A Lack of Originality: Why Several Festivals Book the Same Acts

When looking at the festival lineups for this year, the first response is likely to judge the lineup based on personal interest in the artists; while I often discuss the lineups from a booking standpoint in the podcast, I also think about the artists I like in the lineups and if it is something that interests me.  Another reaction that might come up if looking at festival lineups is that a lot of major festivals have a lot of crossover between their lineups.  This year, notable artists that have been booked for several major festivals include Foo Fighters, Kendrick Lamar, SZA, Odesza, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Lizzo, The Lumineers, The 1975, Alanis Morrisette, Maggie Rogers, Queens of the Stone Age, Noah Kahan, and 070 Shake.  While I have never discussed this in depth on either the blog or the podcast, this is not a new trend; in fact, there is a very logical reason most do this:  it is financially responsible.

In general, it makes sense for a festival to target artists who are currently on tour.  Typically when an artist is doing a stand-alone festival date, the cost of booking the artist is going to be more expensive due to a variety of costs, including higher costs of travel, set production, and services.  It might sound absurd when hearing that for the first time, but if an artist is in the midst of a tour, there wouldn’t be motivation for the artist to charge extra in a variety of costs related to their shows since they’re already transporting everything necessary to their other shows.  If a company organizes multiple festivals, it makes sense for them financially to book the same act for multiple festivals (for instance, Danny Wimer Presents organizes multiple hard rock/metal festivals throughout the country, and they often have crossover between their festivals with both the headliners and undercard acts).  On top of that, festivals typically have radius clauses, where an artist agrees not to perform within a certain distance and timespan of the festival; as such, an artist might be motivated to perform a festival so that that can knock off several locations from their touring dates.  For example, Foo Fighters are on an extensive tour that includes many festival dates.  One festival they are scheduled to perform is Riot Fest in Chicago, which is their lone Chicago date.  There are many times where artists can get paid more to perform these festival dates than stand-alone shows, especially if they are smaller acts, so it makes sense to take advantage of these opportunities when they come along.

During my freshman year of undergrad at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, CT, I was involved with promoting the spring concert.  While I was not involved in booking the act, I have knowledge about the process of booking the acts for this show.  The act that was booked for the show was Capital Cities.  Initially the expectation was that we would be paying them $x to book them (even though it has been 9 years, I don’t feel comfortable revealing the dollar amounts), as well as $y for the opening act and $z for the stage/lighting.  In general, we had targeted acts who were already on tour since this amount could have gone up to $1.5x or $2x if they had not been on tour, which would have been over budget.  That said, since they were already on a specific tour, they also provided the stage, lighting, and the opener act in the $x booking, which ended up saving a decent amount of money.  Normally the stage would not be included for festivals, but it was since they were performing at several colleges.  Many festivals will also do what we did and book any opening acts or other acts that are touring with an act they book because it can save a little more money and get another act booked.  While not a direct comparison, this is similar to how festivals often target their bookings.

While it makes sense for some individuals to be frustrated if many acts are the same across festivals, there really isn’t motivation to deter festivals from doing this otherwise.  While most major festivals attract people from across the country (or world), the majority of festivals are best suited targeting local individuals, suggesting that these individuals weren’t going likely to choose a distant festival with similar acts over the local one anyways.  Most importantly, the goal of festivals is to make a profit, even if they are trying to put on a good festival.  If people are still buying tickets to the festival, what motivation do the organizers have to change what they are doing?  While it might be frustrating for fans, it makes too much sense from a business standpoint for most festivals to not book acts that are performing several other festivals as well.