Sponsored by L Acoustics. 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.
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MusicTranscript
00:00Thanks so much for joining us. I'm Amber Mundinger with Elle Acoustics, and excited to chat with these three great individuals
00:08about festivals, and sound, and immersive technology, and all of the things.
00:13So, I thought maybe we could start by each of you just doing a quick intro of yourselves, for anybody that doesn't know who you are.
00:22Alright, I'm Dave Ratt, and I started off as building sound systems, recording bands,
00:29have a sound company, Ratt Sound, and supply equipment for touring and festivals,
00:36and sound engineer, been doing that, was doing that for about 30, almost 40 years.
00:42Chili Peppers, Rage Against the Machine, and Soundgarden, a bunch of other bands,
00:48and now I do sound consulting and run the sound company.
00:54Just those small bands, that's it?
00:56Yeah, just the little bands, you know?
00:58I'm Josh Kerfurst, I'm a partner and global head of festivals for WME.
01:06Hi everyone, my name is David Lopez-Aranosa, and I work for Polygon Live, which is a
01:14company that creates immersive stages, immersive music stages, and sort of multi-sensory experiences.
01:24Love it. So, first question, in terms of sound design, where do you think we are currently,
01:32in terms of innovation in sound at festivals, and how do you see the integration of large-scale
01:39spatial audio potentially transforming that experience? Start with you, Dave, maybe, and then we'll jump in.
01:46Me?
01:47Yeah.
01:51As far as large, where are we as far as innovation in large-scale spatial audio?
01:56Well, and just in terms of sound design, in general.
02:00You know, large-scale spatial audio is challenging because of the distances involved in large events,
02:06and the physics of time, and how slow sound travels. So, you kind of reach this point of
02:12diminishing returns in smaller environments. You know, spatial can be quite impressive in
02:18headphones, but then when you get into a living room, it gets almost as good, and as you expand
02:24out spatially, it becomes increasingly difficult to do because of the timing.
02:31So, there is some issues with that, but as far as achieving high-quality coverage and
02:39interesting sound, I mean, we're definitely making some headway
02:42in that, and I think David's probably pretty good at dealing with that.
02:47Yeah, just to speak to your point about the challenges of scaling up. At Polygon, we've
02:54been doing a festival in Thailand called Wonder Fruit for about six or seven years now, and we've
03:01also done a festival in Saudi Arabia, and we just recently did an Amsterdam dance event.
03:10But we've sort of found that 25 meters is the largest we want to go with the size of our
03:17immersive sound system. We found that that's kind of like the sweet spot for us, as far as
03:23the best compromise in terms of most people receiving a really high-quality immersive
03:30experience. So, we're paving a new path forward with, instead of just going bigger than 25 meters
03:40and making the circle larger, we're doing multiple circles. So, moving forward, we've got
03:48some really interesting plans in the works. We just announced a festival that we're going to
03:52have in London in May, and we're going to have a dual Polygon, so there's going to be two
03:58duplicate circles of spatial audio, basically, facing the stage. And we've got designs for a
04:04triple and a quadruple, and you get the idea. So, our way of addressing that challenge
04:10is basically, we want to keep it an intimate and truly engaging spatial experience
04:17for everybody. So, we're going the route of multiple circles moving forward.
04:23I'm not a tech guy, but I have been to hundreds of festivals for the past 20 years, and I can say
04:29the one thing I've noticed is, you know, sound bleed is obviously a major factor at festivals. No
04:35site is kind of created equal, and the spacing of the stages and the angles at which they're
04:40facing oftentimes affects the performance, and also the performances on other stages. And a lot of the
04:47kickback we get from our clients is like, you know, if they hear another stage while they're
04:52on stage performing, it's a shitty experience for the artist and the fans. And the one thing I've
04:57noticed, especially in the past, I'd say probably since the pandemic, maybe a little bit before,
05:03is that the speakers have grown smaller, yet the quality has gotten better, and you guys have
05:10really been able to dial in the sound so that it stays at the stage in which it is intended to be
05:18at, and isn't traveling across the sites to other stages, and also pissing off neighbors, which is
05:25also a common issue with festivals. Yeah, I mean, I think that kind of like ties into my next
05:32question about audience engagement, and to your point, Josh, like, you know, making sure that
05:36there's the distinction between stages and sound. There's, I feel like, so much more now.
05:43There's, you know, more video, you know, more sound technologies, reshaping festivals,
05:50and enhancing things, but how do you guys think that's, like, helping audience
05:57engagement, encouraging audience engagement? Like, what are you each seeing from your perspectives?
06:02I mean, you just added a new stage, even at Coachella, for example.
06:09Yeah, as far as, a little, kind of a blurry question there, the, you know, as far, going back to
06:17on-site and off-site sound coverage and mitigation, stage to stage, or stage to off-site,
06:25and that's a significant challenge for the promoters to keep the off-site sound down,
06:32and also for the on-site sound between the various stages, and the control of that has
06:38definitely improved quite a bit, and there's a lot of new tools that we have in the past decade or so
06:45to improve that, and it's a balancing act for, do you really want a dead spot between two stages,
06:53or do you want it to blur, do you want a 50-50 zone where the sound draws you into the next stage
06:57as you're halfway between, how much bleed is too much bleed, and how far can we reduce the off-site
07:03sound? Combining that with not compromising the audience experience and maintaining impact,
07:11and bringing up, like, Quasar's stage for Coachella, I do the on- and off-site sound
07:17mitigation for multiple festivals, including Coachella and Portola, being able to
07:27improve the quality of sound for the local, for the audience themselves, not bleeding into the
07:31next, not bleeding into the neighbors, and capturing that audience experience, I mean, that's really
07:38the focus of the modern festival, whereas previously it was just put a bunch of speakers
07:44out there and blast everything and trying to piss too many people off and put stuff far apart,
07:51now noise mitigation is, or sound control and mitigation, is of the highest priority.
07:59Yeah, and I'd say back to the experience, which you mentioned a couple times, I mean, the experience
08:04at a festival now for the fan is everything, you know, I mean, you can book the best lineup
08:10on the planet, but if you biff on the experience, the fans aren't coming back next year, so part of
08:16the experience I get, you know, is what these gentlemen are doing, is enhancing the sound and
08:21the production quality of the festivals, but I think the festivals themselves have figured out
08:26that just booking a great lineup that sounds great is not enough, and they're starting to branch out
08:31into other areas, you know, whether it be, you know, offering group yoga all the way through to
08:38bringing in local food vendors from, you know, from the neighboring towns, to, you know,
08:46to offering like at Lollapalooza, you have kids of Palooza, you know, like everything is sort of like
08:50bring more people to the site and have a little bit of something for everyone, because that's
08:55really what a festival experience is supposed to be about, bringing a bunch of different genres
09:00of music together, a bunch of different people from all different backgrounds together, you know,
09:04in this big kind of celebration. Yeah, I think the immersive audio, it's so compelling for that
09:13reason, for, you know, the experience bringing fans closer to the music, and I think it's just worth
09:20explaining real quick what immersive audio is and what it isn't, so immersive audio isn't just
09:25firing sound at people from all angles, it's not the same sound, it's different
09:31sounds coming at you from all angles, so you might have a guitar from over here, and then the bass
09:36will be over there, and then you've got your lead vocal right in the middle, and then you might have
09:40the background vocals on the side, so, you know, it's a technologically, it's a much different
09:46experience, and so I think that really helps fans connect to the music, because, you know, you can
09:54really differentiate every sound so clearly with spatial audio, the, you know, the vocalist is
09:59right there, and it's not competing for frequency with all these other instruments, you know, you
10:05need less EQ and compression to, you can just let that vocal be what it is, and it's in all its beauty,
10:11and so for the fans, for their experience, they really, they hear the music in ways they haven't
10:17heard it before, you know, and as consumers, you know, Dolby Atmos is this new thing that's sort of,
10:24you know, in spatial audio on your iPhones, and it's pretty cool, and, you know, with the AirPods,
10:30but it's kind of like, so-so, but, you know, I think everyone who's heard spatial audio
10:37over speakers can really agree that it is just by far a way more compelling experience,
10:45and practically speaking, it's hard for fans and consumers to put a bunch of speakers in a room,
10:51you know, think of all the wiring, you'd have to go pretty crazy with your living room to make it
10:55happen, but, you know, at a concert, you know, we found really creative ways to put speakers
11:01all around you in almost a dome configuration, and for the fans, I think, you know,
11:08their reactions, you know, across the board are extremely positive, and just, you know,
11:15you know, for example, with Thailand, with Wonderfru, our stage isn't the biggest stage,
11:20you know, we don't have the biggest headliners in the festival, but we're the most packed,
11:25the most crowded, every, you know, fans are constantly saying they love our stage, and
11:30they're coming back year after year specifically to experience the Polygon stage, so I think that's
11:35a testament. Yeah, absolutely. Josh, question for you. I know you, you know, you work on
11:42booking a lot of artists, you know, and have a lot of experience kind of across festivals.
11:48Can you talk about some of the, even the new initiatives that you're seeing,
11:52potentially for developing artists, or just artists in general,
11:56when it comes to kind of supporting them from a sound video innovation standpoint?
12:03Sure. I mean, you know, for, since I've been doing this, festivals have been, you know, kind of,
12:10you know, we call them green bananas, but, you know, taking a shot on a band that's sort of
12:15in the process of developing and hoping that you catch the next one that's gonna,
12:19you know, blow up, because, you know, we're booking festivals, like, we're booking next
12:22summer now, you know, so there's a lot of acts, there's a lot of room to grow between now and
12:28then. Sometimes festivals are taking shots on acts, don't even have music out yet, but they're
12:32just trusting the, you know, the booking agents taste, or, you know, doing a favor for the agency,
12:38because you have a few headliners, you know, there's lots of different ways that we get our
12:41developing acts on the festival. You know, there's also stages that are sort of designed
12:46for developing acts, like, you know, they have the BMI and the ASCAP stages and a lot of big
12:51major festivals that are strictly for, you know, developing acts looking to play at a major
12:57festival. And something else I've noticed is a sort of a, I mean, an old trend that's becoming,
13:02I guess, a little bit more popular is, you know, labels getting their own stages at festivals and
13:07sort of plugging in some of their developing acts. And so if you have a tasty label with a
13:13good brand, you know, you get your own stage, you bring in your newbies, maybe you headline
13:18someone with a little bit of clout, but everyone else is sort of on the up and coming. As for how
13:24it's associated back to production, I don't know that I have the experience in that realm as much,
13:29but there certainly is a, you know, there's nothing better for a developing act who,
13:36if they went to town and played a club, they'd draw 50 people if they're lucky. And to play on
13:42one of these major stages at a festival, even if it's early in the day and there's 5,000 people in
13:47front of the stage, it's a tremendous opportunity for them to walk away with a new fan base. So
13:51later when they come back and headline, you know, those people hopefully walked away with a great
13:55taste in their mouth and become a ticket buyer and a consumer. Yeah, absolutely. Is there anything,
14:01David, from your perspective, like with Polygon that you guys are doing with, you know, younger
14:06artists, more developing artists, like specifically at Wonder Fruit or even what you're considering
14:11for your new festival in London? I think, well, just with artists in general, every artist that
14:19comes through Polygon, there's a bit of a process that we go through to prepare them for spatial
14:25audio. And, you know, not too many artists that we work with have done spatial audio before,
14:32so there's a bit of work required to take whatever their usual performance is, how they
14:40route their signals and their microphones, or if they're, you know, electronic, and then take that
14:46to spatial. And I really enjoy working with the artists to conceptualize, okay, how would you
14:54envision your music in 360 degrees? Like, what would you put behind you? What would be
15:00overhead? You know, do you want anything to move around, or do you want, you know, this special
15:06swooshing sound to sort of ping-pong across the room? And then you want to have the BGVs coming
15:11from behind you and then slowly move forward? Like, you know, we have so much fun at Polygon
15:16just working with the artists and, you know, visualizing, conceptualizing how their sound is
15:21going to be translated to 360 degrees, so it's a lot of fun. For each of you, what do you think
15:29are some of the trends, just maybe Josh for you, just like, you know, for artists that you believe
15:36will kind of define the next decade of the festival experience? And then Dave and David, from your
15:41perspective, just some of the trends in sound or immersive media that you think are going to
15:46continue to evolve? Well, obviously, you know, festivals continue to evolve in their booking
15:52and their genres of what they're programming. Like, when I first started doing this 12 years ago,
15:58you'd be hard-pressed to find, like, a Latin artist on a contemporary festival, or even a
16:02country artist on a Lollapalooza, you know, but now, you know, we see Zach Bryan and Tyler Childers,
16:10you know, headlining contemporary festivals. You got Latin acts like J Balvin all over the place,
16:14you know, and so these are all just, like, you know, sort of speaking to the times and, you know,
16:20from my perspective, it's really healthy because, you know, the most challenging part about booking
16:26festivals and coming up with unique lineups is the talent pool, you know, and, you know,
16:33the amount of headliners that are developing every year is a slow process, but there's more and more
16:40festivals popping up every year, so there's a tremendous thirst for talent, and so if we're
16:45able to pull from multiple genres, it certainly increases the talent pool. It gives festivals
16:51the ability to sort of diversify their bookings, become unique, and, you know, I call them
16:57crossover contemporary festivals, but those are kind of like the Lollapaloozas and the Coachellas,
17:00the ones that will book all things, right? The other trend that I'm seeing and has been happening
17:06for the past five, you know, I would say pre-pandemic is the very genre-specific festivals,
17:13you know, tapping into a vein that is like, you know, write down, you know, whether it be all
17:19Latin, all hip-hop, all Americana, you know, thematic things like bourbon and beyond where you
17:26have the mix of, you know, kind of legacy rock country and bourbon, you know, which is a culture
17:32in itself, so marrying sort of culture with music, you know, barbecue festivals and country music is
17:38actually how I got started in the festival world. I was doing professional barbecue cookouts
17:45and booking country artists, and this was 14 years ago, but that's sort of how I got
17:52into the whole situation, and that was, again, like very, you know, it was a very targeted,
17:56very specific sort of thing, and that sort of now seems to be really at the front line of where
18:04we're seeing a lot of success in new festivals that are emerging, you know, whether it be like,
18:08you know, a Rolling Loud, which is strictly hip-hop, or La Onda, which is their new, you know,
18:14Latin festival up in Napa on the Bottle Rock site that sold out in its first year, you know,
18:18who would have thought, right? So there's, you know, that's where I see the trend continuing,
18:25and then on the back to the crossover contemporary ones, you know, continuing to diversify,
18:30continuing to find interesting opportunities for new genres, to introduce new genres of music,
18:35to deepen the talent pools. That's how festivals are going to sustain.
18:38And for you, Dave, what excites you, kind of going into the next couple years?
18:49I think the migration from the conventional band-in-a-box stage, where you have a band playing
18:56in a framed stage, speakers on either side of them, and, you know, lights and video. The change
19:03of that, we see it on the cutting edge, you know, where video and band kind of merge together.
19:09No more, nothing's seen other than the stage disappears into video. The band and stage and
19:16set all become a single piece. It's immersive on a visual level, but also, and on an audio level.
19:22And then the merging of video and sound, such that one does not step on the other. And I think that
19:29the ultimate end run for this is that they don't step on each other. As soon as somebody comes up
19:36with a speaker grill that also does video, where the speakers can be part of the video screen, and
19:41sound and video now are unified into a single source. And then you have an open palette and
19:48playground to do whatever you want. Sound and video are fighting for the same location.
19:54Your optimal sound locations are always visually disruptive to that. That's just, it's a quandary.
20:03So, I see the future is the merging of those two technologies. We can get a big speaker
20:09manufacturer to work with a big video manufacturer. Video manufacturer makes grills for the speakers
20:15that tie into the video screen. Everything plugs in together. Sound comes out of wherever you want.
20:20Immersive becomes a playground now. You can do whatever you want, put anything anywhere.
20:24That's where we're going. I don't know how long it's going to take to get there, but that's where
20:30it needs to go. And the shows that are pushing that, that are really cutting edge, you know.
20:35And then the mid-steps like Coachella Mainstage Now, where we've got a massive sound system
20:40elevated way above the huge video screen. It's, I don't know, 160 feet wide or whatever. And just
20:47there's completely clean lines, and the artists can do whatever they want visually.
20:54And once we get this video and sound together, then we can do it auditorily as well.
21:02David? Yeah, one thing I'm seeing a lot nowadays, you know, especially in the electronic world,
21:08is this sort of boiler room concept of having the DJ in the middle of the crowd.
21:13And, you know, I think to like Coachella Headliners, you know, Skrillex, Fortep, Fred
21:17again, where they performed in the middle, and your team went, you know, above and beyond to
21:23create, to accommodate that. They were like, hey, we want to be in the middle where this
21:26ice skating rink thing is. And like, man, the main stage audio team, they worked night and day
21:32to pull that off. And it was incredible. That was one of my favorite Coachella Headliners memory.
21:38But, you know, I'm seeing a lot more this, you know, the artists want to be in the middle of
21:43the crowd, they want to feel the energy from the audience. And so like, how can we achieve that?
21:48How can we, you know, you know, if there's sound all around us, is it, you know, like, speakers
21:54just coming from one side? Or is it 360 degrees with the artist right smack bang in the middle?
21:58Like, you know, it seems like that's where people want to be. So, you know, on the technical side,
22:05we just need to, we need to figure out how to make that happen for them. And, you know, make
22:09sure microphones don't feed back and make sure that, you know, everyone can hear what they want
22:13to hear. And, you know, bringing everybody closer to the music, I think, is the ultimate goal.
22:20The rolling transition of that was wonderful, because, you know, the headliners were,
22:24everybody's up on the main stage, and then Skrillex 8 are in the middle of the audience.
22:30All of a sudden, the VIP is the worst seat in the house. And all the people that are up front
22:34of the house begin the best seat in the house. It was this kind of rollover transition, and then
22:39they were in the middle of the field. It was just that beautiful, that was just a wonderful experience.
22:43That was incredible. And also, you know, I came up, that was a Frank Ocean stage that transitioned
22:48over. So, that was a complete. I can thank Brent Smith for that. Thank Brent Smith for that.
22:56True. How do you guys see, I mean, we're talking about, like, all of these really interesting,
23:03like, technological, like, innovations, and, you know, to your point, the merging of, like,
23:08video and sound. How do you feel that innovation kind of balances with maintaining, kind of,
23:17the authentic festival experience? Or, you know, or is it becoming the authentic festival experience?
23:25I don't see a polarization there. I see that they're both, both of those. I mean,
23:30the band in a box, the small, all of those, and then the multi-stage festivals allow for all
23:35those to happen simultaneously. It's not one or the other. It's the diversity and the extremes
23:42of that diversity are growing and becoming more and more interesting. Yeah, I mean, like, I think
23:48that's, you know, the best part about the Coachella experience is you can go from stage to stage and
23:54have a completely different experience, not just because of what the bands are delivering on stage,
24:00but what the environment is that has been created by the promoters, right? So, you have, you know,
24:06you've got the multiple tents, you know, Sahara, which is now a permanent installation and is just
24:11a beast in itself. Quasar, which you brought up before, which was created by, actually, a WME
24:18client, Heather Shaw. You know, we, as a company, actually have a whole division that's representing
24:23these creators of stage and design, who are working with some of our other clients and with
24:31festivals to create some of these new experiences, but just, you know, back to Coachella, and then,
24:36you know, and then you have, obviously, the main stage, which is this behemoth, and now you have
24:40artists actually doing interesting things, performing in the middle of the crowd, you know,
24:44which, you know, used to be the thrust was the big move. Now you have, you know, a whole new concept,
24:49so in an outdoor theater, obviously, giving a whole different experience as well. So, all these
24:54kind of come together, and your Coachella journey can be different, and even if you go both weekends,
25:00there's so much content, there's so much different stages that you can have a completely different
25:04experience from weekend to weekend. Yeah, I would just add to that that, you know, as far as
25:12technological advancements go, you know, we don't do these things just to say that we did them,
25:17you know, at the end of the day, they're all tools to bring people closer to the music,
25:22you know, the latest, you know, video wall technology helps to tell a story that the
25:28artists are trying to convey, and like the visual aids in the music, you know, like we don't go to
25:34a concert just to look at a TV screen just because we like TV, you know, it has to be in
25:39service of the music, so, you know, whatever the latest and greatest technology is, it's always
25:45got to be framed as like, how does it service the, you know, the experience and the creative intent
25:53of the artist, so, I think, you know, with sound has to do the same thing, like, just because we
25:58can make your vocals spin around the room, do they have to spin, or, you know, maybe they just
26:03stay in one spot, and, you know, just because we can doesn't mean we have to, it's always got to be,
26:10you know, framed in the context of, like, how does it improve the artistic vision.
26:17Going back to a little bit of what you're talking about at WME and creating, you know, this kind of
26:23creators division for festivals, can you talk a little bit about, like, building that and, like,
26:29how you've seen that evolve? Well, it's a new extension of our business, so it's evolving,
26:36but, you know, really the concept was to, you know, get behind some of these creators and,
26:42you know, they're artists, right, represent them as artists, and then marry, you know, the clients
26:49who are also artists with some of these visual artists to create different types of shows,
26:54whether it be, you know, for festivals or touring, and then, you know, the other side of the business
27:00is obviously, you know, where I'm kind of helping out is, you know, finding some of these creators
27:06to lean into some of these festivals and marrying the content creators, the stage designers with
27:12some of these festivals to, again, enhance and create unique experiences for the consumer.
27:19You know, I forgot to mention before, and I should have because I should have been the first name
27:23out of my mouth, but, you know, the DoLab guys at Coachella, I mean, they've been doing this for
27:28years, you know, they've been part of the Coachella fabric for a very long time, and they create
27:33incredible, unique experience over in their little area, you know, and it's never been about the
27:40music, right? The music is part of it. They get DJs over there, and some are known, some are unknown,
27:46you know, of various degrees, but they're not getting, like, headliners, and they're not paying
27:49headliner money, yet that place is always rammed, and it's because they create this, like, really
27:54cool environment through art, through installations, through sound, and they marry it all together,
28:00you know, and they have this little festival up north called Lightning in a Bottle, and I ventured
28:03up there one year, and, like, what a trip, I mean, literally, I mean, it's, you know, yoga in the
28:09morning, group yoga classes, you know, for thousands of people, and then, you know, everything through
28:14to, like, workshops, and, you know, from building stuff to meditation to whatever you're into,
28:20right? And then they have these really cool immersive stages pumping some cool music that
28:24go all through the night, you know, so, you know, that's, it's just sort of, like, you know, it's
28:29the future. For each of you are, you know, obviously there's so many festivals now, and I
28:39think to what you were talking about earlier, Josh, you know, there's, like, festivals that focus on
28:44specific areas of culture, specific genres of music. How, like, what are some great examples
28:52that you see of festivals incorporating, like, diverse kind of cultural soundscapes or visual
28:57elements into their programming that are really respecting and accurately representing those
29:03cultures? Well, you know, specifically, I would say the emergence of Latin music and Latin-specific
29:15festivals has been, you know, something that I think everyone could have saw coming. Again, I
29:21actually tried to do a Latin festival 20 years ago and failed miserably at it, but, you know,
29:26I guess we weren't ready yet, you know, but now it seems like, you know, the world is ready and,
29:31you know, you're seeing these, you know, very Latin-specific booked festivals, and then when you
29:37have the music comes along the culture and the visuals, the food, you know, everything
29:44sort of, like, coincides with this specific music and creates a whole new environment. Now, what's
29:51interesting, if you actually go to one of these festivals, it's not all Latins. Right. You know,
29:57I would say 50%, you know, and 50% is, you know, representing everyone else.
30:04So, yeah, you know, I also ventured down to Mexico City last year for Viva Latino, and
30:10that was an incredible experience. I mean, you know, that was, you know, that's sort of their,
30:15you know, Mexico's, like, real kind of cultural iconic festival where they book, you know, a lot
30:22of regional Mexican music. And they brought in, you know, I work with Kings of Leon, so they book
30:27Kings of Leon one night, but they were that Kings of Leon were the outlier, you know, I mean, and
30:31they did great. But really, what people were there to see was the regional Mexican music that I had
30:36never even heard of, but like, in a lot of senses, but the crowds were just enormous. They were so
30:41into it. It was so much passion coming out of those crowds. It was an incredible experience.
30:47I totally recommend it. That sounds amazing. I mean, it's also like, you know, seeing like
30:52Peso Pluma, like perform, like, you know, like, just seeing kind of like all of these amazing
30:57genres just continue to kind of get, you know, their time on stage. Right. I mean,
31:04J Balvin at Coachella, like five, four, four years ago, I guess it was, was like this entirely
31:10cultural moment that I don't think Golden Voice saw coming. And since then, it's opened the doors
31:16to, you know, Bad Bunny headlining to, you know, a slew of Latin acts playing at Coachella on the
31:22main stage in prime time slots. So it's now opened up the door to a whole new sect of music for them.
31:28Yeah. Which is what we got to keep doing. For sure. This is wasn't one of my questions, but I feel
31:34like something that I have to ask the three of you as we get towards the end of the year, like
31:39what, for each of you, it was just like a really amazing special moment at
31:44a festival or that you experienced or that you helped create this year?
31:53This year? This year. Or, I mean, it could be any year, but.
31:59My 16-year-old son worked at Lollapalooza and ACL for C3. I love that. And just,
32:07I sent him down there by himself and just seeing him sort of, I went down the second weekend and,
32:13you know, just seeing him flourish in the environment and really kind of like stand
32:17on his own two feet for the first time. I was very proud of that. That's amazing.
32:21On a personal level and on a musical level, just, you know, anytime you have a set that
32:29is successful at a festival, or at least, you know, I see it, I get kind of proud, you know,
32:35and it just, you know, because it's not always about, you know, headlining or going on, you know,
32:41because everything, there's a lot of like, you know, when we program a festival, it's about
32:46crossover, it's about not going up against other acts, it's about creating moments, right? And
32:50creating a moment might not mean going on last, you know, you might have to like go on a couple
32:55songs before that, because that's your moment, you know? But, you know, there's a lot that goes
32:59into the thought process and it's very collaborative between the, you know, the booking agents, the
33:04responsible agents, the managers, and, you know, we all kind of try to figure out how to create
33:08these magic moments, so. Love that. Dave? Roger Waters at Coachella a while back, immersive sound,
33:18they set up Quadraphonic all around, just even with the large, solving the large distances by,
33:24you know, they played, you know, Money, I definitely wasn't the race, you know,
33:29having that happen on a large scale and seeing that deployed was goosebumps and amazing. And
33:36then more recently, last year or the year before, when we first, we spent about a year to get that
33:42PA lifted up above main stage, rebuilt, engineered to get that sound system out of the way of video,
33:49it was a tremendous challenge, a lot of doubts involved, a lot of resistance from even the
33:55manufacturer of the sound system, and the success of that was mind-boggling and beautiful.
34:03It's not a festival, but I saw Bon Iver at the YouTube theater in Eliza,
34:13and this is a couple years ago, but it's just sticks in my mind because I love Bon Iver, he's
34:18my favorite artist, and I've seen him maybe like five or six times, I've seen him at Hollywood
34:22Bowl and, you know, some epic, epic venues and small ones too, but seeing him in spatial audio,
34:29or then, you know, they have two drummers, they have such a dense, complex sound, and like just
34:35getting to hear it in all its glory with all the separation and like the clarity, you know,
34:41yeah, just brought a tear to my eye, it was just so good. I love it, and I can't believe it, but we're
34:47out of time, so thank you guys so much. All right, thank you.