How the World's Largest Music Festival Books Bands

This week on the New Music Business podcast features Bob Babisch, the Vice President of Entertainment for the glorious Summerfest. Following its 1968 debut, Summerfest has evolved into what is now recognized as “the World’s Largest Music Festival” and Milwaukee’s cornerstone summer celebration with approximately 800k people. Babisch manages tens of millions of dollars in the entertainment budget for Summerfest on an annual basis, and has worked with a plethora of artists over his 46 years in the music industry, from The Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Stevie Wonder to Whitney Houston, Lady Gaga and Kanye West. Learn more about Summerfest here: https://www.summerfest.com 5:05 Welcome 7:38 The history of Summerfest 9:42 How many people each stage holds 11:54 Structuring the festival lineup 13:27 Showcasing local Wisconsin artists 16:45 Keeping up with the times 18:30 When Summerfest starts booking acts 22:15 Fishing where the fish are 23:38 The finances behind Summerfest 30:17 The production crew 35:25 Change over times and standard line checks 38:46 Video screens on stage 39:51 Festival hospitality 41:39 Smaller ground stages 43:44 How to get booked at Summerfest 47:29 Final question Subscribe to The New Music Business: https://aristake.com/nmb Ari's Take Academy (use code NMB for 10% off): https://aristakeacademy.com Watch more discussions like this: https://bit.ly/3LavMpa Connect with Ari’s Take: Website: https://aristake.com Academy: https://aristakeacademy.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aristake_/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@aris.take Twitter: https://twitter.com/ArisTake YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/aristake1 Connect with Ari Herstand: Website: https://ariherstand.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/ariherstand Twitter: https://twitter.com/ariherstand YouTube: https://youtube.com/ariherstand Connect with Bob Babisch: Website: https://www.milwaukeeworldfestival.com Website: https://www.summerfest.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/summerfest Twitter: https://twitter.com/sfestbob Edited and mixed by Maxton Hunter Music by Brassroots District Produced by the team at Ari’s Take Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.