated to aesthetically merge with the park’s pre-existing structures and overall feel. Staff even meticulously documented the areas being refurbished to expand Wolf Trap’s historical record.
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“Everything we’re building is going to be owned by the American people,” says Wolf Trap president/CEO Arvind Manocha. “There’s a lot of checks and balances to make sure that what we’re doing is permanent and meets a standard that’s consistent with the ideals of the way federal land is managed.”
Construction of the public areas started the day after the 2023 season’s final show, with improvements to seating, picnic pavilions, artist areas and more. The centerpiece of the construction is Meadow Commons, a stately, wood-paneled facility that opened in May. Replacing a concessions stand as old as the 53-year-old park itself, the new facility features picnic terraces, expanded food options, modern bathrooms, meeting spaces and elevators that make that area of the park more accessible to guests with mobility issues. The team also used locally sourced timber, installed low-flow toilets, traded out plastic for bamboo serveware and paper straws, installed a wastewater management design that considers local waterways, and built around a pair of 100-year-old trees.
Designed by architectural firm Gensler, whose global projects include the refurbishment of Hollywood’s Egyptian Theater and the construction of Nevada’s Grand Sierra Resort Reno Arena, the Wolf Trap updates were started during the pandemic and done in an architectural style that compliments the Filene Center — which has a striking Brutalist design and is clad in douglas fir — and other pre-existing buildings. Some of these structures date back to when the land was not a venue or park, but a working farm. “I would say it’s contemporary with a rustic heart,” Manocha says of the overall design aesthetic.
Meadow Commons at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
Courtesy of Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
Backstage, an earlier phase of construction revamped the artist area, which Monacha knew — from his time as COO of the LA Phil Association, which oversees the Hollywood Bowl and Disney Hall in Los Angeles — is something that artists notice. (To wit, when Bonnie Raitt came onstage during a June 2022 show, the first thing she said to the audience was, “You guys should see what they’ve done for us back there!”) Wood that previously covered the exterior of the Filene Center was upcycled to cover walls in artist dressing rooms, and a huge map shows performers the location of every National Park in the system. Manocha says artists are now arriving early on show days so they can hike before they play.
Funding for these updates was raised through a private philanthropy campaign orchestrated by Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, a private 501(c)(3) that works with the National Park Service to manage Wolf Trap. The campaign raised $75 million for onsite improvements and the park’s endowment, which also funds an artist training program and an education program designed by Wolf Trap and taught in pre-K schools and childcare centers nationwide. On-site improvements like Meadow Commons are effectively a gift to the park, given that these assets are on federal land and therefore can’t be owned by the Foundation.
While pretty, the land on which Wolf Trap sits is not, on its own, exceptional. You won’t see red rock canyons, towering waterfalls or rolling dunes. Nor does the land possess intrinsic historic value to the creation of the United States, as the country’s roughly 200 other national parks and monuments do. Rather, music and art provide Wolf Trap’s reason for being.
“The Park Service’s remit is to be the stewards of the fabric of American culture,” says Manocha. “In creating a national park for the arts, what the founders said [is] that artistry and creativity is part of the fabric of American culture. It is something that defines us as a people.”
Filene Center at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
Courtesy of Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
Wolf Trap’s origins date back to the mid-1960s and a woman named Catherine Shouse. Born in 1894 in Boston to the family that founded Filene’s Department Store, Shouse was the first woman to receive a master’s degree in education from Harvard. She later became a lauded woman’s rights activist and went on to work in various government sectors. President Calvin Coolidge appointed her to work on women’s prison reform, and she served with every administration thereafter on myriad projects. She also had a farm in Vienna, then a rural outpost of D.C.
When Dulles airport opened 12 miles from Vienna in 1962, the construction of the road connecting it with D.C. split Shouse’s farmland by eminent domain. So, in the mid-’60s, she approached then-President Lyndon Johnson and Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall and told them she wanted to use the land for a public sanctuary that would blend art and nature. She requested this area be designated part of the National Park Service — which was founded in 1916 with the creation of Yellowstone in Wyoming — to ensure a high level of care and permanent protection.
Shouse’s requests were granted, and Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts opened in the summer of 1971 with an inaugural performance by the New York City Opera. In the 53 years since, programming has diversified to include just about everything: The 2024 season included shows by Wilco, Robert Plant & Alison Krauss, Nas, Clint Black, TLC, Anastasio and many others.
“We’re programming the National Park for music, and the National Parks are owned by all Americans,” says Manocha. “So, we have an obligation that everyone in this region feels that Wolf Trap belongs to them. I want people to feel like, ‘There’s something here that speaks to me.’”
Filene Center at Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
Courtesy of Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts
But given that Wolf Trap is a designated National Park, things also operate a bit differently than at a typical venue. Instead of police officers controlling traffic flow on show nights, the job is handled by Park Police and Rangers in the park system’s signature uniforms. The National Park Service also oversees maintenance of the grounds, which includes 120 acres of parkland, 90 acres of forest, trails and a large fishing pond. The Park Service is not involved in artist booking or other arts-related programming.
Of course, Wolf Trap isn’t the only park to host concerts. Red Rocks Amphitheatre exists inside Red Rocks Park, which is owned and operated by the city of Denver. Lollapalooza is permitted to happen in Chicago’s Grant Park. The 2,500-capacity Blue Ridge Music Center amphitheater exists within Blue Ridge Parkway National Park. But Wolf Trap is an outlier in that concerts are literally its entire reason for being. “It’s not like we have to get permission to put on shows at this park, because we are the park,” says Manocha. “Without the concerts, there is no park here.”