WEBVTT - Julio Santo Domingo 0:00:08.560 --> 0:00:12.160 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Search podcast. 0:00:12.920 --> 0:00:20.200 My guest today is Julio Santo Domingo of the Okeechobe Festival. Julio, 0:00:20.320 --> 0:00:22.280 how did you get involved in this festival? 0:00:23.440 --> 0:00:30.800 Well, it's kind of a long winded answer, but the 0:00:30.880 --> 0:00:35.320 short of it was that I was organizing some underground 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:40.000 electronic music parties in New York from two thousand and 0:00:40.080 --> 0:00:44.640 eight to two thousand and sixteen, roughly when I started 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:48.720 the festival, but you know, towards the years, around twenty 0:00:48.800 --> 0:00:53.360 eleven twenty twelve, I started talking to someone who was 0:00:53.400 --> 0:01:00.000 working at Bonnaroo and we were discussing about bringing my party, 0:01:00.040 --> 0:01:03.240 he is called Shake and Bake spelled s h e 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:07.200 I k n b e I k uh to Bonnaroo 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:11.840 and making it the underground electronic music tent because from 0:01:11.840 --> 0:01:14.680 what I knew back then, Bonnaroo had a lot of 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:19.040 jam bands and a lot of d M, which what 0:01:19.040 --> 0:01:21.480 what you know, what I call ed M, and it's 0:01:21.560 --> 0:01:24.880 more the commercial side of EDM, which is, you know, 0:01:24.959 --> 0:01:28.840 you're a Vichy's and and and Steve a Jokis of 0:01:28.959 --> 0:01:35.640 this world. But they didn't have any underground electronic music 0:01:35.800 --> 0:01:42.560 that carried the the the the Detroit, New York Chicago 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:49.320 UH Berlin School of thought. Really, so we were talking 0:01:49.320 --> 0:01:54.440 about doing something with shake and Bake at Bonnaroo, and 0:01:54.760 --> 0:02:02.440 eventually Bonnaroo got sold to Live Nation, and uh, this 0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:05.880 person that I was talking to, they they they they 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:09.600 left the company and they said, well, you know, you 0:02:09.639 --> 0:02:12.080 know this is not I called them up when they 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.160 said so when are we doing this? Is it still on? 0:02:15.760 --> 0:02:18.600 And he said, well, I left the company. But I'm 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:26.239 I'm I'm I'm in Florida and somebody wanted to show 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:30.480 me this incredible property in Oki Chobe, and I think 0:02:30.480 --> 0:02:33.480 you should come down and check it out and maybe 0:02:33.520 --> 0:02:36.520 we can do something there. And I said, well, you know, 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:41.600 I'm coming to Art Basil to DJ in December of 0:02:41.639 --> 0:02:46.000 twenty fourteen, so why don't I stop by on my 0:02:46.080 --> 0:02:49.960 way to Miami and h and check it out. And 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:52.959 so I on my way to Miami, I stopped by 0:02:54.280 --> 0:02:58.640 bonnar Oki Chobe and and and fell in love with 0:02:58.680 --> 0:03:01.760 it immediately. And you know, I had been toying with 0:03:01.840 --> 0:03:07.360 the idea, uh of of creating a music festival because 0:03:07.400 --> 0:03:13.280 I wanted to get out of the underground warehouse world 0:03:13.520 --> 0:03:16.800 of New York City. And UH and do something more 0:03:17.320 --> 0:03:20.320 UH in the in the in the sunlight, in the daylight, 0:03:20.919 --> 0:03:24.640 UH for everybody, for for for wider audiences. And so 0:03:24.800 --> 0:03:28.160 I had been toying with this idea already for some years. 0:03:28.200 --> 0:03:30.239 I had already been uh. 0:03:30.360 --> 0:03:33.480 I I did a music festival with a friend of 0:03:33.520 --> 0:03:37.119 mine who bought a lot of land in Jerry Coquara 0:03:37.160 --> 0:03:44.160 in Brazil. His name is pass Pascal Salvati. And uh 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:47.120 at the time, there was nothing in Jerry Cocuara. Jerry 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:52.240 Coquara is the UH wind kitesurfing capital of the world. 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:54.440 So it's a very very windy area in the north 0:03:54.480 --> 0:03:57.600 of Brazil. It takes forever to get there. You need 0:03:57.640 --> 0:03:59.600 to fly all the way down to San Paolo to 0:03:59.640 --> 0:04:01.839 then fly back up north of the country because nothing 0:04:01.840 --> 0:04:05.440 connects there. I think now it's more accessible, but at 0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:07.880 the time it was it was really you know, insane 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:08.440 to go there. 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:10.000 And and so. 0:04:09.920 --> 0:04:13.000 We we did this end of the World party in 0:04:13.000 --> 0:04:18.760 twenty twelve, where we obviously was you know, nothing to 0:04:18.880 --> 0:04:21.440 the scale of Oki Chobee. But we just sent out 0:04:21.440 --> 0:04:24.200 a newsletter and you know, had a bunch of speakers 0:04:24.240 --> 0:04:28.320 and some turntables and in staid whoever wants to come 0:04:28.400 --> 0:04:31.560 join us. I think twenty people showed up and we 0:04:31.640 --> 0:04:34.520 had our own little party at the end of the 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:38.560 world in Jerry Kokuara. And so I had from these days, 0:04:38.560 --> 0:04:40.599 I'd been toying, you know, with the idea of doing 0:04:40.600 --> 0:04:44.680 my own music festival. And eventually, when I came to 0:04:45.040 --> 0:04:47.680 Oki Chobee in December of twenty fourteen, I said, well, 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:50.440 this is the spot. Let's let's see what it takes 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:53.520 to put it together. And and and that was the 0:04:53.560 --> 0:04:54.560 beginning of the journey. 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:54.760 You know. 0:04:54.839 --> 0:05:00.160 The company got formed in May twenty fifteen, Soundslinger, and 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:04.400 then the festival was in March twenty sixteen. So it 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:05.560 all happened very quickly. 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:11.600 Okay, the festival has not happened every year. In addition, 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:15.400 there have been certain partners that came and went, let's 0:05:15.480 --> 0:05:19.400 talk about the first year twenty sixteen, how many people 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:22.680 actually showed up and did you make money or lose money? 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:28.160 So in twenty sixteen we had twenty seven thousand people 0:05:28.240 --> 0:05:35.920 showing up. We lost a ton of money. The problem was, 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:40.120 you know, we I mean, we were very inexperienced when 0:05:40.160 --> 0:05:43.919 it comes to running music festivals. But the safety and 0:05:44.200 --> 0:05:48.240 organization was spot on because we had some great people involved. 0:05:48.760 --> 0:05:50.719 But at the same time, you know, we priced the 0:05:50.760 --> 0:05:56.480 ticket extremely low, which was very attractive to a lot 0:05:56.520 --> 0:06:01.880 of a lot of a festival go but unfortunately, you know, 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:02.960 our costs. 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:04.479 Were way above. 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:13.000 What the tickets cost and we needed to reinvest a 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:16.040 bunch of money in December of twenty fifteen to make 0:06:16.080 --> 0:06:19.520 it happen, or the festival was not going to happen. 0:06:19.600 --> 0:06:25.560 So you know, we almost basically called it quits right there, 0:06:25.600 --> 0:06:27.760 and then before the first year started. 0:06:28.160 --> 0:06:29.240 Whose money is it? 0:06:30.360 --> 0:06:31.840 So it's a lot of. 0:06:31.760 --> 0:06:34.360 Different investors you know that we reached out to and 0:06:34.920 --> 0:06:39.839 several people that came through and have been supporting me 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:40.720 over the years. 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:44.880 Okay, you're gonna put on the first festival. How much 0:06:44.920 --> 0:06:46.040 money do you think you. 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:52.240 Need for the first festival? I mean, listen, we raised, 0:06:52.720 --> 0:06:57.479 as you know, single digit seven figure number, you know, 0:06:57.760 --> 0:07:02.240 and we needed a little bit more than that, I think. 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:04.320 So it's a lot. 0:07:04.760 --> 0:07:08.119 Okay, Well, you book Mumford and sons, who were very hot. 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:12.200 Then you book Kendrick Lamar who did the booking, and 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:16.040 usually for festivals, people want more than their usual rate. 0:07:16.920 --> 0:07:19.560 Yeah, so so so Momford and Sons. 0:07:19.280 --> 0:07:23.960 Were are are are are our highest uh uh are 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:27.960 our most costly, our costliest bookings of the first year. 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:31.440 And Kendrick Lamar actually was at a very good price. 0:07:31.520 --> 0:07:33.280 You know, I'm not going to go into details, but 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:38.960 he was booked just before he was nominated for his Grammys, 0:07:39.240 --> 0:07:43.320 so he still wasn't, uh, you know, on the level 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:47.880 that that he became, but he was already pretty cool 0:07:47.920 --> 0:07:52.160 and pretty famous. And you know, the bookings were were 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:56.080 made by by Ben who's who's the booker now? But 0:07:56.400 --> 0:08:00.560 I had suggested, you know, I booked basically Aquach and 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:06.040 Jungle fifty one back then, and I had suggested I 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:09.520 think one or two artists for the main stage. Was 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:11.800 one of them was Kendrick Lamar and the other one 0:08:11.840 --> 0:08:16.600 was Robert Plant essentially, and so this. 0:08:16.680 --> 0:08:19.360 Was everything else was Ben And. 0:08:20.040 --> 0:08:24.480 Well, usually when you're an unknown quantity and you go 0:08:24.600 --> 0:08:28.720 to buy talent, they require the money up front and 0:08:28.880 --> 0:08:33.240 usually more money. Right you know, they're anxious about players 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:35.960 they've never dealt with before. Right. 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:41.440 Well, the thing is that Ben was already known in 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:46.160 the industry for booking a lot of jam bands at 0:08:46.200 --> 0:08:50.079 several different locations and managing also some of the bands 0:08:50.080 --> 0:08:52.679 that were playing for us. I had been doing events 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:56.120 for ten years with all the underground artists, so that 0:08:56.280 --> 0:09:00.520 was not a problem. And then of course everybody else. 0:09:00.559 --> 0:09:06.280 You know. One of my partners was Steve Sebisma, who 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:13.920 came from Sunshine Productions or was it Sunshine Promotions or Productions. 0:09:14.320 --> 0:09:19.000 He was one of the biggest concert promoter in the Midwest. 0:09:19.840 --> 0:09:22.160 He was also I think one of the first businesses 0:09:22.600 --> 0:09:27.280 that sold to Live Nation, which at the time was 0:09:27.320 --> 0:09:31.440 called SFX. So he came from China where he was 0:09:31.480 --> 0:09:33.640 doing he had retired, you know, sold his business and 0:09:33.679 --> 0:09:38.360 came from from China and was doing a music festival 0:09:38.360 --> 0:09:43.359 there in some parking lot, Okay. So we weren't completely 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:49.440 novces and unknown in the industry, you know, with all 0:09:49.600 --> 0:09:50.760 the different players involved. 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:55.240 Thanks for filling that in Okay, you did the first festival. 0:09:55.800 --> 0:09:58.880 You lost money, but forgetting the money, what did you 0:09:59.040 --> 0:10:01.000 learn the first here doing it? 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:03.120 Well? 0:10:03.160 --> 0:10:06.280 I learned that it's it's not for the faint of heart, 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:08.000 and a lot of things can go wrong, and you 0:10:08.040 --> 0:10:12.680 need to be extremely organized to succeed in this world. 0:10:13.880 --> 0:10:16.600 And not only be organized, but you need to have 0:10:16.720 --> 0:10:19.800 luck and to have a viable product and make sure 0:10:19.840 --> 0:10:22.840 that people can afford to come to your festival. 0:10:23.400 --> 0:10:26.560 Okay, a little bit more granular. Tell me some of 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:29.240 the things, some of the emergencies, some of the things 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:31.120 you did not foresee the first year. 0:10:33.120 --> 0:10:39.080 Well, I think operationally there weren't many emergencies, so to 0:10:39.120 --> 0:10:44.000 say it was it was more purely financial and needing 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:47.520 you know, band aids to pay for things, to make 0:10:47.559 --> 0:10:51.240 sure that vendors got paid and an artist got paid 0:10:51.280 --> 0:10:54.800 and everybody got paid so we could keep the lights on. 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:58.959 That was really always the main thing, because I think 0:10:59.240 --> 0:11:03.240 from an operational point of view, we've always been quite 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:03.920 on top of it. 0:11:04.880 --> 0:11:10.040 Okay, you sold twenty seven thousand tickets. How many did 0:11:10.080 --> 0:11:11.920 you need to sell the break even. 0:11:13.600 --> 0:11:16.439 That first year? Probably around forty thousand. 0:11:17.240 --> 0:11:21.480 The twenty seven thousand people who did come, how did 0:11:21.480 --> 0:11:22.760 they find out about it? 0:11:24.440 --> 0:11:24.800 Well? 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:29.720 I think that at the time, your options in Florida were, 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:35.480 you know, for something that is multi genre on a 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:39.160 massive scale in a beautiful property. I mean the closest 0:11:39.160 --> 0:11:43.480 thing was Suwani, but that's not you know, so big 0:11:43.520 --> 0:11:47.400 like Okichobe, and it's more one type of music. So 0:11:47.480 --> 0:11:51.360 your other option was Ultra, which is in Miami and 0:11:51.480 --> 0:11:54.280 Bonnarou which is in Tennessee. So I think, you know, 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:57.880 we were at a right time, at the right place 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:02.240 where there was a need for what we were offering. 0:12:02.280 --> 0:12:05.800 And that's how I think most you know, success stories, 0:12:05.920 --> 0:12:09.680 quote unquote happen is just a matter of having luck 0:12:09.720 --> 0:12:12.120 on your side and doing things at the right moment. 0:12:13.520 --> 0:12:16.800 How did you literally market it, especially in this era 0:12:17.000 --> 0:12:20.400 of the internet. Did you take ads? What'd you do? 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:26.200 So we essentially the first video that we ever released 0:12:26.280 --> 0:12:29.160 where we didn't have any thing to show for, We 0:12:29.200 --> 0:12:33.560 didn't have any crowds, we didn't have anything beyond our 0:12:33.840 --> 0:12:36.840 lineup poster we actually. 0:12:39.320 --> 0:12:39.720 Created. 0:12:39.960 --> 0:12:42.680 One of my partners is one of my best friends, 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:47.240 this guy Nicos, who was a filmmaker. 0:12:47.280 --> 0:12:51.520 He's a filmmaker and he was involved in a lot 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:51.880 of the. 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:56.000 Artistic creation of the festival, you know, with the be 0:12:56.200 --> 0:13:00.079 here Now stages, the naming of the stages, and and 0:13:00.160 --> 0:13:03.000 and creating all of our of our videos. 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:06.040 Back then, he had. 0:13:07.920 --> 0:13:13.320 Uh created a point of view video where he was 0:13:13.360 --> 0:13:15.719 waking up in the middle of the jungle with a 0:13:15.800 --> 0:13:18.959 GoPro attached to his forehead and walking through the land 0:13:19.320 --> 0:13:20.400 and discovering the land. 0:13:20.400 --> 0:13:22.000 And I think when everybody. 0:13:23.040 --> 0:13:26.199 Saw the land, they they it turned on the light 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:29.120 with people and they saw how beautiful this place was. 0:13:29.160 --> 0:13:32.920 Because I think one of our strongest selling points for 0:13:33.040 --> 0:13:36.200 the festival is how beautiful the land is. We keep 0:13:36.240 --> 0:13:41.720 on hearing it from everyone from from the cruise working here, 0:13:42.120 --> 0:13:46.880 to artists to our festival attendees. You know, they they 0:13:46.920 --> 0:13:50.560 all love the land and it's beautiful and magical and 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:58.400 and always uh you know, reminds them of of of 0:13:58.520 --> 0:14:04.000 somewhere of an enchanted land like this, So you know, 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:06.840 that was a big part of it. The second part 0:14:06.880 --> 0:14:10.400 of it, I think having artists like Robert Plant and 0:14:10.480 --> 0:14:15.920 Kendrick Lamar and uh and and other you know, artists 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:21.440 that are very big within their respective genres. Uh, you know, 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:27.160 created a a a marketing buzz where Also back then, 0:14:27.400 --> 0:14:32.880 you know, the algorithm to share posts on Instagram and 0:14:33.440 --> 0:14:37.560 Facebook was way different, uh than what it is now. 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:40.320 You know, you didn't have to spend as much with ads. 0:14:41.320 --> 0:14:45.440 Everything was kind of more open and and and less 0:14:45.480 --> 0:14:49.560 people were doing what we're doing, so there was less competition. 0:14:50.800 --> 0:14:52.280 And also. 0:14:53.520 --> 0:14:57.080 Another aspect of of of of how we had a 0:14:57.080 --> 0:15:00.800 lot of people come to our festival was that we 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:06.320 partnered with UH a friend of Nikos called Kevin Kochan 0:15:06.440 --> 0:15:11.200 who sadly passed away some years ago, but he was 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:14.600 the head of the Symbiosis festival in California and also 0:15:14.640 --> 0:15:19.480 the organizer of the Eclipse festivals that took place at 0:15:19.520 --> 0:15:23.560 the Gorge and in Patagonia and UH and other places 0:15:23.600 --> 0:15:26.000 around the world. So you know, they had a faithful 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:30.440 following of of of many many festival goers who went 0:15:30.440 --> 0:15:36.800 to alternative festivals as well as UH UH you know 0:15:36.920 --> 0:15:43.000 Kevin's UH partner Tyler Hanson from a culture house, who 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:45.640 was doing a lot of of our of our activities, 0:15:45.680 --> 0:15:50.600 you know, our our actors and and other performers, uh 0:15:50.640 --> 0:15:51.880 walking around the festival. 0:15:52.560 --> 0:15:57.720 Okay, you have a first run. Is there any thought 0:15:58.200 --> 0:16:00.240 that we're going to pack up the ten or you 0:16:00.240 --> 0:16:02.720 always think you're going to do it again in twenty seventeen. 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:09.440 Well, that's a really good question. We were even though 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:15.840 the losses were substantial, we had you know, we're also 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:18.880 pleasantly surprised that we managed to sell twenty seven tickets 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:22.520 twenty seven thousand tickets for a first year festival. So 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:26.200 I think there was a proof of concept which was 0:16:26.360 --> 0:16:32.320 enticing to the investors, you know, to reinvest when they saw, 0:16:32.480 --> 0:16:36.120 you know, that we were able to bring that many 0:16:36.160 --> 0:16:39.480 people to this land, which is not close to anything 0:16:41.360 --> 0:16:43.680 to any urban centers. I mean, Palm Beach is the 0:16:43.680 --> 0:16:48.320 closest thing. We're right in between Palm Beach, Orlando, Miami 0:16:48.360 --> 0:16:55.520 and Tampa, but still not in anyone's suburb essentially. 0:16:56.560 --> 0:16:59.720 Okay, so you do it in twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:04.679 twenty eighteen. In those times, were you ever in the black? 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:07.440 Did you ever make money? Or did you lose money? 0:17:07.480 --> 0:17:07.960 Each year? 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:12.159 We we lost money every single year, but we kept going. 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:15.239 We kept getting put down and getting up again, and 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:19.040 uh and and and doing whatever it takes through a 0:17:19.040 --> 0:17:24.199 lot of a lot of a lot of begging, a 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:29.800 lot of of of of of of of convincing and 0:17:30.000 --> 0:17:33.760 uh and a lot of of of of benefactors who 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:39.960 who saw the potential of this of this business, you know, 0:17:40.040 --> 0:17:40.560 to one day. 0:17:40.720 --> 0:17:44.480 Okay, So the first year was twenty seven thousand, How 0:17:44.520 --> 0:17:47.479 many people came the next two years? 0:17:47.640 --> 0:17:53.200 The next year was by far our biggest attendees, and 0:17:53.200 --> 0:17:59.200 and we had thirty two thousand people coming in twenty 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:04.400 seventeen and then in twenty eighteen, I think it dipped down, 0:18:04.520 --> 0:18:09.160 dip dipped down again to roughly twenty six twenty five thousand. 0:18:09.680 --> 0:18:11.760 I don't have the numbers, and you know in my 0:18:11.800 --> 0:18:13.159 head so clearly, but it's you. 0:18:13.359 --> 0:18:17.360 You're amazing with the numbers. So you don't need to apologize. 0:18:17.600 --> 0:18:21.960 You didn't have the festival in twenty nineteen. What was 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:22.960 the thinking there? 0:18:23.960 --> 0:18:26.040 The thinking there was that we took a beating the 0:18:26.080 --> 0:18:28.600 first three years, and you know, we we didn't have 0:18:28.640 --> 0:18:32.520 any more money, and we we didn't have any other 0:18:32.600 --> 0:18:37.399 options than the then partnering up with another another another, 0:18:37.720 --> 0:18:41.400 you know, big fish who came and so we basically 0:18:42.600 --> 0:18:46.280 sold you know, fifty one percent of our business and 0:18:46.320 --> 0:18:49.640 created a new a new company where where the new 0:18:49.680 --> 0:18:52.399 partners you know, owned fifty one percent and we owned 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:55.760 forty nine percent basically. 0:18:56.040 --> 0:19:08.600 Okay, and that partner was Insomniac, right, correct, So you 0:19:08.680 --> 0:19:11.439 make a deal with Insomniac, then you have a vestal 0:19:11.520 --> 0:19:16.000 in twenty twenty, just before you know, shut down. How 0:19:16.040 --> 0:19:17.560 did that work out? 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:23.119 Well, well, you know that was crazy because the rest 0:19:23.160 --> 0:19:27.280 of the world as we were building the festival. You know, 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:29.639 I have family in Europe, I grew up in Europe, 0:19:30.200 --> 0:19:32.639 and and and my family was like, get out of 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:35.360 you know, get out of there. Everything shutting down. And 0:19:35.400 --> 0:19:37.320 you know, in Europe they were going crazy. They were 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:40.639 like shutting down cities and and and and and I 0:19:40.680 --> 0:19:43.800 was like, guys, relaxed. You know, we're here, not nothing 0:19:43.840 --> 0:19:46.040 shut down. I'm not going to go to Europe and 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:48.040 get stuck there. And I have this festival to put 0:19:48.080 --> 0:19:52.639 to put on. So eventually what happened was that, you know, 0:19:54.000 --> 0:19:58.480 clearly it had an effect on on on on people 0:19:58.760 --> 0:20:01.359 traveling from out of state. I think one of the 0:20:01.400 --> 0:20:05.560 bands dropped out of the pow Wow, which is our 0:20:06.320 --> 0:20:12.960 collaborative collaborative show between many different artists and groups of 0:20:13.080 --> 0:20:17.520 artists who come together for once in a lifetime performance. 0:20:17.560 --> 0:20:20.639 So I forgot who it was that dropped out. Anyway, 0:20:20.720 --> 0:20:27.000 someone dropped out, and we you know, because of COVID 0:20:27.680 --> 0:20:31.960 and and so you know, still people came, but they 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:34.240 came locally from Florida. 0:20:34.720 --> 0:20:37.200 Well, how many people came in twenty twenty. 0:20:37.600 --> 0:20:42.679 We had, I want to believe around twenty three or 0:20:42.760 --> 0:20:45.080 twenty four thousand, I'm not quite sure. 0:20:45.720 --> 0:20:47.320 Still still quite a lot, you know. 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:51.399 Okay, what did Insomniac bring other than money. 0:20:53.080 --> 0:21:00.800 I think they brought a lot of incredible, dedicated people 0:21:00.880 --> 0:21:05.520 who do this across fifty five shows per year. 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:08.000 So it's it's a much. 0:21:10.760 --> 0:21:14.199 Wider address book than I had of people working in 0:21:14.240 --> 0:21:18.840 the industry. And of course you know, scaling and and 0:21:19.000 --> 0:21:23.159 lower prices for artists that goes without saying, you know, 0:21:23.400 --> 0:21:27.119 it's on their live nations. So a lot of a 0:21:27.160 --> 0:21:30.600 lot of of of of of muscle there to be 0:21:30.720 --> 0:21:35.320 able to to get lower prices from vendors, and uh 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:40.320 and and and and and also quality people working in 0:21:40.359 --> 0:21:43.040 their in their company that that are incredible that I'm 0:21:43.080 --> 0:21:45.600 still friends with to this day. You know, it's like 0:21:45.640 --> 0:21:46.240 it's a family. 0:21:46.240 --> 0:21:46.879 At the end of the day. 0:21:46.880 --> 0:21:49.240 You're spending a lot of time with these people, you know, 0:21:49.280 --> 0:21:52.399 building this thing. So they brought a lot of a 0:21:52.400 --> 0:21:56.960 lot of experience, uh with them, you know, and and 0:21:57.040 --> 0:21:59.600 of course I always have, you know, a lot of 0:21:59.640 --> 0:22:04.200 respect for you know, anyone working in this industry because 0:22:04.240 --> 0:22:08.440 it's unforgiving and it's not you know, people tend to 0:22:08.440 --> 0:22:13.120 to to to want to you know, uh uh complain 0:22:13.160 --> 0:22:19.280 a lot online about you know, certain companies and certain people, 0:22:19.320 --> 0:22:21.600 but at the end of the day. It's it's not 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:25.240 easy putting on a music festival, and it's it's it's 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:29.119 it's like building a city, and it's it's extremely challenging, 0:22:29.800 --> 0:22:34.240 extremely taxing, and and and long hours and making sure 0:22:34.280 --> 0:22:37.280 that every detail is taken care of so that people 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:39.960 can have a good time. And uh and and and 0:22:40.080 --> 0:22:41.520 and enjoy themselves. 0:22:42.119 --> 0:22:47.199 Okay, you and your team were in control once Insomniac 0:22:47.720 --> 0:22:51.440 got involved. In addition to the relationships in the act, 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:55.199 in terms of production, did they take care of all that? 0:22:57.000 --> 0:23:00.239 So they took care of of of most of of 0:23:00.280 --> 0:23:02.720 all the production, you know, the the nuts and bolts 0:23:02.760 --> 0:23:06.280 if you want. Of course, you know, I was in 0:23:06.320 --> 0:23:09.560 the room within a lot of the conversations, but I 0:23:09.600 --> 0:23:13.639 didn't have the control for sure, of of of of 0:23:13.640 --> 0:23:17.000 of where wherever they wanted to go with it. For instance, Uh, 0:23:18.000 --> 0:23:21.320 you know, they changed the logo of our first three 0:23:21.400 --> 0:23:24.800 years and uh and I was not involved in that process, 0:23:24.880 --> 0:23:28.320 and and and and and and was quite shocked to 0:23:28.320 --> 0:23:31.119 to to to see it because it was done without 0:23:31.280 --> 0:23:36.159 with without my my opinion or anything. And so you know, uh, 0:23:37.520 --> 0:23:42.880 I had more. Uh. The thing that I controlled during 0:23:42.920 --> 0:23:48.760 our partnership was mostly the County relations and the bookings 0:23:48.880 --> 0:23:53.800 of Jungle fifty one, which was an extension of my 0:23:54.440 --> 0:23:58.560 New York City Parties series of events that I used 0:23:58.600 --> 0:23:59.240 to do in New York. 0:23:59.320 --> 0:24:01.440 So you know that for me was when we made 0:24:01.440 --> 0:24:01.760 a deal. 0:24:02.040 --> 0:24:04.119 I said, you know, you guys, do what you have 0:24:04.160 --> 0:24:07.320 to do, but you know I'm going to control Jungle 0:24:07.320 --> 0:24:07.840 fifty one. 0:24:08.400 --> 0:24:13.639 Okay, COVID happened, you come back relatively early in twenty 0:24:13.760 --> 0:24:18.320 twenty two, what happened in twenty twenty two and twenty 0:24:18.400 --> 0:24:19.280 twenty three. 0:24:20.480 --> 0:24:23.480 So we obviously had to take twenty twenty one off 0:24:23.560 --> 0:24:28.040 because it takes us, you know, let's say a year 0:24:28.080 --> 0:24:29.919 to plan a festival. You know, you're working on it 0:24:29.920 --> 0:24:32.879 all all year round. You have to start the bookings earlier. 0:24:32.920 --> 0:24:36.600 So we when we stopped the festival in twenty twenty, 0:24:37.119 --> 0:24:39.760 I remember getting into my car and driving back up 0:24:39.800 --> 0:24:44.399 to New York and stopping by the cheese and meat 0:24:44.400 --> 0:24:47.480 shop to buy I think five hundred dollars worth of 0:24:47.520 --> 0:24:50.800 cheese and meat to have something at home. I had 0:24:50.800 --> 0:24:53.080 no idea how how long we were going to stay 0:24:53.080 --> 0:24:56.080 stuck in this, and you know, nobody knew anything. So 0:24:56.200 --> 0:24:59.879 I got a bunch of you know, disinfecting wipes, that 0:25:00.040 --> 0:25:04.520 Walmart in Florida, which still had stuff compared to New York, 0:25:04.560 --> 0:25:07.760 which everyone had bought everything out of out of everywhere 0:25:08.240 --> 0:25:11.400 and arrived home and almost like a ghost town kind 0:25:11.440 --> 0:25:13.679 of thing. And so from that point on, you know, 0:25:14.240 --> 0:25:17.359 everyone got laid off from every single business on the 0:25:17.400 --> 0:25:26.399 planet or put on furlough, and so we couldn't possibly 0:25:26.440 --> 0:25:29.000 produce twenty twenty one. So it took us a year 0:25:29.119 --> 0:25:32.400 to kind of collect ourselves and say, okay, well things 0:25:32.440 --> 0:25:34.840 are kind of you know, getting back to normal. 0:25:34.920 --> 0:25:35.080 Here. 0:25:35.359 --> 0:25:36.960 People were partying like there. 0:25:36.840 --> 0:25:41.960 Was no tomorrow in Tulu, Mexico, and Florida was you know, 0:25:42.000 --> 0:25:44.360 as if nothing had happened. But you know, we could 0:25:44.400 --> 0:25:48.520 still not responsibly. The whole industry was decimated, on the 0:25:48.560 --> 0:25:56.080 live event industry with everyone being sent home, and you know, 0:25:55.880 --> 0:25:59.280 you often speak about this because I read your newsletter 0:25:59.359 --> 0:26:07.000 where there were you know, generational information from Rhodies and 0:26:07.080 --> 0:26:10.800 all that experience that was passed down throughout these years 0:26:10.800 --> 0:26:13.639 that was just lost. And and the new people who 0:26:13.720 --> 0:26:17.400 came in, you know, had no more mentors, and and 0:26:17.480 --> 0:26:19.159 all the people who kind of took a break who 0:26:19.200 --> 0:26:24.240 were doing this day in day out and never were 0:26:24.240 --> 0:26:27.400 able to step out of the hamster wheel, so to say, 0:26:27.440 --> 0:26:30.480 you know, they they all kind of stopped and took 0:26:30.520 --> 0:26:33.000 a you know, a slower pace of life and realized 0:26:33.040 --> 0:26:36.160 that they didn't want to go back to this, to 0:26:36.160 --> 0:26:43.280 to this crazy lifestyle. And so it's it's it was 0:26:43.320 --> 0:26:45.960 impossible to put on twenty twenty one. But you know, 0:26:46.160 --> 0:26:50.480 came March or April of twenty twenty one. We came 0:26:50.520 --> 0:26:53.840 back to the table with Insomniac and and and and 0:26:54.080 --> 0:26:57.960 decided to strike a long well the first year twenty 0:26:57.960 --> 0:27:01.639 twenty was kind of an experience show year, right, So 0:27:01.760 --> 0:27:06.159 then we you know, the negotiations stopped after this, and 0:27:06.200 --> 0:27:10.800 we came back to the table the whole year to 0:27:10.920 --> 0:27:15.320 figure out how to move forward and continue this for 0:27:15.400 --> 0:27:20.320 twenty twenty two. And we we we decided to essentially 0:27:20.840 --> 0:27:24.600 do a longer term agreement to do you know, a 0:27:24.680 --> 0:27:28.080 series of events from twenty twenty two onwards. And so 0:27:28.119 --> 0:27:30.320 we did twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three together. 0:27:31.240 --> 0:27:34.080 And how is attendance in twenty twenty two and twenty 0:27:34.119 --> 0:27:34.720 twenty three. 0:27:36.040 --> 0:27:39.840 In twenty twenty two we had around twenty five thousand 0:27:39.960 --> 0:27:44.240 and in twenty twenty six. We sorry, twenty twenty three, 0:27:44.680 --> 0:27:47.919 we had around twenty six thousand from what I remember. 0:27:48.040 --> 0:27:54.959 Okay, so until today in twenty four, twenty five, you're dark. 0:27:55.480 --> 0:27:59.760 In addition to being dark, you part ways with Insomniac. 0:28:00.160 --> 0:28:01.199 Tell me about all that? 0:28:02.960 --> 0:28:06.880 Well, I, I, I don't really want to go into details, 0:28:06.960 --> 0:28:10.639 nor can I you know, legally do that, but essentially, 0:28:12.000 --> 0:28:16.159 you know, we just wanted to regain you know, I 0:28:16.200 --> 0:28:20.120 wanted to to to regain my creative control and uh 0:28:20.280 --> 0:28:24.040 and and and it brought me to to to to 0:28:24.040 --> 0:28:26.159 to where I am now where where sound Singer is 0:28:26.200 --> 0:28:31.760 again create controlling the event and uh and and and 0:28:31.760 --> 0:28:34.840 and and looking ahead of us too to produce this 0:28:34.840 --> 0:28:35.760 this music festival. 0:28:36.160 --> 0:28:38.280 So why was there not at an event in twenty 0:28:38.360 --> 0:28:38.920 twenty four? 0:28:40.320 --> 0:28:43.000 There was no event in twenty twenty four because after 0:28:43.840 --> 0:28:49.280 we separated, I needed to raise funds again, uh and 0:28:49.560 --> 0:28:53.440 build up a team of of of people since I 0:28:53.480 --> 0:28:55.800 don't didn't have a team anymore. So all of that 0:28:56.080 --> 0:29:00.880 took a tremendous amount of effort to put everything together 0:29:01.040 --> 0:29:07.520 and you know, get people to reinvest into the festival. 0:29:07.920 --> 0:29:14.160 Okay, did you part ways with Insomniac? Because no, money 0:29:14.280 --> 0:29:17.720 was being made or creative differences. 0:29:19.160 --> 0:29:23.280 I can't actually go into detail of that. I'm sorry. 0:29:23.920 --> 0:29:28.800 Okay, it's done with Insomniac. The last show plays in 0:29:28.880 --> 0:29:34.080 twenty twenty three. At that time, were you always planning 0:29:34.160 --> 0:29:37.400 to come back or were you planning to sit on 0:29:37.440 --> 0:29:40.080 the sidelines and all of a sudden decided let's do 0:29:40.160 --> 0:29:40.600 it again. 0:29:41.000 --> 0:29:46.880 I wake up every day without no matter what happens 0:29:46.880 --> 0:29:49.880 in my life, with the ambition to come back to 0:29:50.520 --> 0:29:52.560 Sunshine Grove and put on the festival. 0:29:53.120 --> 0:29:54.760 So it's always. 0:29:54.560 --> 0:29:58.560 My my my resondet, you know, my. 0:30:00.160 --> 0:30:01.600 Drives me is to put on this show. 0:30:01.920 --> 0:30:07.520 Okay, the festival's never made any money. What is your 0:30:07.680 --> 0:30:13.480 pitch to the new investors. 0:30:12.040 --> 0:30:17.240 Well, it's it's it's that you know, we are a a. 0:30:16.280 --> 0:30:21.520 A pivotal. 0:30:23.360 --> 0:30:27.080 Music festival in the southeast of the US. We we 0:30:27.240 --> 0:30:31.600 mean a lot to so many people here, so there's 0:30:31.640 --> 0:30:36.800 an incredible opportunity to UH to develop something not only 0:30:36.840 --> 0:30:38.480 on the music festival. 0:30:40.040 --> 0:30:40.680 Side, and. 0:30:42.120 --> 0:30:48.640 Also in the development of the of the property, to 0:30:48.800 --> 0:30:52.640 create a a three hundred and and sixty five days 0:30:52.640 --> 0:30:53.120 a year. 0:30:55.000 --> 0:30:57.040 Situation. So I think that. 0:30:57.440 --> 0:31:00.440 For a lot of people, it's it's it's they see 0:31:00.440 --> 0:31:03.560 the bigger picture. And also we all know, you know 0:31:03.600 --> 0:31:06.400 that Coachella took you know, ten years or so to 0:31:06.400 --> 0:31:10.200 to make money, and and and after that they made 0:31:10.200 --> 0:31:12.560 a lot of money. Right, So it's it's it's a 0:31:12.600 --> 0:31:15.680 matter of of of of sticking through with it, and 0:31:15.720 --> 0:31:18.320 it's the people who are able to stick through with 0:31:18.400 --> 0:31:21.600 it the most who succeed at the end. 0:31:21.800 --> 0:31:24.960 So it's not about you know, someone said success. 0:31:24.640 --> 0:31:29.800 Is is falling down seven times and getting up eight times, right, 0:31:29.880 --> 0:31:32.040 So that's what it's it's all about. 0:31:32.160 --> 0:31:36.600 You know. Okay, we're a week out. How many tickets 0:31:36.600 --> 0:31:37.240 have you sold? 0:31:38.600 --> 0:31:40.840 We sold a lot of tickets. I'm not gonna go 0:31:40.920 --> 0:31:44.240 into details, but we've sold out of a lot of 0:31:44.280 --> 0:31:50.920 different areas and we of course always would like to 0:31:50.960 --> 0:31:54.760 sell more tickets because we can always make more space 0:31:55.240 --> 0:32:01.880 if we want. And we we're just excited to be 0:32:01.920 --> 0:32:05.040 coming back and to uh and and to to putting 0:32:05.040 --> 0:32:07.880 on the show. You know, we're where everything is coming together. 0:32:08.400 --> 0:32:12.640 The stages are almost uh all of them up already. 0:32:12.880 --> 0:32:16.720 The fence lines, all the fencing is is already laid 0:32:16.720 --> 0:32:20.640 out across. A lot of containers have been dropped, a 0:32:20.640 --> 0:32:24.360 lot of comfort stations, all the poor the partties. So 0:32:24.400 --> 0:32:30.600 we're we're pretty much you know there, what's what's happening 0:32:30.640 --> 0:32:34.600 now between now and uh and and and the day 0:32:34.640 --> 0:32:38.360 we open doors. It's all the scenic all the the art, 0:32:38.520 --> 0:32:42.720 all the the decoration that goes around the property. 0:32:43.360 --> 0:32:47.720 Okay, you keep talking about this property, and you talked 0:32:47.720 --> 0:32:54.200 about long term things using the property. Who owned the property? 0:32:54.840 --> 0:32:59.800 The property is owned by by myself, you know, through 0:32:59.800 --> 0:33:05.320 a company that basically at the beginning it was kind 0:33:05.360 --> 0:33:09.240 of divided in one hundred and fifty plots or something 0:33:09.360 --> 0:33:14.080 like that, and when we formed the business in twenty fifteen, 0:33:14.640 --> 0:33:17.880 a quarter of it of the property was bought straight up. 0:33:19.240 --> 0:33:25.200 The second part was rented from the original owner, which 0:33:25.280 --> 0:33:27.920 was the house in the center, for seven years, with 0:33:27.960 --> 0:33:32.520 the obligation to buy it after seven years. And the 0:33:32.600 --> 0:33:37.800 third part was you know, bought with mortgages from private 0:33:37.840 --> 0:33:41.200 individuals that was like, you know, let's call it thirty 0:33:41.240 --> 0:33:44.440 to forty plots. And then the remainder of the thirty 0:33:44.440 --> 0:33:47.200 to forty plots that we didn't own, we used to 0:33:47.240 --> 0:33:50.200 rent them year after year when we did the festival, 0:33:50.760 --> 0:33:57.640 and we eventually bought them one by one until recently 0:33:57.760 --> 0:34:00.480 maybe a few years ago when the last plot was 0:34:00.520 --> 0:34:04.280 bought and the whole property was consolidated into one big plot. 0:34:04.880 --> 0:34:09.880 Okay, before you had the festival, there were there events 0:34:09.920 --> 0:34:12.200 in this same area. 0:34:12.760 --> 0:34:16.879 There were no events in the same area other than 0:34:17.920 --> 0:34:21.959 something called Mudfest, which is basically a bunch of off 0:34:22.080 --> 0:34:29.319 road lifted trucks sliding around in the mud. And it 0:34:29.440 --> 0:34:33.279 was a pretty rustic kind of festival. That was the 0:34:33.320 --> 0:34:36.640 only experience from the county for any type of festival 0:34:37.800 --> 0:34:38.440 in the region. 0:34:38.920 --> 0:34:45.600 Okay, there's a city called Okechobee. How far is your 0:34:45.680 --> 0:34:51.560 site from air? Quote civilization and what does civilization say 0:34:51.600 --> 0:34:55.320 about it? Some communities are open to having a festival, 0:34:55.600 --> 0:34:58.320 other ones are a thorn in your side. 0:34:59.480 --> 0:35:02.719 Well, you know, Oki Chobe center of Okichobe is is, 0:35:03.600 --> 0:35:10.280 you know, twenty five minutes away from where we are located. 0:35:10.400 --> 0:35:12.759 And just to to give you a little bit of 0:35:12.800 --> 0:35:14.480 the of the color, you know, when you when you 0:35:14.520 --> 0:35:17.439 get to the center, there's a there's an army tank 0:35:18.080 --> 0:35:21.800 and an army helicopter and an army machine gun on display. 0:35:22.400 --> 0:35:25.520 So that's a a CVS and a and a Walgreens. 0:35:26.160 --> 0:35:31.560 So that's what the center of town looks like. The beginning, 0:35:32.160 --> 0:35:37.719 I think that well, to take a step back, Okichobe 0:35:37.760 --> 0:35:42.360 has around one hundred and twenty thousand cows and thirty 0:35:42.440 --> 0:35:43.880 thousand people. 0:35:44.480 --> 0:35:47.600 So it's a very rural. 0:35:47.440 --> 0:35:52.920 County where the Cattleman's Association hold a lot of power 0:35:52.960 --> 0:35:59.080 here and and you know, extremely hard working people who 0:35:59.600 --> 0:36:03.040 you know, all give their everything to to to their 0:36:03.120 --> 0:36:06.359 land and their animals and and the whole industry that 0:36:06.360 --> 0:36:10.960 that they operate. So at the beginning, we were welcomed 0:36:11.000 --> 0:36:15.200 with some skepticism. You know, of course, uh some people 0:36:15.239 --> 0:36:19.560 didn't want us around. But I think that after our 0:36:19.600 --> 0:36:23.040 first year and and you know, them realizing that we 0:36:23.040 --> 0:36:28.439 were mostly a peaceful organization, uh with with kids who 0:36:28.600 --> 0:36:30.759 just come here wanting to have a good time and 0:36:31.680 --> 0:36:39.160 not getting into fights or anything like that, basically they 0:36:39.600 --> 0:36:43.960 they we we won the people over little by little. 0:36:45.360 --> 0:36:48.600 Okay, what is so special about this land? 0:36:51.239 --> 0:36:55.440 I think what is mostly special about it is that 0:36:55.560 --> 0:37:02.120 it's it's pretty much untouched other than having a very 0:37:02.200 --> 0:37:05.880 large log cabin in the center and a system of 0:37:06.040 --> 0:37:09.920 roads that connect the whole property. 0:37:11.239 --> 0:37:13.080 From one area to another. 0:37:14.200 --> 0:37:18.760 But more importantly that it has this incredible vegetation which 0:37:18.840 --> 0:37:22.799 makes you feel like you're somewhere in the tropics with 0:37:22.960 --> 0:37:28.680 palm trees and jungle and underbrush that is very atypical 0:37:28.800 --> 0:37:32.440 of the rest of the country. And lots of wild 0:37:32.520 --> 0:37:39.839 animal here, so you know, everything from deer to armadillos, skunks, raccoons. 0:37:41.760 --> 0:37:47.160 We of course have alligators that we remove before the festival, 0:37:48.400 --> 0:37:50.960 but you know, in Florida, if you remove alligators, you know, 0:37:51.120 --> 0:37:54.719 a few weeks later they come back, so you know, 0:37:54.880 --> 0:37:57.200 they're generally harmless if you stay out of their ways. 0:37:57.719 --> 0:38:01.080 But we definitely remove these. But this is what makes 0:38:01.120 --> 0:38:07.920 this land special. It's the the the topography of the 0:38:07.960 --> 0:38:11.399 trees and grass and everything else that we have here. 0:38:12.320 --> 0:38:16.880 So if I'm at this festival forgetting the alligators, I 0:38:16.920 --> 0:38:18.520 will see wild animals. 0:38:19.320 --> 0:38:22.440 It's very, very possible that you will see wild animals 0:38:22.440 --> 0:38:27.040 from sandal cranes who come right very close up to people. 0:38:27.080 --> 0:38:29.920 They're kind of used to us, they're not afraid of 0:38:30.000 --> 0:38:34.080 us to you know, many other types of birds, blue 0:38:34.080 --> 0:38:37.759 hair blue herons, which is the largest I think it's 0:38:37.840 --> 0:38:43.200 the largest bird in North America, as well as lots 0:38:43.200 --> 0:38:49.200 of armadillos, lots of uh, you know, raccoons and skunks. Yeah, 0:38:49.440 --> 0:38:51.520 the high chance you might see some animals. 0:38:51.560 --> 0:38:58.680 Absolutely, okay, sell me, not me. The average person in America, 0:38:58.960 --> 0:39:01.360 they're walking down the street, they don't know something and 0:39:01.400 --> 0:39:03.759 they run into you and you say, oh, I have 0:39:03.840 --> 0:39:07.160 this festival. There's you know, there's a number of festivals 0:39:07.200 --> 0:39:10.319 out there. What is your pitch about what makes your 0:39:10.400 --> 0:39:11.480 festival so great? 0:39:13.040 --> 0:39:18.759 Well, we're one of the few truly camping festivals in 0:39:18.800 --> 0:39:23.440 our region. We are the weather is excellent, it's not 0:39:23.640 --> 0:39:28.040 too hot, not too cold. It's it's not humid and 0:39:28.680 --> 0:39:33.880 muggy like other places. It's it's really blue skies at 0:39:33.920 --> 0:39:37.680 that time of the year. March in Florida. We're close 0:39:37.719 --> 0:39:41.360 to you know, close enough to Miami and Orlando. 0:39:42.480 --> 0:39:42.879 We are. 0:39:45.719 --> 0:39:48.480 We have incredible music. We have one hundred and twenty 0:39:48.560 --> 0:39:56.000 artists for four days, so the the bank for your buck, 0:39:56.200 --> 0:40:01.400 as they say, is highly worth it. We have an 0:40:01.440 --> 0:40:06.960 incredible amount of food offerings from you know, anything from 0:40:07.000 --> 0:40:10.280 hot dogs and French fries to you know, an Argentine 0:40:10.480 --> 0:40:13.480 Argentinian parilia. 0:40:13.800 --> 0:40:16.280 Which is like an Argentine word for barbecue. 0:40:18.280 --> 0:40:23.520 We have so many different activities, you know, from yoga 0:40:23.560 --> 0:40:29.200 and meditations to uh frick frock black jack, which is 0:40:30.120 --> 0:40:32.840 you know, a really fun place where you can go 0:40:32.920 --> 0:40:38.280 in and play casino with with you know, you could 0:40:38.560 --> 0:40:40.840 put your pair of shoes or or something like that, 0:40:40.880 --> 0:40:43.640 because obviously we're not doing it with money. But there's 0:40:43.760 --> 0:40:47.560 there's a lot of of different things to do and 0:40:47.680 --> 0:40:51.399 walk around and being outdoors with your best friends and uh, 0:40:51.480 --> 0:40:56.080 and and and seeing some incredible talent on six different 0:40:56.080 --> 0:41:01.680 stages on an eight hundred acre pro which I always 0:41:01.680 --> 0:41:03.759 tell people that's the size of Central Park in New 0:41:03.840 --> 0:41:05.360 York and it's clean. 0:41:13.760 --> 0:41:19.400 Okay, you have VIP packages. What percentage of your audience 0:41:19.480 --> 0:41:24.680 buys VIP and what are the varying VIP packages look like? 0:41:26.239 --> 0:41:29.359 I would say the percentage is around ten percent of 0:41:29.400 --> 0:41:36.080 the audience we have mainly you know, within VIP you 0:41:36.120 --> 0:41:39.040 can either stay in a glamping tent or in a 0:41:39.080 --> 0:41:45.160 preset RV, or you can even go one step up 0:41:45.480 --> 0:41:51.440 than that you stay in a rockstar type of bus, 0:41:51.480 --> 0:41:53.640 you know, which is that's like the top of the 0:41:53.680 --> 0:41:55.040 top of the VIP. 0:41:57.000 --> 0:42:03.480 Okay, you have rooms in the electronic music world, how 0:42:03.560 --> 0:42:06.080 does Cage the Elephant become the headliner? 0:42:07.640 --> 0:42:08.640 Well, it's very simple. 0:42:08.680 --> 0:42:11.040 You know, it doesn't matter what I like, it's uh, 0:42:11.239 --> 0:42:14.920 it's you know, we we have to cater to a 0:42:15.080 --> 0:42:18.080 very wide audience, and that's what we're trying to do. 0:42:18.120 --> 0:42:20.560 And that's what you know Ben Baruk and Dave nit 0:42:20.640 --> 0:42:25.440 Niedbowski from Grand Rising Curations uh do very well. Is 0:42:25.480 --> 0:42:28.520 that they book all of the other stuff. You know, 0:42:28.600 --> 0:42:31.399 I can focus on the on the techno and house 0:42:31.520 --> 0:42:35.880 music DJs and and and some other odd artists here 0:42:35.920 --> 0:42:39.200 here and there, and they can take care of everything 0:42:39.239 --> 0:42:43.880 that is, you know, the cage, the elephants, the t panes, uh. 0:42:43.360 --> 0:42:45.600 The grizz the Grizzes of this World. 0:42:45.920 --> 0:42:51.440 And uh uh and and more, you know, LCD sound System, 0:42:51.520 --> 0:42:52.560 et cetera, et cetera. 0:42:53.600 --> 0:42:55.840 Well, you've been doing this for a while. To what 0:42:56.040 --> 0:42:59.680 degree is a festival success dependent on the line up? 0:43:03.400 --> 0:43:09.760 The festival success is I think I would say maybe, 0:43:10.520 --> 0:43:12.600 you know, it's something that we haven't been able to 0:43:12.680 --> 0:43:17.600 actually determine. I'd love to be able to know the 0:43:17.640 --> 0:43:21.440 answer to that, but my guess is that it's you know, 0:43:22.840 --> 0:43:30.160 sixty percent lineup forty percent location. I'd like it to 0:43:30.200 --> 0:43:36.280 be more location than lineup. But I think that people 0:43:36.360 --> 0:43:40.160 have a lot of very high expectations from the lineup 0:43:40.200 --> 0:43:44.600 because we started in twenty sixteen, very very big. 0:43:44.640 --> 0:43:46.040 So it's very. 0:43:45.880 --> 0:43:49.200 Difficult for us to backtrack from that and say, Okay, 0:43:49.280 --> 0:43:54.560 you know what, we're not going to be booking any headliners, 0:43:54.640 --> 0:43:56.720 you know, but what's the headliner anyway? 0:43:56.760 --> 0:43:57.440 Nowadays? Right? 0:43:57.560 --> 0:44:00.360 You know, you know very well that we're not living 0:44:00.400 --> 0:44:05.600 in a in a monoculture anymore, and that one headliner 0:44:06.320 --> 0:44:10.440 means something to someone and nothing to a lot of people. 0:44:11.000 --> 0:44:13.920 So how do you how do you even pick the headliner? Right, 0:44:14.040 --> 0:44:16.799 it's a it's it's it's still a mystery to me. 0:44:18.080 --> 0:44:22.480 Okay. Coachella famously has certain restrictions, you know, in terms 0:44:22.520 --> 0:44:26.120 of worry the act can play, how close, how frequently 0:44:26.840 --> 0:44:30.640 you're a festival, unlike you're like very early in the season. 0:44:31.680 --> 0:44:36.160 So when you book talent, do you put any restrictions on? 0:44:36.560 --> 0:44:39.840 Are you worried about the fact that your one act 0:44:39.880 --> 0:44:44.560 may play twenty festivals? Are these considerations? 0:44:44.960 --> 0:44:50.680 Look, we we book first of all, Coachella is a 0:44:50.760 --> 0:44:55.160 month after us. They're in April. I think they're also 0:44:55.440 --> 0:44:59.239 very very far from from where we are, So for me, 0:44:59.320 --> 0:45:02.279 it doesn't make sense their restrictions. You know, we've had 0:45:02.320 --> 0:45:06.239 several artists in the past who had signed contracts with US, 0:45:06.840 --> 0:45:12.000 and they decided last minute because Coachella wanted to book 0:45:12.040 --> 0:45:15.120 them to kind of you know, rip the contract apart 0:45:15.800 --> 0:45:18.880 and uh and and and go with Coachella. And you know, 0:45:19.520 --> 0:45:22.560 of course we can legally attack them, but we're not 0:45:22.560 --> 0:45:24.960 going to do that, because what's the point. You know, 0:45:25.000 --> 0:45:27.520 you're you're you're doing business with all these agencies, and 0:45:28.080 --> 0:45:29.880 you know it's fine. You just find a replacement and 0:45:29.920 --> 0:45:33.920 you move on, you know, you know, with with with 0:45:34.080 --> 0:45:37.879 with what we're doing here in in Florida. We try 0:45:37.880 --> 0:45:42.960 to put a a a a five hundred mile kind 0:45:43.040 --> 0:45:47.360 of radius clause which covers most of the state of Florida. 0:45:47.960 --> 0:45:50.600 And you know, some artists, especially in my world, they 0:45:50.640 --> 0:45:53.160 always ask me, they say, okay, but can we play 0:45:53.239 --> 0:45:56.880 you know, the Winter Music Conference in Miami, which is 0:45:57.120 --> 0:45:59.799 you know, the weekend after US which is now called 0:45:59.840 --> 0:46:03.759 Myami Music Week by the way. And you know, I 0:46:03.800 --> 0:46:07.560 always tell them, you know, sure, but you can't announce 0:46:07.640 --> 0:46:11.080 it until after our festival, you know, so they have 0:46:11.160 --> 0:46:13.880 to keep it as a special guest and then they 0:46:13.880 --> 0:46:17.480 can start promoting it once with. 0:46:17.719 --> 0:46:19.120 I think that's a fair approach. 0:46:20.600 --> 0:46:25.120 Okay, you are in Florida, One of the advantages of 0:46:25.200 --> 0:46:28.399 Coachella is the weather. It could be hot, it can 0:46:28.480 --> 0:46:33.279 be cold, but it ain't gonna rain. These New York festivals, 0:46:33.760 --> 0:46:37.600 you know, they'll have it down poor. What is the 0:46:37.640 --> 0:46:40.399 situation in Florida? Been doing this for a while? Can 0:46:40.520 --> 0:46:42.080 it rain and ruin a whole day? 0:46:42.840 --> 0:46:45.480 So we're we're at the end of the dry season. 0:46:46.760 --> 0:46:50.120 The rainy season is typically from April to November and 0:46:50.239 --> 0:46:54.520 dry from December to March. So we're at the end 0:46:54.520 --> 0:46:58.120 of that, and it has been extremely dry for the 0:46:58.200 --> 0:47:01.920 last two three months. You know, it actually froze. Everything 0:47:01.960 --> 0:47:05.920 froze a few months ago. I think it was in 0:47:06.120 --> 0:47:09.560 January or early February, and I was here and I 0:47:10.400 --> 0:47:13.040 was wearing you know, I didn't plan for this, and 0:47:13.080 --> 0:47:16.120 I just brought a hoodie and a light jacket, so 0:47:16.160 --> 0:47:20.440 I was it was supposedly colder in Florida than it 0:47:20.520 --> 0:47:24.200 was in Alaska on those days. I don't know if 0:47:24.200 --> 0:47:27.560 you remember that, I do, but in any case, that 0:47:27.719 --> 0:47:31.080 was kind of unusual. And and since then it's been 0:47:31.120 --> 0:47:38.480 extremely dry with danger of fires, you know, wildfire's happening, 0:47:39.000 --> 0:47:42.239 and so it's in the past few weeks since I've 0:47:42.239 --> 0:47:47.920 been here on site. It's been raining a little bit 0:47:47.960 --> 0:47:56.319 here and there, which has been most welcomed, and it 0:47:56.480 --> 0:47:59.560 has only in the past six years that we've done. 0:47:59.560 --> 0:48:01.800 The past six events that we've done, it only rained 0:48:01.840 --> 0:48:06.080 once on Thursday, opening day and that was just a 0:48:06.160 --> 0:48:11.440 tiny bit of rain. It didn't affect much, you know, 0:48:11.520 --> 0:48:13.960 so we've been very lucky. But it could you know, 0:48:14.040 --> 0:48:19.000 you could have a thunderstorm, freak weather's climate happening, you know, 0:48:19.160 --> 0:48:22.279 like you can you know what happened at in Tomorrowland 0:48:22.320 --> 0:48:25.840 in Georgia where they had to cancel, and Bonnaroo and 0:48:26.120 --> 0:48:29.440 all these other festivals. So we've been extremely lucky up 0:48:29.440 --> 0:48:29.839 to now. 0:48:30.600 --> 0:48:32.760 How do you establish pricing. 0:48:34.520 --> 0:48:37.800 Well, we we we back out, that's a very good question. 0:48:37.880 --> 0:48:40.879 We we basically back out of our costs and we 0:48:40.920 --> 0:48:45.279 priced it based on how much everything costs us. You know, 0:48:45.320 --> 0:48:48.560 we can't price the tickets lower than what it cost 0:48:48.680 --> 0:48:52.960 us to put on the show. And of course, you know, 0:48:53.000 --> 0:48:55.440 people keep on putting their prices up, so we have 0:48:55.520 --> 0:48:57.879 to put our prices up. It's not that we want 0:48:57.920 --> 0:49:01.279 to have our tickets priced at what they're we we 0:49:01.400 --> 0:49:03.719 actually would like to make it affordable to everyone. But 0:49:04.320 --> 0:49:07.920 the nature of the beast makes it that we can't 0:49:08.120 --> 0:49:10.880 uh price the tickets any lower because if now we 0:49:10.960 --> 0:49:11.720 go out of business. 0:49:12.680 --> 0:49:17.040 Are you concerned about your prices relative to other festivals? 0:49:18.200 --> 0:49:22.600 We're actually uh very well priced. We're compared to to 0:49:22.760 --> 0:49:25.920 all the similar festivals. We're we're right on par with 0:49:26.080 --> 0:49:30.880 what everyone else is pricing. What I'm concerned about is 0:49:31.320 --> 0:49:35.479 more this uh economy that we're having in America, which 0:49:35.520 --> 0:49:38.680 is you know, propped up by the AI bubble. 0:49:39.360 --> 0:49:39.520 Uh. 0:49:40.400 --> 0:49:43.839 You know, people are really uh. 0:49:43.320 --> 0:49:46.960 Suffering out there. There's there's there's a real problem of 0:49:47.120 --> 0:49:51.680 disposable income. And and you know, festivals I think are 0:49:51.680 --> 0:49:55.640 are are are are what goes goes out the window 0:49:55.719 --> 0:49:59.920 the fastest because people are saving up to you know, 0:50:00.120 --> 0:50:02.080 see if they can afford to go to the supermarket 0:50:02.440 --> 0:50:05.960 to buy food. So, you know, we feel it, we 0:50:06.040 --> 0:50:08.839 see it, we hear it in the comments. It's it's 0:50:09.080 --> 0:50:11.799 it's a really a good a good gauge of what's 0:50:11.840 --> 0:50:14.319 going on around the country. It's a it's a it's 0:50:14.320 --> 0:50:16.880 a real shame that we got to this point. But 0:50:16.960 --> 0:50:19.600 without any finger pointing, you know, this is where we are. 0:50:20.719 --> 0:50:26.560 What percentage of people sleep overnight on the site. 0:50:28.080 --> 0:50:28.640 Everybody. 0:50:29.719 --> 0:50:31.800 Everybody, Okay, close. 0:50:31.640 --> 0:50:34.120 To ninety eight percent. I mean other than people who 0:50:34.200 --> 0:50:37.440 come in for the day. We sell day passes, you know, 0:50:37.560 --> 0:50:42.719 so you know I would say I would say ten 0:50:42.800 --> 0:50:45.080 percent maybe come for the day. 0:50:45.400 --> 0:50:48.960 Let's just assume. You know, it's like at Bontaroo. There 0:50:48.960 --> 0:50:52.480 are people who stay at hotels and drive in. Is 0:50:52.520 --> 0:50:55.880 that even an option? Or the hotels are too far away. 0:50:56.760 --> 0:50:59.360 The hotels are kind of too far away. They're the 0:50:59.440 --> 0:51:02.879 closest tell is the Hampton's Inn in Okechobe Town. That's 0:51:02.920 --> 0:51:07.560 twenty five minutes, third thirty minutes. It's it's really you know, 0:51:08.520 --> 0:51:11.040 if you're coming to this camping festival, you you really 0:51:11.080 --> 0:51:20.879 want to experience the event by staying on site, which 0:51:20.960 --> 0:51:26.240 is which is not recommended to stay in a hotel, 0:51:26.280 --> 0:51:28.080 but you can do that and get a day ticket. 0:51:28.200 --> 0:51:31.080 Or some people who live in Port Saint Lucie or 0:51:31.600 --> 0:51:34.880 Orlando or Miami, you know, they can come in for 0:51:34.960 --> 0:51:37.359 the day, but then they have to drive back for 0:51:37.440 --> 0:51:41.280 two hours or whatever. So you know, it's much nicer 0:51:41.320 --> 0:51:44.160 to just slip into your tent or your RV at 0:51:44.200 --> 0:51:47.600 the end of the day and waking up on site. 0:51:48.000 --> 0:51:51.320 What percentage of people are intents, what percentage of people 0:51:51.360 --> 0:51:54.560 are in RVs and what percentage of people are glamping 0:51:54.640 --> 0:51:56.799 in structures that you construct. 0:51:57.800 --> 0:52:03.520 I think I would say eighty ten eighty, and then nine, 0:52:03.760 --> 0:52:07.240 like ten percent in in bell tense, and then maybe 0:52:07.239 --> 0:52:09.560 another ten percent in r vs. 0:52:10.400 --> 0:52:17.759 Roughly, Okay, you're in Florida. Festivals are known for illegal 0:52:17.880 --> 0:52:22.239 drug use, and Florida is not a state that is 0:52:22.320 --> 0:52:25.839 friendly to that. How do you approach that issue? 0:52:26.719 --> 0:52:29.880 Well, you know, thankfully that's in the hands of the 0:52:29.960 --> 0:52:33.279 law enforcements I have. I'm pretty hands off when it 0:52:33.280 --> 0:52:35.000 comes to the stuff. The law is the law, and 0:52:35.760 --> 0:52:38.360 you know, you get nicked, you can get you get kicked, 0:52:39.000 --> 0:52:40.040 So that's what happens. 0:52:40.200 --> 0:52:43.080 Well, to what degree is our presence from law enforcement 0:52:43.120 --> 0:52:43.800 on the site? 0:52:44.520 --> 0:52:47.680 You know, we we have dogs you know, at the 0:52:47.840 --> 0:52:51.239 at the gate and there present. You know, we have 0:52:51.280 --> 0:52:52.720 some undercover walking around. 0:52:53.320 --> 0:52:54.839 You know. We we just. 0:52:58.080 --> 0:53:02.279 Do whatever we're old you know by the county. We 0:53:02.320 --> 0:53:05.080 stay out of it, and we're we're focused on producing 0:53:06.040 --> 0:53:08.319 the event. And and and really when it comes down 0:53:08.320 --> 0:53:12.680 to to, uh, you know, keeping the law, it's up 0:53:12.719 --> 0:53:19.280 to the Sheriff's department and and and and the sheriff's 0:53:19.280 --> 0:53:20.760 departments organizations. 0:53:21.680 --> 0:53:26.360 So, Julio, who are you? Where do you come from? 0:53:26.640 --> 0:53:27.480 Well, that's always a. 0:53:29.480 --> 0:53:35.719 Complicated answer, but basically I grew up in Geneva, Switzerland. 0:53:36.920 --> 0:53:42.560 My mother is Brazilian. She comes from a Brazilian Jewish 0:53:42.560 --> 0:53:47.560 family from San Paulo, which had originally emigrated from Moldova 0:53:48.719 --> 0:53:53.040 in the early twentieth century, so before World War One 0:53:53.080 --> 0:53:58.360 even we emigrated from Moldova and Ukraine. And then in 0:53:58.400 --> 0:54:04.080 the fifties there was a military dictatorship in Brazil and 0:54:04.880 --> 0:54:10.040 my grandfather and grandmother took my mother and my aunt 0:54:10.480 --> 0:54:15.600 to Geneva and that's where my mom moved to when 0:54:15.640 --> 0:54:19.360 she was ten years old, and that's why when I 0:54:19.480 --> 0:54:23.560 was born, I was basically born in Phoenix, Arizona. My 0:54:23.640 --> 0:54:25.799 parents met in New York City. They my mom used 0:54:25.800 --> 0:54:28.680 to live in New York in the seventies and and 0:54:28.840 --> 0:54:32.240 met my father there and eventually they moved to Phoenix 0:54:32.280 --> 0:54:35.120 for a couple of years when my dad went to 0:54:36.960 --> 0:54:42.920 have an MBA at Thunderbird University in Phoenix, and shortly 0:54:43.040 --> 0:54:46.400 after he graduated. He graduated in May and I was 0:54:46.440 --> 0:54:49.560 born in May of eighty five, and I immediately moved 0:54:49.560 --> 0:54:52.520 out of America and moved to Geneva and then didn't 0:54:52.520 --> 0:54:58.799 come back to the US until university, where I went 0:54:58.840 --> 0:55:03.719 to college in Boston. So essentially, my mother is Brazilian, 0:55:04.680 --> 0:55:07.640 but you know, spent her childhood in Switzerland. And my 0:55:07.760 --> 0:55:12.399 father was born from a Brazilian mother and a Colombian father, 0:55:13.080 --> 0:55:17.480 and he was his parents divorced when he was very 0:55:17.520 --> 0:55:22.080 young and moved to Paris when he was like six 0:55:22.160 --> 0:55:25.240 seven years old. And so I grew up speaking French 0:55:25.239 --> 0:55:26.239 to my parents. 0:55:27.160 --> 0:55:28.760 And are your parents still together? 0:55:29.960 --> 0:55:34.680 My parents separated in maybe nineteen ninety eight, and my 0:55:34.760 --> 0:55:42.360 father passed away in two thousand and nine, and he 0:55:43.160 --> 0:55:47.480 had lung cancer and he was a heavy smoker. And 0:55:48.719 --> 0:55:53.319 it was even though they separated, you know, in ninety eight, 0:55:53.400 --> 0:55:57.640 they always stayed very close and very good friends. And 0:55:57.719 --> 0:56:02.120 so I had the chance to spend and vacations, you know, 0:56:02.160 --> 0:56:05.799 Easter vacation and summer vacations with both my parents. 0:56:06.280 --> 0:56:08.000 And what did your father do for a living? 0:56:09.239 --> 0:56:15.840 My father basically started in the eighties a a something 0:56:15.920 --> 0:56:18.520 called the funds of funds. Was one of the first 0:56:18.520 --> 0:56:23.120 funds of funds. It was called Alpha Asset Management, and 0:56:23.680 --> 0:56:27.680 he did that in Geneva. But he his passion was 0:56:27.680 --> 0:56:31.960 always music, and he always wanted to get into the 0:56:32.040 --> 0:56:36.279 music industry, but you know, he he basically wanted to 0:56:36.320 --> 0:56:39.479 provide also for his family, so he he went into 0:56:39.640 --> 0:56:42.799 he he went into the finance world and and had 0:56:43.239 --> 0:56:47.120 you know, analyzed what was working at the time and 0:56:47.440 --> 0:56:51.920 created this company with his partner who now lives in 0:56:51.960 --> 0:56:57.080 Los Angeles, a guy called Nicholas Bergruen, who who does 0:56:57.120 --> 0:56:59.680 a lot of interesting things. He has a think tank 0:57:00.440 --> 0:57:06.439 called the Burgrun Institute. And you know, eventually my dad 0:57:07.239 --> 0:57:10.960 left his business to Nicholas and and was was sort 0:57:11.000 --> 0:57:15.360 of disinterested by this whole world and started collecting UH 0:57:15.400 --> 0:57:22.600 frantically books about all sorts of UH, high and low 0:57:22.760 --> 0:57:26.480 art and UH and mind travel and and you know, 0:57:27.160 --> 0:57:31.960 all sorts of substances and and when my father passed away, 0:57:33.680 --> 0:57:39.120 we essentially made a donation loan of the collection to 0:57:39.320 --> 0:57:42.000 Harvard University, which was kind of. 0:57:41.960 --> 0:57:44.320 A a A A. 0:57:43.960 --> 0:57:47.400 A a full circle moment from when they kicked out 0:57:48.160 --> 0:57:52.600 Ramdas and Timothy Leary for for for for. 0:57:52.560 --> 0:57:53.200 Giving L s. 0:57:53.240 --> 0:57:59.480 D to their UH students, where they accepted this collection, 0:58:00.080 --> 0:58:05.720 which had the original research papers from Albert Hoffman uh 0:58:05.840 --> 0:58:08.520 as part of the collection back into their libraries. And 0:58:08.560 --> 0:58:11.480 it was kind of a meakupa from Harvard that said, 0:58:11.520 --> 0:58:15.760 you know what, where there's actually something worth studying in 0:58:15.800 --> 0:58:19.360 these books? Uh and and and and that's what this 0:58:19.440 --> 0:58:25.840 beautiful collection uh where it resides nowadays. My father, my 0:58:25.840 --> 0:58:29.120 my my father was was was was a bookworm and 0:58:29.160 --> 0:58:33.720 an intellectual and he he really enjoyed reading more than anything. 0:58:33.760 --> 0:58:34.320 And he he. 0:58:34.320 --> 0:58:37.560 Read thousands and thousands of books and and books was 0:58:37.880 --> 0:58:38.560 his whole life. 0:58:39.360 --> 0:58:42.960 Do you have brothers and sisters? I have one sister, 0:58:44.400 --> 0:58:46.080 so who inherited all the money? 0:58:47.760 --> 0:58:52.280 Well, I mean, uh listen, uh there was all the money. 0:58:52.160 --> 0:58:54.560 Was uh uh uh. 0:58:54.720 --> 0:58:58.360 Uh split amongst amongst the whole family. And uh and 0:58:58.480 --> 0:59:01.320 uh we we we all had our part. And you know, 0:59:01.400 --> 0:59:04.520 I put my what I had into my music festival, 0:59:04.560 --> 0:59:06.560 you know. And and and here we are. 0:59:06.640 --> 0:59:12.840 You know, Okay, if you grew up in Switzerland, what 0:59:13.000 --> 0:59:14.880 is that like compared to America? 0:59:17.280 --> 0:59:22.920 Switzerland is is is a social democracy. It's very similar 0:59:22.960 --> 0:59:27.200 to Norway and some Scandinavian countries where it's it's someone 0:59:27.280 --> 0:59:31.600 once said, it's the only true democracy in the planet 0:59:31.760 --> 0:59:36.000 where any little issue that is raised, you can vote 0:59:36.040 --> 0:59:38.560 on it. So if you're Swiss, you can vote on 0:59:38.600 --> 0:59:42.120 pretty much anything, and you can, you know, propose anything 0:59:42.160 --> 0:59:45.440 to be voted on, and and people can vote online 0:59:45.480 --> 0:59:48.560 and very easily, and so everything is always decided by 0:59:48.560 --> 0:59:51.920 the people as as they go along. 0:59:52.800 --> 0:59:58.560 Okay, So if you snap your fingers, do you want 0:59:58.560 --> 1:00:00.760 to live in Switzerland or the U? So what are 1:00:00.760 --> 1:00:02.919 the advantages and disadvantages of both? 1:00:04.040 --> 1:00:08.680 I think that the US has a lot more of 1:00:08.720 --> 1:00:11.120 an open market. I think that if you have a 1:00:11.160 --> 1:00:14.920 good idea and a good product, you can make it 1:00:15.000 --> 1:00:15.520 much bigger. 1:00:15.520 --> 1:00:16.160 In the US. 1:00:17.200 --> 1:00:21.840 There's a lot more entrepreneurs here, the sheer numbers of people, right, 1:00:21.880 --> 1:00:25.120 It's a much bigger country. In Switzerland and Europe in general, 1:00:25.200 --> 1:00:29.960 I think that there's a lot less opportunity to develop 1:00:30.040 --> 1:00:32.480 new ideas and new businesses. You know, they don't call 1:00:32.520 --> 1:00:35.600 it the old world for nothing, because people are stuck 1:00:35.600 --> 1:00:40.960 in their little clans and their little private clubs, and 1:00:41.520 --> 1:00:44.080 you know, nobody wants to move the needle too much 1:00:44.880 --> 1:00:48.960 in Europe compared to America. America, people come here, you know, 1:00:49.000 --> 1:00:51.520 and they take risks and they either succeed or they crash. 1:00:51.840 --> 1:00:54.200 But at least they have an opportunity to take a 1:00:54.280 --> 1:00:56.800 risk more than in other places. 1:00:57.560 --> 1:00:58.840 So where did you go to college? 1:01:00.160 --> 1:01:02.400 I went to college in Boston University. 1:01:03.120 --> 1:01:04.160 And did you graduate? 1:01:05.560 --> 1:01:09.520 I graduated undergrad and then I went to a school 1:01:09.520 --> 1:01:12.840 of Audio Engineering in New York City, and that's where 1:01:12.840 --> 1:01:15.960 I learned the ropes of you know, how to record 1:01:16.480 --> 1:01:21.080 a band and work myself around the studio. 1:01:21.800 --> 1:01:25.400 Okay, so you're forty one now, or you'll be forty 1:01:25.440 --> 1:01:29.320 one this year. You go to college, you go to 1:01:29.440 --> 1:01:34.480 the audio school. What happened after that? What was you know? 1:01:34.840 --> 1:01:38.000 You got the festival? Now you talked about the underground parties? 1:01:38.680 --> 1:01:40.480 How did that arc happen? 1:01:41.160 --> 1:01:44.720 So I left college in two thousand and seven and 1:01:45.080 --> 1:01:48.920 I moved to New York and I took some classes 1:01:48.960 --> 1:01:53.880 at the Secondary school School of Secondary Education. I took 1:01:53.920 --> 1:01:58.400 some like, you know, economics and kind of I think 1:01:58.440 --> 1:02:01.040 it was a microeconomic class. I forgot what it was. 1:02:01.840 --> 1:02:05.040 I took a few classes at the NYU Secondary School 1:02:05.040 --> 1:02:11.160 of Continuing Education for that year, and then I realized 1:02:11.200 --> 1:02:14.640 that while I was taking these classes that I really 1:02:14.640 --> 1:02:20.440 had a burning calling to dj because I had been 1:02:20.480 --> 1:02:23.720 DJing before that. I had a radio show back in 1:02:23.720 --> 1:02:28.640 Switzerland where we had a reggae a weekly reggae show, 1:02:29.320 --> 1:02:32.200 and that was how I started djaing. So, you know, 1:02:32.280 --> 1:02:34.120 I had been going to parties in New York and 1:02:34.160 --> 1:02:38.760 I was so dissatisfied with the level of music that 1:02:38.920 --> 1:02:43.840 was being showcased by other DJs that I always told myself, listen, 1:02:43.840 --> 1:02:45.600 I can do a better job than what I'm listening. 1:02:46.040 --> 1:02:48.040 I know I can do a better job. And I started, 1:02:48.440 --> 1:02:51.480 you know, putting these little events in two thousand and 1:02:51.520 --> 1:02:56.280 eight where I would create a Facebook event. Back in 1:02:56.320 --> 1:02:59.080 the days, it wasn't so popular to do a Facebook event, 1:02:59.160 --> 1:03:02.680 but now you know, it quickly became overcrowded in the 1:03:02.480 --> 1:03:05.400 in the on Facebook, but at the time, people would 1:03:05.440 --> 1:03:09.120 still receive the invites, and so people started coming to 1:03:09.120 --> 1:03:12.960 my events and it's I started. I continued doing them 1:03:13.360 --> 1:03:16.760 week after week and growing them very organically, and people 1:03:16.840 --> 1:03:20.720 were having a great time, and eventually I started booking 1:03:20.760 --> 1:03:23.800 other DJs. So I went from being the promoter and 1:03:23.840 --> 1:03:27.000 the resident DJ and playing six hours from ten pm 1:03:27.040 --> 1:03:30.400 to four am, you know, every single Thursday, to then 1:03:30.480 --> 1:03:33.960 started booking other DJs, creating a collective of artists and 1:03:34.480 --> 1:03:41.000 eventually booking DJs from overseas and growing my brand like 1:03:41.040 --> 1:03:46.240 that until I decided to bring Circo Loco from Ibiza, 1:03:46.320 --> 1:03:52.880 which is probably the most famous dance music brand that 1:03:53.080 --> 1:03:55.680 comes from Ibiza, and they do now, I think a 1:03:55.680 --> 1:03:58.520 Halloween party in New York with ten thousand people. But 1:03:59.760 --> 1:04:01.760 at the beginning I was the first one to bring 1:04:01.840 --> 1:04:08.240 him to the US and that was really special in 1:04:08.240 --> 1:04:10.280 two thousand and eight because it was still pretty raw 1:04:10.320 --> 1:04:13.240 and authentic and it wasn't the level of production that 1:04:13.280 --> 1:04:13.959 things are now. 1:04:15.040 --> 1:04:15.840 So it was it was. 1:04:15.880 --> 1:04:18.600 It was as the owner of Circoloco had told me, 1:04:18.600 --> 1:04:21.520 He said, it reminds it reminds me of our early days. 1:04:21.960 --> 1:04:25.200 And for me that was a badge of honor, because 1:04:25.440 --> 1:04:28.880 you know, everything is so overproduced these days that you know, 1:04:29.000 --> 1:04:31.000 you like it when things are authentic and a little 1:04:31.040 --> 1:04:33.320 bit more grimy and a little bit raw. 1:04:41.360 --> 1:04:46.600 Well, you're plugged in. What's the status of both electronic 1:04:46.800 --> 1:04:52.440 music and the parties which you labeled is underground? What 1:04:52.520 --> 1:04:54.440 the great does that still exist? You know, in the 1:04:54.560 --> 1:04:58.000 nineties that was all that was everything, then everything came 1:04:58.040 --> 1:05:00.800 above ground. What's the status the world today? 1:05:01.640 --> 1:05:04.840 Well, I think that today there's nothing underground anymore, right, 1:05:04.840 --> 1:05:09.440 because everyone has so much access to everywhere, to everything 1:05:09.480 --> 1:05:13.640 at the same time, so you really can uh find 1:05:13.640 --> 1:05:17.120 out about a secret party happening somewhere. The only way 1:05:17.160 --> 1:05:20.480 to really create a secret party would be to not 1:05:20.680 --> 1:05:24.120 use the internet and uh and and and leave a 1:05:24.160 --> 1:05:27.040 business card somewhere, you know, in a in a store 1:05:27.560 --> 1:05:29.880 and tell you to call a number. And no one 1:05:29.920 --> 1:05:31.880 really wants to do that because no one wants to risk, 1:05:32.400 --> 1:05:34.440 you know, producing a party. 1:05:34.200 --> 1:05:36.800 And and and and and and losing money. 1:05:36.840 --> 1:05:38.760 You know, it costs so much money to rent a space, 1:05:39.160 --> 1:05:42.200 It costs so much money to rent gear. Uh, it's 1:05:42.280 --> 1:05:45.040 just not what it used to be and anymore. But 1:05:45.240 --> 1:05:48.840 you know, people are always complaining about everything becoming uh 1:05:49.240 --> 1:05:52.120 so generic and everything you know, it's it's it's kind 1:05:52.160 --> 1:05:54.960 of like when people in the fifties complain about rock 1:05:55.000 --> 1:05:57.919 and roll, right and uh and and and then there's 1:05:57.960 --> 1:06:01.080 always if you want the older people are always complaining 1:06:01.120 --> 1:06:04.720 about how things used to be, and there's always budding 1:06:04.760 --> 1:06:07.520 new movements that are happening that you're either in the 1:06:07.560 --> 1:06:08.760 know or you're not right. 1:06:08.800 --> 1:06:09.880 You're either hip or you're not. 1:06:10.400 --> 1:06:14.600 So I think that if you want to look for 1:06:14.800 --> 1:06:18.280 cool music, out there. And when it comes to electronic music, 1:06:18.880 --> 1:06:21.560 there's so much music out there that you just have 1:06:21.640 --> 1:06:24.360 to stay there for hours and hours and hours and 1:06:24.520 --> 1:06:28.600 digitally create dig into the files of these you know, 1:06:28.720 --> 1:06:35.040 companies like a beatport or band camp or Kobo's, any 1:06:35.080 --> 1:06:39.680 of these these these amazing downloadable websites. If you if 1:06:39.720 --> 1:06:42.440 you want to find great music, you just have to 1:06:42.480 --> 1:06:43.960 put in the hours and the effort. 1:06:44.240 --> 1:06:44.960 And that's what it's. 1:06:45.040 --> 1:06:47.640 That's the way it's always been, you know, it's it's 1:06:47.680 --> 1:06:49.960 you have to be your own curator, and you have 1:06:50.000 --> 1:06:53.440 to have flair and know how and and have taste 1:06:53.480 --> 1:06:55.960 also because you know, there's a lot of DJs out 1:06:56.000 --> 1:06:58.520 there and people think it's easy, but you know, the 1:06:58.560 --> 1:07:01.880 actual mechanics of DJ is the easy part. But the 1:07:02.000 --> 1:07:05.400 hard part is actually having taste in music and finding 1:07:05.440 --> 1:07:08.520 good music. Right, that's not a given talent to everyone. 1:07:09.040 --> 1:07:12.680 So to people who say there's no good music out 1:07:12.720 --> 1:07:16.240 there and I can't find everything sounds bland and repetitive. 1:07:16.320 --> 1:07:18.800 I mean, you put in the hours, you'll find out 1:07:18.800 --> 1:07:21.160 some pearls out there and you'll be so happy when 1:07:21.200 --> 1:07:21.720 you find one. 1:07:21.760 --> 1:07:23.120 It's like the Holy Girl, right. 1:07:24.720 --> 1:07:31.080 Okay, Other than the investors. What's the organizational structure of 1:07:31.800 --> 1:07:33.120 Oki Chobe Festival. 1:07:34.160 --> 1:07:36.560 So I've been working for more than ten years with 1:07:37.040 --> 1:07:43.320 a wonderful person called Alissa, Alissa Richardson. So she's kind of, 1:07:43.560 --> 1:07:46.920 you know, the executive producer of the event. She sits 1:07:46.920 --> 1:07:51.720 at the top. I'm on the brand creative side. And 1:07:51.760 --> 1:07:57.920 then you have our marketing team, which is you know, 1:07:58.120 --> 1:08:02.960 Grace and Alex who run that and uh and then 1:08:03.000 --> 1:08:04.560 Grace also takes care of media. 1:08:05.440 --> 1:08:06.400 We have a PR. 1:08:07.400 --> 1:08:11.720 We have then some junior people who work for us, 1:08:12.160 --> 1:08:16.120 and then that's that's pretty much our our internal team, 1:08:16.160 --> 1:08:19.120 you know, other than our social media manager and our 1:08:19.560 --> 1:08:23.120 email SEO person, you know, these are all of our 1:08:23.160 --> 1:08:26.519 internal people. And then we have on the ground we 1:08:26.640 --> 1:08:30.240 have a team of three incredible gardeners who take care 1:08:30.280 --> 1:08:35.400 of the property. We have JD who's our local Okchobian 1:08:35.800 --> 1:08:38.360 who's the head of our of our of our of 1:08:38.400 --> 1:08:41.519 our land here and uh and and and also helps 1:08:41.560 --> 1:08:46.720 out with the county relations. And then we have a 1:08:46.720 --> 1:08:52.720 lot of you know, uh contract contracted people who who 1:08:52.760 --> 1:08:55.720 are with us for just the event, you know, and 1:08:55.760 --> 1:08:59.360 they they basically work I think up up to ten 1:08:59.400 --> 1:09:02.680 months ahead of the event, and they're available whenever we 1:09:02.720 --> 1:09:07.200 need them, and they they're also working other events. And 1:09:07.400 --> 1:09:11.560 that's pretty much a lot of the side ups UH 1:09:11.640 --> 1:09:19.719 and UH and and our health and safety department and 1:09:19.720 --> 1:09:21.600 and then there's all the vendors, you know, all the 1:09:21.680 --> 1:09:24.280 all the different vendors that we employ from from the. 1:09:24.240 --> 1:09:32.280 Porter parties, the the catering, the power, so many different things. Right. 1:09:32.320 --> 1:09:35.519 I don't know if you've ever played SimCity on your computer, 1:09:35.640 --> 1:09:38.360 but when people ask me, how is it building a festival, 1:09:38.360 --> 1:09:41.120 I say, well, it's it's kind of like playing SimCity. 1:09:41.160 --> 1:09:42.720 You're just going to make sure the city. 1:09:42.439 --> 1:09:44.960 Works and uh and that all the all the all 1:09:44.960 --> 1:09:49.679 the areas are covered and powered and and you know, plugged, 1:09:49.720 --> 1:09:53.040 and and that every system supports each other. 1:09:54.120 --> 1:09:56.759 Okay, how many people around the year round payroll? 1:09:58.720 --> 1:10:03.280 I think it's a round maybe less than ten. 1:10:03.960 --> 1:10:08.440 Okay, does the buck stop with you? Are you ultimately 1:10:08.479 --> 1:10:09.120 in control? 1:10:10.920 --> 1:10:16.479 I am ultimately in control with when it comes to 1:10:17.880 --> 1:10:23.200 the first three festivals and this coming festival. 1:10:24.280 --> 1:10:29.200 Okay, so this is a corporation, you have a title. 1:10:29.760 --> 1:10:31.080 I mean, how do you do it? 1:10:31.160 --> 1:10:35.439 I'm just a founder of Soundslinger. I can't I think 1:10:35.479 --> 1:10:37.760 it's boring to give yourself a title, right, It's just 1:10:38.000 --> 1:10:39.519 everyone can find me if they want. 1:10:39.920 --> 1:10:41.240 I agree with you totally. 1:10:41.600 --> 1:10:43.280 I started the festival. I mean. 1:10:44.720 --> 1:10:47.320 It's just as founder for lack of a better title. 1:10:47.439 --> 1:10:52.759 You know, I'm the officially, I'm a chairman of the board, 1:10:52.840 --> 1:10:54.720 but I mean we don't have board meetings, you know. 1:10:55.479 --> 1:10:59.639 Right, Okay, are you open to having another partner? 1:11:01.160 --> 1:11:04.599 I'm completely open to having another partner. I think that 1:11:05.840 --> 1:11:11.280 it needs like any marriage, it needs to be uh 1:11:10.320 --> 1:11:12.280 uh the correct marriage. 1:11:13.040 --> 1:11:13.160 Uh. 1:11:13.400 --> 1:11:16.400 It needs to be somewhere where the partners respect each 1:11:16.439 --> 1:11:20.320 other and and and and and and and know you 1:11:20.400 --> 1:11:24.519 know which lane they're supposed to swim in and uh 1:11:24.640 --> 1:11:26.920 and and and give each other space and more important 1:11:26.960 --> 1:11:31.600 to give it give each other support for to achieve success, 1:11:32.120 --> 1:11:36.200 you know. So I I think that, uh, I'm completely 1:11:36.240 --> 1:11:40.920 open to having uh a new partner who who sees 1:11:40.920 --> 1:11:43.200 the who sees and wants to share the vision, because 1:11:43.560 --> 1:11:46.240 I can't do this you know alone, for sure. 1:11:46.320 --> 1:11:48.920 It's it's it's it's a lot of weight. 1:11:48.840 --> 1:11:53.560 And responsibility and and and the more the more people involved, 1:11:53.640 --> 1:11:56.640 the merrier, as long as we're all pulling in the 1:11:56.680 --> 1:11:58.040 right direction, the same direction. 1:11:59.320 --> 1:11:59.759 For sure. 1:12:00.400 --> 1:12:04.120 Let's say hypothetically, at the end of the day the 1:12:04.280 --> 1:12:08.360 numbers are the same as it's been in previous festivals, 1:12:09.720 --> 1:12:13.400 so you get let's just call twenty odd thousand people come, 1:12:13.520 --> 1:12:16.920 they pay, they have a good time, but you lose money. 1:12:17.640 --> 1:12:20.080 Will there be a festival in twenty twenty seven. 1:12:21.720 --> 1:12:26.880 I think if we lose money, it's it's an unanswered 1:12:28.400 --> 1:12:34.120 question mark. My goal, my ambition is for it to 1:12:34.240 --> 1:12:38.519 keep going always. But of course when we lose money, 1:12:38.960 --> 1:12:40.800 we have to go back to the drawing board and 1:12:41.640 --> 1:12:46.000 get people involved again. You know, we would like nothing 1:12:46.040 --> 1:12:50.160 more than being able to put this year after year 1:12:50.840 --> 1:12:54.920 and for it to be a long and never ending story. 1:12:55.640 --> 1:13:00.840 But for it all comes down to to being able 1:13:00.880 --> 1:13:05.240 to at least break even and to continue to finding 1:13:05.720 --> 1:13:07.559 the support out there to make this happen. 1:13:08.640 --> 1:13:12.160 Okay, and you know the festival has not played yet, 1:13:13.120 --> 1:13:17.559 what number of the ten ds would work for you, 1:13:17.880 --> 1:13:22.480 satisfy you that you know you're not losing money and 1:13:22.560 --> 1:13:23.479 you can go forward. 1:13:24.920 --> 1:13:27.040 I think if we have thirty thousand, people will be 1:13:27.160 --> 1:13:31.160 very very happy. We got to a point where where 1:13:31.200 --> 1:13:37.160 we're able to, you know, keep our costs under control. 1:13:37.520 --> 1:13:41.640 You know, we've turned over every single stone on the 1:13:41.680 --> 1:13:45.200 property where we know where all the levers are. You know, 1:13:45.280 --> 1:13:48.040 we have a very very well oiled machine. Our accounting 1:13:48.760 --> 1:13:51.960 is in I would I would like to say that organizationally, 1:13:52.760 --> 1:13:55.439 we're the best that we've ever been. We have a 1:13:55.520 --> 1:14:01.559 stellar team working together, and we have extremely tight control 1:14:02.280 --> 1:14:08.080 over our finances and our costs are very manageable. So 1:14:08.320 --> 1:14:11.760 if we can get to thirty thousand, people will have 1:14:11.880 --> 1:14:13.679 done our mission. 1:14:14.280 --> 1:14:14.479 You know. 1:14:15.960 --> 1:14:22.680 Okay, once again, assuming everybody's on site, assuming I'm not 1:14:22.960 --> 1:14:27.200 watching the music, what are the other activities, what am 1:14:27.240 --> 1:14:28.080 I going to be doing? 1:14:29.520 --> 1:14:29.880 Well? 1:14:30.000 --> 1:14:32.280 You can go and eat at a number of places. 1:14:32.800 --> 1:14:36.680 You can go and play some games from volleyball to. 1:14:38.240 --> 1:14:38.759 Other things. 1:14:38.760 --> 1:14:40.760 You can walk around and look at all of the 1:14:40.760 --> 1:14:43.559 incredible art that we have on the property. This year, 1:14:43.600 --> 1:14:47.280 we have a new sculpture from a young Colombian artist 1:14:47.320 --> 1:14:50.559 who's a half Columbian half American. I think he's actually 1:14:50.560 --> 1:14:56.840 from based in Brooklyn. His name is Asikas Monzon Aguire 1:14:57.560 --> 1:15:03.160 and he created a massive of uh sculpture made in 1:15:03.200 --> 1:15:08.920 a very shimmery mother of pearl type uh uh tint 1:15:09.640 --> 1:15:13.479 that is purple and that will be uh you know, 1:15:14.000 --> 1:15:20.280 permanently installed installed at the Jungle fifty one stage. The 1:15:20.360 --> 1:15:23.240 longer goal for the property is to have it as 1:15:23.240 --> 1:15:26.559 a as an art park, something close to what you 1:15:26.600 --> 1:15:28.920 know Storm King is in New York or in yo 1:15:29.040 --> 1:15:33.600 Ching in Brazil, as well as as as having a 1:15:33.600 --> 1:15:36.840 a resort where people can come and and stay. 1:15:38.120 --> 1:15:38.799 On the property. 1:15:38.800 --> 1:15:41.639 You know, I'm not talking about a club med type thing, 1:15:41.880 --> 1:15:45.200 but something tasteful that blends into the scene, to to 1:15:45.280 --> 1:15:48.280 the scenic, to the nature, and and keeps the natures 1:15:48.840 --> 1:15:54.040 undisturbed as possible. So you know, I've since I've acquired 1:15:54.520 --> 1:15:56.320 all of the land a few years ago, I've been 1:15:56.360 --> 1:16:01.120 able to work finally with a team of architects and 1:16:01.120 --> 1:16:05.040 and we're we're just about finished designing the phase one 1:16:05.080 --> 1:16:08.240 of the master plan and we're ready to go shop around. 1:16:08.600 --> 1:16:10.320 Do you personally own the land? 1:16:11.520 --> 1:16:13.240 I personally own the land. Yes. 1:16:13.439 --> 1:16:17.120 Okay, Well, you're a very sharp and passionate guy, Hulio. 1:16:17.320 --> 1:16:21.080 You're very impressive. You know, festivals, there's a lot of 1:16:21.080 --> 1:16:23.639 moving parts. As you mentioned earlier, you don't really know 1:16:23.720 --> 1:16:25.400 whether it's all going to work to the place, but 1:16:25.439 --> 1:16:29.479 I you know, you've definitely got something unique, and I 1:16:29.560 --> 1:16:30.559 wish you all the luck. 1:16:31.400 --> 1:16:31.960 Well, thank you. 1:16:32.040 --> 1:16:34.400 I know you know I once heard a quote from 1:16:34.439 --> 1:16:38.240 David Bowie where where he said, you know when you're 1:16:38.280 --> 1:16:41.519 when you're when your feet are are not quite touching 1:16:41.560 --> 1:16:45.679 the ground and you're and you're unsure of where to step, 1:16:46.160 --> 1:16:48.360 that's when the magic happens. So I feel like that's 1:16:48.400 --> 1:16:51.719 where we're we're at when we're producing this this festival, 1:16:51.720 --> 1:16:54.479 where we're looking for that magic and and and trying 1:16:54.479 --> 1:16:56.639 to figure it out, figure it out as it comes. 1:16:56.680 --> 1:16:59.160 But you know, again we were we have ten years 1:16:59.160 --> 1:17:02.800 of experience, so we know where everywhere where where, where 1:17:02.840 --> 1:17:05.320 all the levers are and uh and uh and and 1:17:05.360 --> 1:17:08.880 we work with an incredible team and you know the 1:17:08.960 --> 1:17:10.720 rest is uh is. 1:17:12.280 --> 1:17:13.240 Is yet to be told. 1:17:15.000 --> 1:17:18.759 Well, it sounds great, And thanks for taking this time 1:17:18.800 --> 1:17:21.760 to explain the festival in yourself to my audience. 1:17:23.080 --> 1:17:25.680 Thank you so much, Bob and I I hope that 1:17:25.720 --> 1:17:27.519 you're able to come. You know, let me know if 1:17:27.520 --> 1:17:30.200 you if you're if you decide to come along, and 1:17:30.439 --> 1:17:32.120 we'll make sure that you're very comfortable. 1:17:32.560 --> 1:17:35.000 Well, as I say, I can't come in a week, 1:17:35.720 --> 1:17:37.800 but next year look for me. 1:17:38.560 --> 1:17:41.080 Well I'm going to tell you one one little extra, 1:17:41.400 --> 1:17:46.439 uh wonderful piece of experience that we've created for fans 1:17:46.920 --> 1:17:51.280 this year. And we there's an old horse tables on 1:17:51.320 --> 1:17:56.759 the property which had a disgusting, little crummy apartment. Uh 1:17:56.800 --> 1:18:00.640 that reminded me of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre house, you know, 1:18:00.720 --> 1:18:05.000 with like cockroaches and whatever. So you know, we cleaned 1:18:05.040 --> 1:18:08.280 that whole place up completely and turned it into this 1:18:09.680 --> 1:18:17.679 you know, cowboy luxurious Cowboy ranch experience, which we are 1:18:19.400 --> 1:18:24.840 giving away to the lucky winner of our contest that 1:18:25.120 --> 1:18:26.120 is on social media. 1:18:26.640 --> 1:18:30.360 So wait, wait, wait a second. If you win, you 1:18:30.560 --> 1:18:32.200 get the horse structure. 1:18:32.920 --> 1:18:36.640 If you win the competition, you get to stay in 1:18:36.680 --> 1:18:40.360 the apartment which has two bedrooms, and then there's space 1:18:40.400 --> 1:18:43.840 for six RVs in the garden area which is surrounded 1:18:43.840 --> 1:18:46.680 by bambo and closed by bamboo, and you get a 1:18:46.800 --> 1:18:53.240 golf cart driver who will basically drive you to each stage. 1:18:54.000 --> 1:18:58.599 Sounds great, Julio, until next time. This is Bob Left 1:18:58.600 --> 1:18:58.880 six 1:19:20.640 --> 1:19:20.720 Sh