venues
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At the beginning of 2013, Mike Luba says he dragged Mumford & Sons’ Ben Lovett to Forest Hills Stadium in Queens on a sort of vision quest. He was working with the band on its Gentlemen of the Road Tour and knew that Lovett had grown up in the tennis town of Wimbledon, England. An avid tennis fan and player himself, Luba wanted to sell the band on “playing a gig at the Wimbledon of New York.”
Built in the 1920s, the stadium, which adjoins and is owned by the West Side Tennis Club (WSTC), had been the site of the U.S. Open for six decades and, in the ’60s and ’70s, hosted a series of landmark concerts by The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, Barbra Streisand, Jimi Hendrix and Bob Dylan, to name a few. But those days had long since passed when Luba says Lovett “took two steps into the site, which at that point had trees growing out of compost piles in the bowl and hadn’t been touched in decades. Ben looked at me and said, ‘This is nothing like Wimbledon. It’s a total fucking train wreck. But we can do a proper rock show here.’
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“That was early 2013,” Luba recalls. “They played that August. That’s how fast I did that.”
Almost 11 years after that first concert, Forest Hills Stadium has evolved into the Chateau Marmont of outdoor venues. Luba and his team have restored much of its ’20s vintage vibe and rehabbed a dozen or so funkily decorated speakeasy-style rooms that ring the stadium floor. (One is entered through a port-a-potty; another, a phone booth.)
A self-described “hippie punk-rock dude,” Luba says the stadium, which has a capacity of about 13,000, will stage “30-ish” events this season in a hypercompetitive market for venues. Neil Young and Crazy Horse, The National, The War on Drugs, Khruangbin, Tiësto, King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and Pitbull are among those that have played or will play this season. And in early June, Hozier sold out four nights — a first in the stadium’s 101-year history.
Box office results have grown accordingly. In 2019, the stadium grossed $6.7 million; in 2023, it took in $22.1 million and finished at No. 17 for the year among venues with capacities between 10,001 and 15,000, according to Billboard Boxscore. Along with that success, however, came an ongoing legal battle with the local homeowners association, the Forest Hills Gardens Corporation (FHGC), over alleged noise levels and unruly crowds.
Luba had much to say about the contretemps during this conversation with Billboard, which took place in the small hut where he works on the stadium grounds. He also discussed his unique employment arrangement. Luba is a partner in Tiebreaker Productions — which holds a long-term lease to the stadium — with his previous full-time employer, AEG, and its subsidiary The Bowery Presents, as well as some overachiever friends from his high school tennis team. Since last July, he is also Live Nation’s executive vp of strategy. (It’s his second turn at the company: He worked with then-chairman Michael Cohl in the early 2000s.) Given the rivalry between the two live-industry giants, his dual roles can be a tightrope walk.
Eleven years later, how has the stadium evolved?
We realized early on that the place itself was inherently magical. So we just leaned into making it feel like when you come here it’s in its 1920s state, but we are using 2024 technology. So much of the credit for that goes to [stadium GM] Jason Brandt and the work that was done. For years, every penny we made got poured back into it. The food and beverage program has totally been elevated. I’m personally most proud of the fact that we now have real bathrooms that are plumbed into the main sewer system of the city. We’re tied into the power grid instead of having to bring in generators. We’ve put in tons of points of sale for bars so there’s no lines. The load-in went from being three days to four hours. You can pull your trucks right up to the stage. It has really reduced the impact on trucks coming in and out of the neighborhood.
“The first time John McEnroe [second from left] came to see a show, he confirmed an urban legend that in 1977, the last year of the U.S. Open here, someone was shot in the shin. I said, ‘That’s crazy.’ He said, ‘There’s something even crazier. I once played tennis with Carlos Santana [left], Vitas Gerulaitis [second from right, who was once a member of the tennis club’s ground crew] and Meat Loaf [right].’ When I showed him this photo, he tried to take it off the wall. I literally had to wrestle it away from him.”
Nina Westervelt
How did you build your season lineup from a few shows to around 30?
The second year we did five. That was right when I started at AEG. I did a walkaround with [chairman/CEO] Jay Marciano — he had previously run the Garden — who told me, “You will never book more than six shows here. The competition is too much.” I said, “Jay, if it was just me, you’re probably right, but my partner Don Sullivan is one of the great promoters of all time. There’s no way we’re not going to be able to book six fucking shows here.” Sure enough, the second year we got five — and the fifth one was a major favor. The first three seasons — 2013, 2014 and 2015 — were all bands that I’d either slept on their couch or they had slept on my couch. I had been their agent or their manager, and Jay and I were cashing in 30 years’ worth of chips. Zero income.
What did you do to turn that around?
It was really word-of-mouth. The bands told other bands. The crews told other crews. And then people who came to shows told other people. Our original ticketing system was Ticketfly, so we had no mailing list. There was no institutional way to market.
When did your battle with the Forest Hills Gardens Corporation begin?
This was the first master-planned neighborhood ever in America, and it happened to include the tennis club and the stadium. The governing body is the Forest Hills Gardens Corporation, with whom we had an incredible relationship for a decade — multiple presidents, multiple boards. It’s an all-volunteer board, and it changes every couple of years. We did everything in consultation with them, we paid them, and at the end of every season, we would sit down and have a postmortem of what was good, what was bad and give them a check.
They had an election, and a new president [Anthony Oprisiu] comes in. It turns out he has a serious grudge against the tennis club. There are all sorts of rumors about what it is. Whatever it is, there’s no rational anything. It doesn’t make any sense. [Editor’s note: A spokesman for the FHGC denies this, saying, “The FHGC board — made up of 15 members — voted unanimously to commence litigation because of the WSTC and Tiebreaker’s unacceptable behavior.”]
So this beef is more about the tennis club than the concerts?
Yeah, but we’re the easy target. The tropes are so prevalent: rock’n’roll, people creating garbage, pissing everywhere, puking everywhere. And it’s just not true. However, to the general public, it all sounds reasonable. This guy and like three to five board members are like the Matt Gaetzes, Marjorie Taylor Greenes — the Freedom Caucus of Forest Hills. They are willing to destroy it for the 600 people who work here on every show and the more than 375,000 people who come here to enjoy the music.
Haven’t you also addressed their complaints about sound levels?
The first year we got here, the conventional wisdom was that in the old days, the sound was blowing up over the top of the stadium. So, we did a full acoustical study, and the engineer was like, look, in the ‘60s you were basically plopping giant speakers on the stages and blasting it. The PAs now are so sophisticated with the line arrays that we can control the direction of it. He said, we can get it so that there’s no sound going over the top, but it will go down the stairwells. If you cover the stairwells, you’ll trap 98% of it. Then, he said, “What step do you want the earmuffs to go on?” I’m like, “Man, I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about.” He said, if you tell me step six, when you hit step six going up to the seats, it will feel like earmuffs get put on your head. Then when you get six steps from the top, you’ll feel like they come off.
Sure as shit, it totally works. We built these bass traps over what used to be kind of dodgy and scary stairwells up into the bowl and after the first show people were freaking out because they’d go into the stairwell and it’s like a sensory deprivation thing. So, we put up signs that say, “You’re standing in a bass trap,” and something like, “These walls were designed specifically to keep the music from reaching our neighbors who are right across the street.” Working hand-in-hand with the DEP, we’ve now built the same sort of enclosures over the ground-floor exits. Outside of putting a roof on it, every hole is blocked. We had Primus ripping on Saturday and there was a moment when I was in the concourse, and I was like, shouldn’t they be on?
“Bob Dylan played air guitar to ‘Tangled Up in Blue’ on this racket his first time back at the stadium,” Luba says.
Nina Westervelt
You gave the corporation a check at the end of each season, and they wanted more?
They wanted $100,000 a show instead of the $5,000 we were paying them. If we wanted to book 20 or more shows, it went to $200,000 a show.
How did they arrive at those numbers?
They made some calculation based on gross ticket sales and attendance, with zero knowledge of our costs. Basically, the only way we survive is selling beer. We have no parking. The bands take all the money, and we’re competing with [Madison Square] Garden, Barclays Center, Central Park, Prospect Park, UBS Arena, Jones Beach and on and on. No one is cutting anyone a deal. [Editor’s note: According to the FHGC spokesman, due to its “decadeslong relationship” with the stadium, it did not charge the market price it charges other entities for closing its streets. He adds, “In light of the stadium’s unwillingness to work in partnership with the FHGC, the FHGC is no longer willing to subsidize the operational costs of the stadium.”]
Where do things stand now?
We got an injunction, which remains in place while this is being litigated. Most of the lawsuit is to make us follow the law and pull the proper permits, which we’ve always done and will continue to do. The judge granted their request to have an independent sound monitor here for every show. We had suggested that the [Department of Environmental Protection] be the independent monitor. They’ve dinged us when we’ve been out of code. They’re a city agency. They have no horse in the race. They’ve dinged us when we’ve been out of code. But after the judge granted their request, they realized they would have to pay for the independent monitor — because it was their request — and they freaked out. Then they wrote a letter withdrawing the one thing that they won because when they won it, they went out to the neighborhood saying they had a triumphant, majestic win in court, and the neighbors were like, whoa, we’re paying for it?
What does the tennis club make of this?
This tennis club is the largest member of the Forest Hills Gardens Corporation. They pay more dues than anyone else. They sued the board for breach of candor and breach of their fiduciary duty because essentially the club is going to be funding the lawsuit against itself. [Editor’s note: In a statement, Oprisiu said, “FHGC remains open to a compromise that respects our community and historic norms of behavior at the club. To date, [the WSTC] and Tiebreaker have yet to share a meaningful proposal for our community to consider. Instead, they have recently tripled the number of events and focused on personal attacks on the board with offensive innuendos and gossip. We’re confident in our legal standing as recently supported by the court’s ruling.”]
You actually own a piece of Forest Hills, right?
The entity is called Tiebreaker Productions. Don Sullivan and I, my high school tennis team, and the guys at MTheory, JT Myers and Nat Pastor, put up the original bread. Then, the MTheory guys said, we don’t want to be in the venue business, and they sold their share to AEG. Then, when AEG acquired Bowery Presents, they got that share.
You’re serious about the high school tennis team?
Dead serious. I have these five friends who have stayed friends since kindergarten. We all went to Wheatley High School in Old Westbury, Long Island. Some of us went to college together. At least once a year we try to get together, and it happened to be the night after I did the walkthrough here. By far, I’m the black sheep of this highly overachieving group. One guy was an incredible high school tennis player. He was considering turning pro but ended up going to Yale and was the best Ivy League tennis player. a freshman. When I explained that I wanted to keep Forest Hills Stadium independent and not sell it to AEG, he looked at me and said, “I love tennis. I love music. Let’s try it.” We were all blotto at that point. I said, “Okay man, tonight go home, take $2 million, put it in a suitcase, go out into your backyard and just torch it. If you can stomach that then welcome to the music business. He called me the next day and said his wife wouldn’t let him do the suitcase thing, but he still wanted to try it.
How did you come to work for Live Nation?
When my deal was potentially coming up at AEG, [Live Nation chief strategy officer] Jordan Zachary called. I was ready to move on. It finally all worked out, and Live Nation gave me this incredible opportunity. I get to work on tours with artists that I love and care about. I get to help them on [business development] when they do new building projects or any kind of venue stuff, and I get to participate a little bit on the big-picture strategy.
Nina Westervelt
How does Forest Hills fit in with your Live Nation work?
From day one, Forest Hills was an open room, like the Garden or the Staples Center. When AEG [took a stake in Tiebreaker], they became the promoter partner, but if there was a band that wanted Live Nation to promote their tour, they would come in. This year, half of the shows we do will be Live Nation and half will be Bowery. When I started back at Live Nation, we began to educate the industry that the idea of playing Jones Beach and Forest Hills is now possible. You look on a map and they’re 27 or so miles apart, but for those who live here, they might as well be Mars and Jupiter. There’s an ecosystem now where Pitbull can play Jones Beach and Forest Hills, as he will, and both will sell out.
How do you balance the Live Nation-AEG equation?
My real job is at Live Nation, and my partners here are Bowery and AEG. The companies clearly don’t like each other, so it’s a little tricky. There’s real-life proprietary shit that I’m dead serious about, and I keep it very, very separate. That’s why I sit out here by myself. I’ll go into the Live Nation office once in a while, but I try to stay out of all the drama. I’m really thankful that both AEG and Live Nation let me exist in this space. And it’s important to me that Live Nation understands that I’m on the Live Nation team. It’s a testament to Rapino and Jordan and that team being open-minded. I mean, I hated Live Nation.
That’s right, you manage The String Cheese Incident, and they sued Ticketmaster for allegedly denying them their direct-to-fan ticket allotment. [The suit was settled.]
Yeah, we sued them under the antitrust act and we probably would have won. But now I see it from the other side that company is full of people who really love music, take real pride in their job, work really hard, and do it at a really high level.
We’ve reported on how Gen Z is not consuming as much alcohol as previous generations. Would you consider selling pot in the way, for instance, that Outside Lands has Grasslands?
I will consider as soon as it’s legal. There’s no reason not to. For me, alcohol is way more dangerous than marijuana. At least in New York State it’s a really gray area. I’m by no means an expert on this, but I think it’s mostly because it’s not federally legal, so there’s no way for the banks — no one knows how to deal with the money part of it. Until there’s some way to actually transact on it, I don’t think we can legally do it anywhere. It’s coming, though, for sure.
What are the most pressing issues facing the live business right now?
Climate change is making it very hard to do outdoor events. I’m worried that at some point they become uninsurable. Every morning, I wake up and multiple shows are canceled in places that have never had [weather issues], like 80-mile-an-hour winds shutting down Lovers & Friends in Las Vegas. And that happens over and over. It’s also become excruciatingly expensive. The supply chain issues are real, labor is real. Five years ago, you could get a bus for $5,000 a week. They’re now $13,000 a week. It’s really hard for bands to tour.
“This is a bobblehead of the master electrician at the stadium, Tommy Sellers. He has been here for basically every show that has been at the stadium, and he’s the spiritual leader for the crew.”
Nina Westervelt
AEG Presents and independent Portland, Ore., promoter Monqui Presents are bringing a brand-new music venue to the city that will be located in the Lloyd District at the former Nordstrom building site on NE Multnomah Street.
Developed and operated by the two entities, the 68,000 sq. ft. venue will offer flexible seating for 2,000 to 4,250 attendees and feature a movable stage for dynamic event configurations. The strategic partnership will be led by AEG Presents’ president of Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Northwest Don Strasburg and Monqui Presents co-owner Mike Quinn.
“This is a project we’ve been working on with Don and the AEG Presents team for about ten years now — we have a great site, excellent design, and most importantly a shared vision in making the audience and artist experience a truly great one,” said Quinn in a press release. “We are extremely fortunate and excited about this partnership and thrilled to bring this venue to Portland.”
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The release details the new venue’s location as “prime” given its placement within the Lloyd Entertainment District boundaries with “its extensive surface and adjacent parking facilities, coupled with easy access to light rail, streetcar lines, and the recently completed north-south bike and pedestrian bridge, ensures unparalleled convenience for attendees.”
AEG Presents and Monqui Presents Partner to open new venue in Portland, Oregon.
Courtesy W.PA
“Mike and the whole Monqui team represent the fabric of Portland,” added Strasburg. “We worked together to find the perfect site and designed the perfect venue — we are excited to deliver the city of Portland the concert experience it so deserves.”
According to the release, the venue will boast state-of-the-art acoustics and sightlines optimized for every patron while accommodating a wide range of musical genres and special events, from intimate acoustic performances to extravagant EDM sets.
Portland-based firm Works Progress Architecture, which also designed Mission Ballroom in Denver, has been entrusted with designing the new venue.
“We’ve had an incredible 25+ year relationship promoting shows with Mike Quinn and Monqui and look forward to many more years of putting on historical shows together,” said regional vp of AEG Presents Pacific Northwest Chad Queirolo.
One of the country’s busiest nightclub markets is getting an addition, with a new club called Substance set to open in Las Vegas on July 12.
The venue will be booked by Las Vegas-based entertainment promotion/production company Rvltn Events, which is partnering with dance behemoth Insomniac Events and the Latin-focused Altura for artist bookings.
The space opens July 12 with a set from house duo Walker & Royce. The summer calendar also includes dance producers Kshmr, Boombox Cartel and Crankdat, with additional artist announcements forthcoming. Saturday nights at the club will focus on Latin music, with the venue also set to feature genres including regional Mexican, rock, R&B, reggae and more.
A single-story, 18,000-square foot venue on Fremont Street in downtown Las Vegas, Substance is located inside the Neonopolis entertainment complex. The space will have an industrial aesthetic, a large-scale LED installation and graffiti and other art by visual artist Gear Duran.
Rvltn is operated by partners Marcel Correa and Joe Borusiewicz, who are also the owners of Substance. The Rvltn Events family also includes Altura Presents, the house and techno-focused Elation and the New Year’s Eve event Jackpot.
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“Growing up in Las Vegas, we’ve always loved our great city and its incredible potential to become a thriving local music scene,” Correa and Borusiewicz said in a joint statement. “We’ve attended countless shows, festivals and events here, and our passion has always been about serving our fellow locals.
“As promoters, working with various venues throughout the city has given us deep insight into what works and what doesn’t — from guest experience and operations to overall strategy. No one enjoys paying $30 for parking or navigating a casino just to attend an event. People dislike strict dress codes, long lines for drinks and bathrooms, poor sound quality and gouging fees. At Substance, our goal is to create an entertainment destination that addresses these issues, incorporating everything we’d want as event producers and local music fans. We can’t wait to unveil our most exciting venture to date.”
Steve Sayer recently celebrated his 10th anniversary at The O2, the AEG Europe-owned and operated London arena that consistently ranks among the world’s top-grossing concert venues. In 2023, the 21,000-capacity building grossed $220 million from 188 shows, placing it second only to Madison Square Garden (MSG), which grossed $223 million, on Billboard’s Top Venues chart (15,001-plus capacity). In terms of total attendance, The O2 is a global leader, welcoming a record 2.4 million people through its doors last year (600,000 more than MSG), according to figures reported to Billboard Boxscore, justifying its claim to the title of “world’s most popular music venue.”
This year looks to be just as busy, with The O2 recently hosting sellout shows by Bring Me the Horizon, Take That, Depeche Mode and The 1975 as well as the three-day Country 2 Country (C2C) festival and 2024 Brit Awards. Upcoming bookings include J Balvin, Doja Cat, Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson, four shows by Liam Gallagher and six shows by The Killers.
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“We’re grossing huge sums for the artists, selling an incredible number of tickets and we continue to invest and innovate to make sure the fans are having an amazing time,” says Sayer, who joined The O2 in 2014 as commercial director before being promoted to VP/GM of the arena four years later.
In addition to overseeing the day-to-day management of the venue, which first opened in 2007, Sayer is responsible for operations at the wider O2 complex, which also contains a second 2,800-capacity venue, a 210,000 square-foot designer shopping outlet, a 19-screen cinema and more than 30 bars and restaurants. “We’re certainly not resting on our laurels,” says Sayer. “We want to continue to be the front runner.”
Here, Sayer discusses dynamic ticketing, the rapidly-increasing costs of putting on shows, his opposition to a proposed Sphere venue in London and more.
Steve Sayer
Courtesy Photo
This year marks your 10th anniversary at The O2. What have been some of the biggest highlights and challenges in that time?
There have been so many highlights and quite a few challenges. It sounds cliched now, but a global pandemic and the shutting down of the live industry for 18 months was an incredible challenge for everybody. We’ve got nearly 200 [staff] that I’m responsible for and I guess what I’m most proud of is leading the team through that period, minimizing a very small number of redundancies and probably coming out stronger at the other end than we’ve ever been.
How has the pandemic changed the live and arena business?
Ticket-buying behavior has definitely changed in terms of late buying. There’s also been a definite shift in the number of shows that are getting booked within weeks and months of the show playing out. Pre-pandemic we would have really good visibility 12 to 18 months [ahead] in terms of what’s in the diary. We still have that to a large degree, but 20% of our shows are now short lead and that’s been a real shift.
What do you regard as some of the biggest issues facing the live music business?
One of them is sustainability. We’re acutely aware of our responsibilities and we collaborate with all our stakeholders right across the industry and we’re pushing hard on that. It would be remiss of me not to mention general cost inflation, which is impacting every part of the live ecosystem. Our energy costs are significantly higher than they were four years ago, and they are only going one way. Wage inflation has gone through the roof: double-digit growth in the last couple of years. The cost of putting on shows and running venues is significantly higher than it has ever been and that is a challenge to try and manage and mitigate that. Another challenge is the [health of] the broader live music ecosystem. While The O2 is having incredible success, we know the U.K. grassroots sector is having a tougher time. We’re cognizant of the importance of a vibrant live ecosystem that fuels sustained success for all of us.
Last month, a Parliamentary committee called for a new voluntary tax to be added to arena and stadium tickets sold in the United Kingdom to support struggling grassroots music venues. Is that something The O2 supports?
It’s something we’ve been talking within the industry about. One thing that we have got to understand as far as a levy [is concerned] is just what is legally permissible when you start thinking about competition rules and unilaterally adding levies to the price of a ticket. But it is certainly something that we’re actively exploring and it’s something that we’re talking about within our own business.
Unlike in the United States, the U.K. live music market has so far been generally resistant to the introduction of dynamic ticketing, whereby prices are set according to demand. Can you see that changing?
My sense is that you are going to see more dynamic pricing in the U.K. It will be an interesting challenge. It’s well understood in Europe that in travel and hotels, you pay a different price based on demand. We haven’t had that in the [U.K.] entertainment or the live sector or even really in sport, but obviously, it is commonplace in the U.S. and North America. My sense is that on certain shows and certain artists, it will start to come in. It’s just a question of over what time period and to what extent. Are we talking about a relatively small number of ringfenced tickets? Or are we talking about the entire manifest? That’s the big question.
AEG strongly opposed proposals by MSG to build a Sphere concert arena in East London, not far from where The O2 is based. Madison Square Garden Entertainment (MSGE), which is owned by James Dolan, withdrew those plans in January following opposition from London Mayor Sadiq Khan. Was that a big win for The O2?
The thing with the Sphere that we’ve always been quite open about is — it’s not about competition. Competition is healthy. We are constantly looking at what other venues, festivals and other industries are doing and what we can learn. There was a lot of local opposition to the Sphere [in London]. Local residents didn’t want the light pollution. Las Vegas is a very different city and a completely different environment to East London. All along we said, “We don’t oppose competition in the live music industry.” But that was the wrong scheme in the wrong location in our view and that was what the [London] Mayor also concluded.
Are there lessons to be learned from the high-profile teething problems at the Oak View Group-owned Co-op Live Arena in Manchester, the U.K.’s biggest concert venue, which finally opened last month after a series of costly delays and cancellations? And what impact do you think the arrival of a major new U.K. arena will have on the wider business?
Building and opening any venue of scale presents various challenges and only underpins the importance of meticulous planning, thorough preparation and engagement with key stakeholders throughout the process, right up to opening day. There’s lots that we can always learn from new venues but we’re not resting on our laurels. We’re going to continue to invest in The O2. This year we’re upgrading our Wi-Fi. We’re starting a two-year program to renovate all our backstage. We’re continuing to look at what we can do on the sustainability front, so back-of-house we’re operating as efficiently as we can be. It’s a good time to be in the industry because while there are challenges, undoubtedly the market forecasts are strong.
As music consumers increasingly demand sustainable options from businesses across the industry, AEG has struck a partnership that will bring a full-time reusable cup program to Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena and Peacock Theater, the company announced Tuesday (June 4). In collaboration with reusable serveware company r.World, which produces reusable items for large-scale gatherings, the venues […]
On Sept. 13, 2004, Van Halen was the first major music act to perform at the newly inaugurated Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot in San Juan. That same year, local and international artists performed at the arena, including Draco Rosa, Daddy Yankee, Juan Luis Guerra, Andrea Bocelli and Korn.
“We wouldn’t have been able to have those shows if we didn’t have El Coliseo,” says ASM Global regional GM Jorge Pérez, who manages the venue. “It was the need we had at that moment in history.”
Mariela Vallines, executive director of the Puerto Rico Convention Center District Authority, which owns the building and contracts with ASM to operate it, notes that over the past 20 years, the coliseum “has become a cultural hub for the island, bringing people together to celebrate music and sports as the host of world-class events and entertainment. The venue has contributed significantly to Puerto Rico’s economy, generating revenue for local businesses and providing employment opportunities on the island.”
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What’s more, she adds, “it has helped to position Puerto Rico as a premium entertainment destination attracting both local and international audiences that have surpassed 10 million visitors over the last two decades.”
Prior to El Coliseo’s construction, the Caribbean island hosted sporting and entertainment events primarily at two locations: Coliseum Roberto Clemente Walker and Hiram Bithorn Stadium. Still, a high-end venue was needed “to be competitive in tourism” because “we couldn’t only survive on leisure, travel and regular tourism,” Pérez says.
Since its inception 20 years ago, “El Choli,” as it is popularly called by locals, has become known both locally and internationally and the ultimate “dream arena” to perform at for many artists.
“The first goal of any artist, musician or DJ is to play in an arena that big,” says Puerto Rican artist Jay Wheeler, who made his Choli debut in 2022 with four sold-out shows. “It’s like winning a Grammy. Every artist from Puerto Rico will always have the goal of doing something in the coliseum.”
Ángela Aguilar, who graced the venue’s stage at the 2023 Premios Juventud.
Gladys Vega/Getty Images
A wave of urban acts has not only received a seal of approval at the venue but also achieved milestones. Daddy Yankee, with his 2019 Con Calma Pal’ Choli shows, grossed $7 million, and Wisin y Yandel grossed $6.2 million with their 2018 string of concerts, according to Billboard Boxscore. The latter act holds the record for most sellouts, with 105,000 tickets sold across eight shows.
El Coliseo was No. 24 on Billboard’s 2023 year-end Top Venues global chart (in the 15,001-plus-capacity category), and it ranked fourth in the Latin/Spanish-language market venue after Miami’s Kaseya Center, Madrid’s WiZink Center and Movistar Arena in Santiago, Chile.
Pérez recently spoke with Billboard about the past, present and future of the venue.
What void did El Coliseo fill when it was built 20 years ago?
The government noticed that there was a need to have a world-class arena. The building we had before was Coliseo Roberto Clemente Walker, which opened in 1973 and where concerts and sporting events were held in the 1980s and 1990s. We also have the Hiram Bithorn Stadium built in 1962. With that came the construction of the Convention Center, which was inaugurated one year after El Coliseo. But the vision was that we needed world-class venues to be competitive in tourism.
We couldn’t only survive on leisure, travel and regular tourism. We needed to provoke groups, meetings, conventions that would have economic movement. To complement that, the government really understood that we needed a top destination. So that’s kind of the history behind it.
There was a lot of criticism at the beginning, even when construction started. But when we look back, it was a very smart decision, considering the exposure Puerto Rico has had in the entertainment industry and how it has opened doors for our artists. When we look back, it was a visionary idea with positive results.
Coliseo de Puerto Rico José Miguel Agrelot is managed by ASM Global’s Jorge Pérez.
Fronthouse Media
What’s the story behind the venue being named after comedian José Miguel Agrelot?
There were a lot of names and ideas out there. In January 2004, José Miguel Agrelot — who was a comedian, radio/TV host, actor, producer and visionary — passed away. So his name came to the top of the list and it was approved.
One of his most famous TV characters was Don Cholito, which he played during the “Encabulla y Vuelve y Tira” segment on El Show del Medio Día (The Midday Show) in the late ’70s and early ’80s. “Encabulla y Vuelve y Tira” referenced the stringing of a wooden spinning top [a yo-yo] — in other words, to do it again and keep trying. That became an analogy of persistence and optimism of the day-to-day challenges that Puerto Ricans had at the time.
While promoting “The Night of Revenge,” one of the first boxing matches that took place at El Coliseo — where Miguel Cotto won the junior welterweight championship — sports commentator Elliott Castro was the first to say: “Let’s go watch boxing at El Choliseo.” Ever since, everyone knows the building by that nickname, El Choli.
Don Cholito provided optimism, a contagious smile and a vibrant personality — and that character was precisely about persistence and overcoming hard times. Those are some strong characteristics and traits that we have in Puerto Rico. Don Cholito’s spirit lives in every corner of El Coliseo.
Why does the venue play an important role in the career of a Puerto Rican artist?
First, it’s their hometown. We’re considered “The Cathedral of Reggaetón,” and for artists of that genre especially it’s important to play at El Coliseo because it’s like a big test for them. We’ve had the top urbano acts perform here. It’s a key venue, and it [marks] a point in each artist’s career of when they performed here, how well they did and how that impacts their careers moving forward.
Why has it become important for artists from other countries?
You have people [in Puerto Rico] who love and really appreciate live entertainment and can identify a good show. The energy here is amazing. We have an educated and knowledgeable crowd. When the crowd at El Coliseo accepts you as an artist, you know you’re en route to doing good things. That goes back to our culture — how we’re raised, how from a very small age we’re listening to music — we know what a top production is. When an artist gets onstage and feels that energy and acceptance, it fills them with confidence in what they’re doing and producing is special.
Daddy Yankee
Astrida Valigorsky/Getty Images
Do Puerto Rican acts get preference in dates?
Not really. We manage our calendar very responsibly, and it’s on a first come, first served basis. I work directly with management or agencies or local promoters to try to find the best fit for dates.
What would you say has been the most logistically complicated concert?
It must be the World’s Hottest Tour. Bad Bunny wanted to break the attendance record, and to do so, they put a very small stage on the south side and put all the production [overhead]. From one point of El Coliseo to the other, all the sound and lighting was on [the ceiling] — that’s not normal. Usually, our stages are large, but they wanted to maximize the audience size. I hear that Bad Bunny’s show now with the Most Wanted Tour is also very complex.
What economic impact does the venue have on the island?
The entertainment and event industry is huge in Puerto Rico and creates 30,000 jobs. It creates $2 billion, and almost $400 million of it goes to the government in the form of sales, tax and other revenue they receive from activities that we host in our buildings. It’s a big chunk of the local economy.
We look at it as an important part of our economic ecosystem. We create a lot of entertainment tourism; people travel from different parts to see a show here. About 15% of tickets purchased at the venue come from a ZIP code not in Puerto Rico. Our vision is to keep promoting Puerto Rico as a premier entertainment and tourism destination. We have a social responsibility to help our community.
In terms of business opportunities that we can bring, the exposure Puerto Rico has gotten through El Coliseo and through the artists that act on our stage has helped put the country on the map. People are realizing that this is a top-notch venue.
Aventura
John Parra/Getty Images
How many people work an event at the venue?
On average at a sold-out event — from events staff to security to housekeeping to operation — we can have close to 400 to 500 staff, not considering the production staff on the artist’s side. We have 26 corporate suites; we have our food concessions. At an end stage, which is the most common setup, we fit 15,000 people, and basically, that’s the average staff that we must [have to] make sure everything moves smoothly.
El Coliseo is now also hosting televised awards shows.
The first one we hosted was the Billboard Latin Music Awards back in 2010, and we resumed in 2020 with Premios Tú Música Urbano. We’ve also hosted Univision’s Premios Juventud in 2022 and 2023. Awards shows are very particular because they take up a lot of time. The setup for one of these shows can be seven to 10 days prior to the show. It’s very complex production, and overall, it takes up a chunk of almost two to three weeks.
After the first awards show we hosted in 2010, looking and finding a three-week period that was not booked became a challenge for us. But when we started again, we realized it was a great showcase for the destination. Premios Juventud, for example, had great ratings and exposed us to an international audience.
What do you envision for El Coliseo 20 years from now?
We are already state of the art, but hopefully, we’ll have a new and larger Coliseo. Even though we maintain the venue in optimal condition, we really focus on keeping this building [able] to comply with all the production riders and high-quality shows that we’ve had.
But the truth is, 20 more years is a long time — and I think that in that time frame, we should be transitioning to a new Coliseo. There has been conversations about building a new stadium in Puerto Rico, too, but I see us transitioning to stay relevant and continue producing results. This was designed as a sports arena, but looking into the future, I’m thinking of a new building with a larger capacity and that’s more entertainment-related.
This story originally appeared in the June 1, 2024, issue of Billboard.
A new venue in Brooklyn is set to bring large-scale cultural events to an industrial area of the city.
Announced Tuesday (May 21), Brooklyn Storehouse is a 104,000-square-foot warehouse that’s been taken over as a venue for culture-spanning programming involving fashion, art, music and more — with an emphasis on electronic events.
Brooklyn Storehouse is a partnership between two longstanding independent promoters: New York City‘s TCE Presents, the parent company of event producer Teksupport, which was founded by Rob Toma and has produced electronic music events in pop-up (and often industrial) spaces around the city since 2010, and Broadwick Live. Founded by Simeon Aldred in 2010, Broadwick Live is a U.K. live events company that operates 30 venues and event spaces including Drumsheds and the former Printworks London. Housed in a former Ikea and a converted newspaper printing facility, respectively, Drumsheds and the now-defunct Printworks London fit squarely into Broadwick Live’s focus on repurposing industrial buildings.
Together, TCE Presents and Broadwick Live have leased the Brooklyn Storehouse from the Brooklyn Navy Yard, with the warehouse space existing amid a 300-acre industrial waterfront complex. The building was first used for shipbuilding during World War I and II, and its structure maintains its original industrial aesthetic. Much of the Navy Yard is currently being developed for industrial use by clean energy and climate solutions companies. As such, it’s unlikely that the area will be built out with housing units, allowing Brooklyn Storehouse more leeway when producing live (and often late-night) events.
“One of the problems we have in the U.K. is that nearly every space we open, two years later someone’s building condos right on our back door, and it becomes a constant pressure,” says Aldred. “One of the things that’s very attractive about the Navy Yard is that it’s protected for jobs, and it’s going to be like that for a long time.”
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The founders — who launched the endeavor with “50/50 our own money,” says Aldred — soft-launched Brooklyn Storehouse last September with a fashion show by Ralph Lauren. The venue can host a maximum of 7,000 people.
Brooklyn Storehouse
Phillip Reed
The partnership brings Toma and his team’s strengths— “promotions, marketing, bookings, licensing, opening doors, breaking down operations, community outreach” says Toma — along with the company’s ability to, Aldred says “immediately supercharge this [space] with 30 to 40 shows.” Over the next few months, Brooklyn Storehouse is set to host performances from Justice, Charlotte de Witte, Dom Dolla, John Summit, Swedish House Mafia, Alesso, James Hype and Meduza and four parties from Ibiza-based party brand CircoLoco later this year.
Toma adds that a lot of those artists are “coming to us because we don’t only focus on selling tickets on the dance floor. They know the spaces we do are involved with fashion [and other cultural programming], and they know this is that.” Toma also says artists are drawn to performing shows in special locations, with Brooklyn Storehouse thus offering “an advantage over our competitors.”
Toma adds that the key to making the space work is “the balance of not only having programming in terms of cold hard tickets. It’s more about figuring out how to position it in a way where we’re also bringing in several different industries, from film to fashion.” The founders hope it can be a space where orchestras, musicians and other groups can set up extended creative residencies. It will be also used for corporate gatherings.
Brooklyn Storehouse is the first of several venues Broadwick Live and TCE Presents plan to operate in the United States, with the partners also currently looking at former industrial spaces in Boston, Miami, Los Angeles and Sao Paulo, Brazil.
“In America at the moment we’ve got 25 to 30 [conversations ongoing],” says Aldred. “Five to 10 of those are in the money part of the talk, so they’re becoming quite real.”
In these industrial spaces, the partners see a particularly timely expansion opportunity, with Aldred predicting that many such facilities will open up as the power grid converts to clean energy.
“These spaces were used for kind of dirty work,” he says. “In the next 5 to 10 years, you’re gonna see them coming offline from being dirty and developers not knowing what to do with them. You’re not going to bulldoze a hundred-year-old power station with amazing architecture. It’s not easy to put retail in them. It’s not easy to put housing into them.”
But as is the hope with Brooklyn Storehouse, parties, fashion shows and DJ sets will be just the right fit.
With Sparkling gold cowboy boots that double as disco balls, a corner dedicated to Dolly Parton and vintage storefront signage that recalls the spirit of Westerns filmed in Pioneertown, Calif., it’s easy to see why someone at the country music-inspired Desert 5 Spot in Los Angeles would want to document all of its intricacies. Yet the owners of the multifaceted entertainment venue would prefer that guests abstain.
When Ten Five Hospitality managing partner Dan Daley and his team opened the rooftop bar in December 2021, they envisioned a location where guests could stay in the moment. “It was this pullback to an era when not everything was viewed through the medium of a screen,” Daley says. “We wanted the exact opposite of that manufactured feeling when you get into another space and feel like, ‘This feels fake because it’s almost too perfect.’ ”
The interior of Desert 5 Spot in Los Angeles.
Desert 5 Spot
In June, Desert 5 Spot will open a roughly 200-capacity second location, traveling cross-country to Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood. The venue will bring with it much of its style, such as the hand-selected furniture from antique sales and thrift shops across the West, various forms of its Boho desert-inspired chic and the affably named Dolly’s Corner. Like its predecessor, Desert 5 Spot N.Y. will prioritize the live-music experience with performances from rising artists, DJ sets and an in-house band — though plenty of established country and rock’n’roll talents are bound to show up. (In L.A., Kane Brown, Green Day, Dasha and Noah Cyrus have all performed, while others including Lainey Wilson and John Mayer have swung by the venue.) Plus, it’ll offer an array of weekly programming featuring line dancing and two-stepping classes, tarot card reading, a vintage trading post and more. Daley adds that there will be a regular Sunday-night party exclusive to the Williamsburg location, though keeps specifics under wraps. As for food and drinks: “L.A.-approved tacos,” he says with a grin. “We’re going to sling some of the best tacos in New York.”
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The venue’s East Coast debut follows a year in which the top song and album were both country releases (Morgan Wallen’s “Last Night” and One Thing at a Time, respectively). The genre’s popularity has sustained in 2024, with pop stars like Beyoncé, Post Malone and Lana Del Rey either releasing blockbuster country projects or teasing forthcoming efforts. Daley expects the venue to embody the aura that has fueled the trend. “The ethos of country music is rawness, it’s authentic; it’s messy, but it’s real emotion,” he says. “I think that’s why the genre is speaking to all different types of people now. It’s part of this cultural reversal in terms of, ‘Let’s get back to real human connection,’ which at the end of the day is what country music is really about.”
Daley reveals the partners are eyeing other markets and considering further expansion, but the focus now is on New York. Still, it hasn’t precluded them from growing in other ways: At the Stagecoach festival in April, Desert 5 Spot hosted a pop-up featuring performances from Shaboozey and Nikki Lane over the weekend and attracting attendees including Leon Bridges, Diplo and Del Rey. But as the brand continues to grow, Daley stresses that its core message to guests remains the same. “Our goal is for you to [leave] our venue and say, ‘That was one of the best times in a really long time.’ ”
This story originally appeared in the May 11, 2024, issue of Billboard.
Olivia Rodrigo apologized to fans on Wednesday (May 1) after learning that her planned Friday night (May 3) show at Manchester‘s troubled new arena, Co-Op Live, had been postponed due to what the venue said are ongoing “technical issues”; Rodrigo’s second show on Saturday as part of the launch of the U.K. swing of her GUTS world tour has also been postponed.
“I’ve been having such a great time in Europe so far and I’m sooooo disappointed that we’re unable to perform in Manchester due to on-going venue-related technical issues,” Rodrigo said on her Instagram Story on Wednesday night. The singer said her team are doing their best to reschedule the shows, adding, “I’m so bummed and I really hope to see you all soon,” she told fans.
According to NME, just two days before the first Rodrigo show the venue announced that the dates had been pushed due to ongoing technical problems at the 23,500-capacity building. The arena was slated to officially open on April 23-24 with a pair of shows by comedian Peter Kay, but they were moved back to April 29-30 due to a failed power test after a half-capacity dry-run event with singer Rick Astley.
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In addition, a show by the Black Keys scheduled for April 27 was pushed to May 15 and the Kay shows were moved again (now slated for May 23-24), with Kay expressing his disappointment in an X post in which he wrote, ““My apologies once again but unfortunately the Co-op Live still isn’t ready and so, as yet, remains untested for a large-scale audience. Consequently, they are having to reschedule my two shows yet again (I know I can’t believe it either).”
The technical issues appear to be unresolved, with the venue announcing on Wednesday that a show by rapper A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie was cancelled just 10 minutes after doors opened. “Due to a venue-related technical issue, tonight’s A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie show will no longer go ahead. We kindly ask fans to leave the area. Tickets holders will receive further information in due course,” read a statement.
Not long later, the venue announced that Rodrigo’s shows were also being pushed back. “Due to an on-going venue-related technical issue, the scheduled performances of Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS World Tour on 3rd and 4th May are being postponed. Ticket holders can either hold onto their tickets or obtain a refund at point of purchase,” read a statement.
After the latest setback with the Rodrigo shows, Manchester Evening News reported that a Co-Op Live spokesperson said the technical issue was related to part of an air conditioning unit falling from the rafters during soundcheck before the Boogie show; nobody was hurt in the incident according to reports.
“During soundcheck, a component of the heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) system, used to direct air, separated from the ductwork,” read a statement from a spokesperson for Oak View Group, the company backing the venue. “There was nobody injured. Although we believe this to be an isolated incident caused by a factory defect, we were not able to verify that all similar nozzles were free of such defects. In conjunction with wider stakeholders, Oak View Group has made the necessary call to ensure the full safety of all visitors to the venue, and to postpone the performance.”
“We understand the need to reassure fans over future shows. We are working with artist management and promoters to limit the impact on the opening season schedule,” the statement continued. “Where necessary, we will identify alternate dates, and will continually reassess to provide fans with sufficient notice regarding imminent shows. Should shows be cancelled or rescheduled, fans will be contacted by their point of purchase and offered a full refund where preferred. “
Oak View Group CEO/Chairman Tim Leiweke added, “The safety and security of all visiting and working on Co-op Live is our utmost priority, and we could not and will not run any event until it is absolutely safe to do so. Today was a very unexpected situation but without a doubt the right decision. I deeply apologize for the impact that this has had on ticket holders and fans.”
The venue — which at press time still listed the original Rodrigo dates on its site — has shows booked with Keane, Take That, Eric Clapton, Barry Manilow, Nicki Minaj and the Eagles scheduled through the end of the month, followed by planned gigs from the Smashing Pumpkins, Liam Gallagher, the Killers, Pearl Jam, Megan Thee Stallion, Justin Timberlake and Noah Kahan through mid-August.
The venue situated next to the Manchester City football pitch is the largest indoor arena in the U.K. and it is slated to host the 2024 MTV European Music Awards in November.
See statements from the venue below.
Due to an on-going venue-related technical issue, the scheduled performances of Olivia Rodrigo’s GUTS World Tour on 3rd and 4th May are being postponed. Ticket holders can either hold onto their tickets or obtain a refund at point of purchase.— Co-op Live (@TheCoopLive) May 1, 2024
Due to a venue-related technical issue, tonight’s A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie show will no longer go ahead. We kindly ask fans to leave the area. Tickets holders will receive further information in due course.— Co-op Live (@TheCoopLive) May 1, 2024
Mike Wheeler says he has 16 gigs lined up in April at clubs in his hometown of Chicago — a solid run but nowhere near the number he was playing before the pandemic. “Things are 50% normal,” says the veteran singer-guitarist, who has performed with Buddy Guy, the late B.B. King and Koko Taylor. “[There are] more clubs open now, but mostly Wednesday through Sunday. We’re trying to find the most gigs I can get in the city, but as far as tours and revenue, it’s kind of limited.”
Even in a blues mecca like Chicago, the genre has taken a significant hit over the past few years. Artists and club owners in musically vibrant cities cite numerous culprits — rising crime rates, the lingering pandemic-era habit of staying home, competition from nearby music festivals, home alcoholic-beverage delivery and the recent deaths of such headliners as Lonnie Brooks, Jimmy Johnson, James “Tail Dragger” Jones and members of The Kinsey Report.
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“It is sporadic, to say the least,” says Lisa Pellegrino, who manages Chi-town’s famed Kingston Mines blues club. “I don’t think anybody’s having a banner year.”
While Tony Mangiullo, founder and owner of nearby Rosa’s Lounge, is more upbeat — “The business is good, that’s all you need to know,” he says — he acknowledges the pandemic changed fans’ concert-going habits. “By 1:30, 2 in the morning, people are tired, the musicians are tired, and we’re tired. In the past, you would have people staying late. I’m really hoping we go back to that.”
Through its rickety constellation of indie labels, roadhouses and juke joints, the blues business is reinventing itself. Its biggest stars have died, retired or reduced their touring activity, leaving fewer headliners to carry festivals and weekend club dates. And while artists like Wheeler and clubs like Rosa’s keep the lights on with hard-drinking customers, door fees and ticket sales, the pandemic and its aftermath have forced many to rethink their models.
Mangiullo has invested in livestreaming and hopes to release live album compilations this fall; venerable Chicago-blues indie label Alligator Records partnered in 2021 with a new music company, Exceleration Music — founded by former Concord Music Group CEO Glen Barros — to handle physical distribution and other functions; and a new generation of stars, from singer Shemekia Copeland to guitar hero Christone “Kingfish” Ingram, has expanded the playing field from traditional clubs to gigs at arts centers and festivals, social media and satellite radio.
U.S. streaming numbers for the genre have increased 41% since 2020, from 1.7 billion in 2020 to almost 2.5 billion last year, according to Luminate. (In comparison, Taylor Swift racked up 17.5 billion on her own.) But owners of indie blues labels say the revenue has little impact on their bottom lines. “It takes a lot of streams to make a nickel,” M.C. Records owner Mark Carpentieri says. “Our better-known classic artists, like Hound Dog Taylor, Koko Taylor and Albert Collins, have a lot of life in the streaming services,” says Bruce Iglauer, founder of 53-year-old Alligator Records. “Our lesser-known artists do not particularly benefit from them.”
The genre remains reliant on touring, and if blues stars use social media to market to their older-skewing fan bases, they’re more likely to use Facebook instead of TikTok. They also sell albums and CDs at gigs for autograph-seekers, and labels are scrambling to make as many titles as possible available on vinyl.
Ingram, whom Iglauer calls Alligator’s “big success story,” is a 25-year-old guitar hero who has grown into an international festival headliner, even though his most popular album, 2021’s 662, has just 9.3 million streams in the United States and has sold 29,000 copies. Many in the blues business point to him as the future, a young talent who can refresh the genre. At first, Ingram’s friends were into hip-hop and didn’t much care for blues; today, he tells Billboard, “I see a resurgence in young people liking it, especially young Black kids.”
Ingram’s manager, Ric Whitney, says blues artists are expanding their audiences by supplementing club gigs with shows at festivals, arts centers and other venues that feature a wider range of music genres and styles. “There are a lot more places that are open to booking blues talent that aren’t necessarily blues clubs,” he says.
Veteran blues-rock guitarist Joe Bonamassa, who estimates his post-pandemic ticket sales are “back and then some,” says he has broadened his marketing efforts to rock fans who attend Foo Fighters, Eagles and Red Hot Chili Peppers shows. “We’ve always looked at it from the point of view [that], ‘If Eric Clapton can pull 15,000 people in a market, there’s clearly 15,000 people who like this kind of music,’” Bonamassa says. “It’s a classic rock-/blues-based audience, and that’s where you want to target.”
Bonamassa suggests artists and clubs identify fan base demographics through Google Analytics and other data tools, then “laser-focus marketing to the people that love this shit.” An effective blues cross-marketer has been Copeland, who uses her show on SiriusXM’s Bluesville channel to promote her albums and steady weekend touring. “This year is going to be one of the best financially that she ever had,” says her manager, John Hahn.
Joe talks with Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast about touring, covering Tom Waits, and which younger blues musicians he thinks are exciting.
Others are struggling or modifying their business strategies. Terra Blues, the 34-year-old club in New York’s Greenwich Village that books acoustic locals such as guitarists SaRon Crenshaw and Jr. Mack, relies on the lenience of a landlord. “If not for that, we probably would be closed,” owner Ilan Elmatad says. “Bluesmen do not tour anymore. It’s too expensive. These days, they’re staying where they are, whether it’s Mississippi or Arkansas. There are no blues clubs from Philadelphia to Montreal. We’re the only one.”
The departure of reliable artists from the touring circuit, whether they’ve retired or died, led Austin talent buyer Zach Ernst to rethink his approach to booking acts at Antone’s Nightclub and the Austin Blues Festival. For years, the club’s late founder, Clifford Antone, was strict about sticking to traditional artists, but Ernst says he’s “lucky if I can do one or two blues shows a month.” And whereas blues festivals throughout the United States once relied on straight-down-the-middle artists from Luther Allison to Koko Taylor, the Austin Blues Festival has expanded its lineup beyond the genre, much like the New Orleans Jazz Festival in recent years. This year’s festival stars Buddy Guy (whom Ernst calls “the last Chicago blues headliner, period”), Brittany Howard and blues-adjacent acts from Big Freedia to Dumpstaphunk.
“Everywhere, promoters are dealing with: ‘How do you deal with an aging fan base? How do you deal with a reduced number of headliners that are appealing to the baby boomer generation?’” Ernst says. “We don’t get too prescriptive by explaining exactly what we’re doing. We’re just like, ‘Hey, this is great music. Have a great time.’”
This story appears in the April 27, 2024, issue of Billboard.