Speaker 1: Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Search podcast.
Speaker 1: My guest today is Julio Santo Domingo of the Okeechobe Festival. Julio,
Speaker 1: how did you get involved in this festival?
Speaker 2: Well, it's kind of a long winded answer, but the
Speaker 2: short of it was that I was organizing some underground
Speaker 2: electronic music parties in New York from two thousand and
Speaker 2: eight to two thousand and sixteen, roughly when I started
Speaker 2: the festival, but you know, towards the years, around twenty
Speaker 2: eleven twenty twelve, I started talking to someone who was
Speaker 2: working at Bonnaroo and we were discussing about bringing my party,
Speaker 2: he is called Shake and Bake spelled s h e
Speaker 2: I k n b e I k uh to Bonnaroo
Speaker 2: and making it the underground electronic music tent because from
Speaker 2: what I knew back then, Bonnaroo had a lot of
Speaker 2: jam bands and a lot of d M, which what
Speaker 2: what you know, what I call ed M, and it's
Speaker 2: more the commercial side of EDM, which is, you know,
Speaker 2: you're a Vichy's and and and Steve a Jokis of
Speaker 2: this world. But they didn't have any underground electronic music
Speaker 2: that carried the the the the Detroit, New York Chicago
Speaker 2: UH Berlin School of thought. Really, so we were talking
Speaker 2: about doing something with shake and Bake at Bonnaroo, and
Speaker 2: eventually Bonnaroo got sold to Live Nation, and uh, this
Speaker 2: person that I was talking to, they they they they
Speaker 2: left the company and they said, well, you know, you
Speaker 2: know this is not I called them up when they
Speaker 2: said so when are we doing this? Is it still on?
Speaker 2: And he said, well, I left the company. But I'm
Speaker 2: I'm I'm I'm in Florida and somebody wanted to show
Speaker 2: me this incredible property in Oki Chobe, and I think
Speaker 2: you should come down and check it out and maybe
Speaker 2: we can do something there. And I said, well, you know,
Speaker 2: I'm coming to Art Basil to DJ in December of
Speaker 2: twenty fourteen, so why don't I stop by on my
Speaker 2: way to Miami and h and check it out. And
Speaker 2: so I on my way to Miami, I stopped by
Speaker 2: bonnar Oki Chobe and and and fell in love with
Speaker 2: it immediately. And you know, I had been toying with
Speaker 2: the idea, uh of of creating a music festival because
Speaker 2: I wanted to get out of the underground warehouse world
Speaker 2: of New York City. And UH and do something more
Speaker 2: UH in the in the in the sunlight, in the daylight,
Speaker 2: UH for everybody, for for for wider audiences. And so
Speaker 2: I had been toying with this idea already for some years.
Speaker 3: I had already been uh.
Speaker 2: I I did a music festival with a friend of
Speaker 2: mine who bought a lot of land in Jerry Coquara
Speaker 2: in Brazil. His name is pass Pascal Salvati. And uh
Speaker 2: at the time, there was nothing in Jerry Cocuara. Jerry
Speaker 2: Coquara is the UH wind kitesurfing capital of the world.
Speaker 2: So it's a very very windy area in the north
Speaker 2: of Brazil. It takes forever to get there. You need
Speaker 2: to fly all the way down to San Paolo to
Speaker 2: then fly back up north of the country because nothing
Speaker 2: connects there. I think now it's more accessible, but at
Speaker 2: the time it was it was really you know, insane
Speaker 2: to go there.
Speaker 3: And and so.
Speaker 2: We we did this end of the World party in
Speaker 2: twenty twelve, where we obviously was you know, nothing to
Speaker 2: the scale of Oki Chobee. But we just sent out
Speaker 2: a newsletter and you know, had a bunch of speakers
Speaker 2: and some turntables and in staid whoever wants to come
Speaker 2: join us. I think twenty people showed up and we
Speaker 2: had our own little party at the end of the
Speaker 2: world in Jerry Kokuara. And so I had from these days,
Speaker 2: I'd been toying, you know, with the idea of doing
Speaker 2: my own music festival. And eventually, when I came to
Speaker 2: Oki Chobee in December of twenty fourteen, I said, well,
Speaker 2: this is the spot. Let's let's see what it takes
Speaker 2: to put it together. And and and that was the
Speaker 2: beginning of the journey.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 2: The company got formed in May twenty fifteen, Soundslinger, and
Speaker 2: then the festival was in March twenty sixteen. So it
Speaker 2: all happened very quickly.
Speaker 1: Okay, the festival has not happened every year. In addition,
Speaker 1: there have been certain partners that came and went, let's
Speaker 1: talk about the first year twenty sixteen, how many people
Speaker 1: actually showed up and did you make money or lose money?
Speaker 2: So in twenty sixteen we had twenty seven thousand people
Speaker 2: showing up. We lost a ton of money. The problem was,
Speaker 2: you know, we I mean, we were very inexperienced when
Speaker 2: it comes to running music festivals. But the safety and
Speaker 2: organization was spot on because we had some great people involved.
Speaker 2: But at the same time, you know, we priced the
Speaker 2: ticket extremely low, which was very attractive to a lot
Speaker 2: of a lot of a festival go but unfortunately, you know,
Speaker 2: our costs.
Speaker 3: Were way above.
Speaker 2: What the tickets cost and we needed to reinvest a
Speaker 2: bunch of money in December of twenty fifteen to make
Speaker 2: it happen, or the festival was not going to happen.
Speaker 2: So you know, we almost basically called it quits right there,
Speaker 2: and then before the first year started.
Speaker 1: Whose money is it?
Speaker 3: So it's a lot of.
Speaker 2: Different investors you know that we reached out to and
Speaker 2: several people that came through and have been supporting me
Speaker 2: over the years.
Speaker 1: Okay, you're gonna put on the first festival. How much
Speaker 1: money do you think you.
Speaker 2: Need for the first festival? I mean, listen, we raised,
Speaker 2: as you know, single digit seven figure number, you know,
Speaker 2: and we needed a little bit more than that, I think.
Speaker 2: So it's a lot.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, you book Mumford and sons, who were very hot.
Speaker 1: Then you book Kendrick Lamar who did the booking, and
Speaker 1: usually for festivals, people want more than their usual rate.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so so so Momford and Sons.
Speaker 2: Were are are are are our highest uh uh are
Speaker 2: our most costly, our costliest bookings of the first year.
Speaker 2: And Kendrick Lamar actually was at a very good price.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm not going to go into details, but
Speaker 2: he was booked just before he was nominated for his Grammys,
Speaker 2: so he still wasn't, uh, you know, on the level
Speaker 2: that that he became, but he was already pretty cool
Speaker 2: and pretty famous. And you know, the bookings were were
Speaker 2: made by by Ben who's who's the booker now? But
Speaker 2: I had suggested, you know, I booked basically Aquach and
Speaker 2: Jungle fifty one back then, and I had suggested I
Speaker 2: think one or two artists for the main stage. Was
Speaker 2: one of them was Kendrick Lamar and the other one
Speaker 2: was Robert Plant essentially, and so this.
Speaker 3: Was everything else was Ben And.
Speaker 1: Well, usually when you're an unknown quantity and you go
Speaker 1: to buy talent, they require the money up front and
Speaker 1: usually more money. Right you know, they're anxious about players
Speaker 1: they've never dealt with before. Right.
Speaker 2: Well, the thing is that Ben was already known in
Speaker 2: the industry for booking a lot of jam bands at
Speaker 2: several different locations and managing also some of the bands
Speaker 2: that were playing for us. I had been doing events
Speaker 2: for ten years with all the underground artists, so that
Speaker 2: was not a problem. And then of course everybody else.
Speaker 2: You know. One of my partners was Steve Sebisma, who
Speaker 2: came from Sunshine Productions or was it Sunshine Promotions or Productions.
Speaker 2: He was one of the biggest concert promoter in the Midwest.
Speaker 2: He was also I think one of the first businesses
Speaker 2: that sold to Live Nation, which at the time was
Speaker 2: called SFX. So he came from China where he was
Speaker 2: doing he had retired, you know, sold his business and
Speaker 2: came from from China and was doing a music festival
Speaker 2: there in some parking lot, Okay. So we weren't completely
Speaker 2: novces and unknown in the industry, you know, with all
Speaker 2: the different players involved.
Speaker 1: Thanks for filling that in Okay, you did the first festival.
Speaker 1: You lost money, but forgetting the money, what did you
Speaker 1: learn the first here doing it?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: I learned that it's it's not for the faint of heart,
Speaker 2: and a lot of things can go wrong, and you
Speaker 2: need to be extremely organized to succeed in this world.
Speaker 2: And not only be organized, but you need to have
Speaker 2: luck and to have a viable product and make sure
Speaker 2: that people can afford to come to your festival.
Speaker 1: Okay, a little bit more granular. Tell me some of
Speaker 1: the things, some of the emergencies, some of the things
Speaker 1: you did not foresee the first year.
Speaker 2: Well, I think operationally there weren't many emergencies, so to
Speaker 2: say it was it was more purely financial and needing
Speaker 2: you know, band aids to pay for things, to make
Speaker 2: sure that vendors got paid and an artist got paid
Speaker 2: and everybody got paid so we could keep the lights on.
Speaker 2: That was really always the main thing, because I think
Speaker 2: from an operational point of view, we've always been quite
Speaker 2: on top of it.
Speaker 1: Okay, you sold twenty seven thousand tickets. How many did
Speaker 1: you need to sell the break even.
Speaker 3: That first year? Probably around forty thousand.
Speaker 1: The twenty seven thousand people who did come, how did
Speaker 1: they find out about it?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: I think that at the time, your options in Florida were,
Speaker 2: you know, for something that is multi genre on a
Speaker 2: massive scale in a beautiful property. I mean the closest
Speaker 2: thing was Suwani, but that's not you know, so big
Speaker 2: like Okichobe, and it's more one type of music. So
Speaker 2: your other option was Ultra, which is in Miami and
Speaker 2: Bonnarou which is in Tennessee. So I think, you know,
Speaker 2: we were at a right time, at the right place
Speaker 2: where there was a need for what we were offering.
Speaker 2: And that's how I think most you know, success stories,
Speaker 2: quote unquote happen is just a matter of having luck
Speaker 2: on your side and doing things at the right moment.
Speaker 1: How did you literally market it, especially in this era
Speaker 1: of the internet. Did you take ads? What'd you do?
Speaker 2: So we essentially the first video that we ever released
Speaker 2: where we didn't have any thing to show for, We
Speaker 2: didn't have any crowds, we didn't have anything beyond our
Speaker 2: lineup poster we actually.
Speaker 3: Created.
Speaker 2: One of my partners is one of my best friends,
Speaker 2: this guy Nicos, who was a filmmaker.
Speaker 3: He's a filmmaker and he was involved in a lot
Speaker 3: of the.
Speaker 2: Artistic creation of the festival, you know, with the be
Speaker 2: here Now stages, the naming of the stages, and and
Speaker 2: and creating all of our of our videos.
Speaker 3: Back then, he had.
Speaker 2: Uh created a point of view video where he was
Speaker 2: waking up in the middle of the jungle with a
Speaker 2: GoPro attached to his forehead and walking through the land
Speaker 2: and discovering the land.
Speaker 3: And I think when everybody.
Speaker 2: Saw the land, they they it turned on the light
Speaker 2: with people and they saw how beautiful this place was.
Speaker 2: Because I think one of our strongest selling points for
Speaker 2: the festival is how beautiful the land is. We keep
Speaker 2: on hearing it from everyone from from the cruise working here,
Speaker 2: to artists to our festival attendees. You know, they they
Speaker 2: all love the land and it's beautiful and magical and
Speaker 2: and always uh you know, reminds them of of of
Speaker 2: somewhere of an enchanted land like this, So you know,
Speaker 2: that was a big part of it. The second part
Speaker 2: of it, I think having artists like Robert Plant and
Speaker 2: Kendrick Lamar and uh and and other you know, artists
Speaker 2: that are very big within their respective genres. Uh, you know,
Speaker 2: created a a a marketing buzz where Also back then,
Speaker 2: you know, the algorithm to share posts on Instagram and
Speaker 2: Facebook was way different, uh than what it is now.
Speaker 2: You know, you didn't have to spend as much with ads.
Speaker 2: Everything was kind of more open and and and less
Speaker 2: people were doing what we're doing, so there was less competition.
Speaker 3: And also.
Speaker 2: Another aspect of of of of how we had a
Speaker 2: lot of people come to our festival was that we
Speaker 2: partnered with UH a friend of Nikos called Kevin Kochan
Speaker 2: who sadly passed away some years ago, but he was
Speaker 2: the head of the Symbiosis festival in California and also
Speaker 2: the organizer of the Eclipse festivals that took place at
Speaker 2: the Gorge and in Patagonia and UH and other places
Speaker 2: around the world. So you know, they had a faithful
Speaker 2: following of of of many many festival goers who went
Speaker 2: to alternative festivals as well as UH UH you know
Speaker 2: Kevin's UH partner Tyler Hanson from a culture house, who
Speaker 2: was doing a lot of of our of our activities,
Speaker 2: you know, our our actors and and other performers, uh
Speaker 2: walking around the festival.
Speaker 1: Okay, you have a first run. Is there any thought
Speaker 1: that we're going to pack up the ten or you
Speaker 1: always think you're going to do it again in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 2: Well, that's a really good question. We were even though
Speaker 2: the losses were substantial, we had you know, we're also
Speaker 2: pleasantly surprised that we managed to sell twenty seven tickets
Speaker 2: twenty seven thousand tickets for a first year festival. So
Speaker 2: I think there was a proof of concept which was
Speaker 2: enticing to the investors, you know, to reinvest when they saw,
Speaker 2: you know, that we were able to bring that many
Speaker 2: people to this land, which is not close to anything
Speaker 2: to any urban centers. I mean, Palm Beach is the
Speaker 2: closest thing. We're right in between Palm Beach, Orlando, Miami
Speaker 2: and Tampa, but still not in anyone's suburb essentially.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you do it in twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen,
Speaker 1: twenty eighteen. In those times, were you ever in the black?
Speaker 1: Did you ever make money? Or did you lose money?
Speaker 1: Each year?
Speaker 2: We we lost money every single year, but we kept going.
Speaker 2: We kept getting put down and getting up again, and
Speaker 2: uh and and and doing whatever it takes through a
Speaker 2: lot of a lot of a lot of begging, a
Speaker 2: lot of of of of of of of convincing and
Speaker 2: uh and a lot of of of of benefactors who
Speaker 2: who saw the potential of this of this business, you know,
Speaker 2: to one day.
Speaker 1: Okay, So the first year was twenty seven thousand, How
Speaker 1: many people came the next two years?
Speaker 2: The next year was by far our biggest attendees, and
Speaker 2: and we had thirty two thousand people coming in twenty
Speaker 2: seventeen and then in twenty eighteen, I think it dipped down,
Speaker 2: dip dipped down again to roughly twenty six twenty five thousand.
Speaker 2: I don't have the numbers, and you know in my
Speaker 2: head so clearly, but it's you.
Speaker 1: You're amazing with the numbers. So you don't need to apologize.
Speaker 1: You didn't have the festival in twenty nineteen. What was
Speaker 1: the thinking there?
Speaker 2: The thinking there was that we took a beating the
Speaker 2: first three years, and you know, we we didn't have
Speaker 2: any more money, and we we didn't have any other
Speaker 2: options than the then partnering up with another another another,
Speaker 2: you know, big fish who came and so we basically
Speaker 2: sold you know, fifty one percent of our business and
Speaker 2: created a new a new company where where the new
Speaker 2: partners you know, owned fifty one percent and we owned
Speaker 2: forty nine percent basically.
Speaker 1: Okay, and that partner was Insomniac, right, correct, So you
Speaker 1: make a deal with Insomniac, then you have a vestal
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty, just before you know, shut down. How
Speaker 1: did that work out?
Speaker 2: Well, well, you know that was crazy because the rest
Speaker 2: of the world as we were building the festival. You know,
Speaker 2: I have family in Europe, I grew up in Europe,
Speaker 2: and and and my family was like, get out of
Speaker 2: you know, get out of there. Everything shutting down. And
Speaker 2: you know, in Europe they were going crazy. They were
Speaker 2: like shutting down cities and and and and and I
Speaker 2: was like, guys, relaxed. You know, we're here, not nothing
Speaker 2: shut down. I'm not going to go to Europe and
Speaker 2: get stuck there. And I have this festival to put
Speaker 2: to put on. So eventually what happened was that, you know,
Speaker 2: clearly it had an effect on on on on people
Speaker 2: traveling from out of state. I think one of the
Speaker 2: bands dropped out of the pow Wow, which is our
Speaker 2: collaborative collaborative show between many different artists and groups of
Speaker 2: artists who come together for once in a lifetime performance.
Speaker 2: So I forgot who it was that dropped out. Anyway,
Speaker 2: someone dropped out, and we you know, because of COVID
Speaker 2: and and so you know, still people came, but they
Speaker 2: came locally from Florida.
Speaker 1: Well, how many people came in twenty twenty.
Speaker 2: We had, I want to believe around twenty three or
Speaker 2: twenty four thousand, I'm not quite sure.
Speaker 3: Still still quite a lot, you know.
Speaker 1: Okay, what did Insomniac bring other than money.
Speaker 2: I think they brought a lot of incredible, dedicated people
Speaker 2: who do this across fifty five shows per year.
Speaker 3: So it's it's a much.
Speaker 2: Wider address book than I had of people working in
Speaker 2: the industry. And of course you know, scaling and and
Speaker 2: lower prices for artists that goes without saying, you know,
Speaker 2: it's on their live nations. So a lot of a
Speaker 2: lot of of of of of muscle there to be
Speaker 2: able to to get lower prices from vendors, and uh
Speaker 2: and and and and and also quality people working in
Speaker 2: their in their company that that are incredible that I'm
Speaker 2: still friends with to this day. You know, it's like
Speaker 2: it's a family.
Speaker 3: At the end of the day.
Speaker 2: You're spending a lot of time with these people, you know,
Speaker 2: building this thing. So they brought a lot of a
Speaker 2: lot of experience, uh with them, you know, and and
Speaker 2: of course I always have, you know, a lot of
Speaker 2: respect for you know, anyone working in this industry because
Speaker 2: it's unforgiving and it's not you know, people tend to
Speaker 2: to to to want to you know, uh uh complain
Speaker 2: a lot online about you know, certain companies and certain people,
Speaker 2: but at the end of the day. It's it's not
Speaker 2: easy putting on a music festival, and it's it's it's
Speaker 2: it's like building a city, and it's it's extremely challenging,
Speaker 2: extremely taxing, and and and long hours and making sure
Speaker 2: that every detail is taken care of so that people
Speaker 2: can have a good time. And uh and and and
Speaker 2: and enjoy themselves.
Speaker 1: Okay, you and your team were in control once Insomniac
Speaker 1: got involved. In addition to the relationships in the act,
Speaker 1: in terms of production, did they take care of all that?
Speaker 2: So they took care of of of most of of
Speaker 2: all the production, you know, the the nuts and bolts
Speaker 2: if you want. Of course, you know, I was in
Speaker 2: the room within a lot of the conversations, but I
Speaker 2: didn't have the control for sure, of of of of
Speaker 2: of where wherever they wanted to go with it. For instance, Uh,
Speaker 2: you know, they changed the logo of our first three
Speaker 2: years and uh and I was not involved in that process,
Speaker 2: and and and and and and was quite shocked to
Speaker 2: to to to see it because it was done without
Speaker 2: with without my my opinion or anything. And so you know, uh,
Speaker 2: I had more. Uh. The thing that I controlled during
Speaker 2: our partnership was mostly the County relations and the bookings
Speaker 2: of Jungle fifty one, which was an extension of my
Speaker 2: New York City Parties series of events that I used
Speaker 2: to do in New York.
Speaker 3: So you know that for me was when we made
Speaker 3: a deal.
Speaker 2: I said, you know, you guys, do what you have
Speaker 2: to do, but you know I'm going to control Jungle
Speaker 2: fifty one.
Speaker 1: Okay, COVID happened, you come back relatively early in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty two, what happened in twenty twenty two and twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three.
Speaker 2: So we obviously had to take twenty twenty one off
Speaker 2: because it takes us, you know, let's say a year
Speaker 2: to plan a festival. You know, you're working on it
Speaker 2: all all year round. You have to start the bookings earlier.
Speaker 2: So we when we stopped the festival in twenty twenty,
Speaker 2: I remember getting into my car and driving back up
Speaker 2: to New York and stopping by the cheese and meat
Speaker 2: shop to buy I think five hundred dollars worth of
Speaker 2: cheese and meat to have something at home. I had
Speaker 2: no idea how how long we were going to stay
Speaker 2: stuck in this, and you know, nobody knew anything. So
Speaker 2: I got a bunch of you know, disinfecting wipes, that
Speaker 2: Walmart in Florida, which still had stuff compared to New York,
Speaker 2: which everyone had bought everything out of out of everywhere
Speaker 2: and arrived home and almost like a ghost town kind
Speaker 2: of thing. And so from that point on, you know,
Speaker 2: everyone got laid off from every single business on the
Speaker 2: planet or put on furlough, and so we couldn't possibly
Speaker 2: produce twenty twenty one. So it took us a year
Speaker 2: to kind of collect ourselves and say, okay, well things
Speaker 2: are kind of you know, getting back to normal.
Speaker 1: Here.
Speaker 3: People were partying like there.
Speaker 2: Was no tomorrow in Tulu, Mexico, and Florida was you know,
Speaker 2: as if nothing had happened. But you know, we could
Speaker 2: still not responsibly. The whole industry was decimated, on the
Speaker 2: live event industry with everyone being sent home, and you know,
Speaker 2: you often speak about this because I read your newsletter
Speaker 2: where there were you know, generational information from Rhodies and
Speaker 2: all that experience that was passed down throughout these years
Speaker 2: that was just lost. And and the new people who
Speaker 2: came in, you know, had no more mentors, and and
Speaker 2: all the people who kind of took a break who
Speaker 2: were doing this day in day out and never were
Speaker 2: able to step out of the hamster wheel, so to say,
Speaker 2: you know, they they all kind of stopped and took
Speaker 2: a you know, a slower pace of life and realized
Speaker 2: that they didn't want to go back to this, to
Speaker 2: to this crazy lifestyle. And so it's it's it was
Speaker 2: impossible to put on twenty twenty one. But you know,
Speaker 2: came March or April of twenty twenty one. We came
Speaker 2: back to the table with Insomniac and and and and
Speaker 2: decided to strike a long well the first year twenty
Speaker 2: twenty was kind of an experience show year, right, So
Speaker 2: then we you know, the negotiations stopped after this, and
Speaker 2: we came back to the table the whole year to
Speaker 2: figure out how to move forward and continue this for
Speaker 2: twenty twenty two. And we we we decided to essentially
Speaker 2: do a longer term agreement to do you know, a
Speaker 2: series of events from twenty twenty two onwards. And so
Speaker 2: we did twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three together.
Speaker 1: And how is attendance in twenty twenty two and twenty
Speaker 1: twenty three.
Speaker 2: In twenty twenty two we had around twenty five thousand
Speaker 2: and in twenty twenty six. We sorry, twenty twenty three,
Speaker 2: we had around twenty six thousand from what I remember.
Speaker 1: Okay, so until today in twenty four, twenty five, you're dark.
Speaker 1: In addition to being dark, you part ways with Insomniac.
Speaker 1: Tell me about all that?
Speaker 2: Well, I, I, I don't really want to go into details,
Speaker 2: nor can I you know, legally do that, but essentially,
Speaker 2: you know, we just wanted to regain you know, I
Speaker 2: wanted to to to regain my creative control and uh
Speaker 2: and and and it brought me to to to to
Speaker 2: to where I am now where where sound Singer is
Speaker 2: again create controlling the event and uh and and and
Speaker 2: and and looking ahead of us too to produce this
Speaker 2: this music festival.
Speaker 1: So why was there not at an event in twenty
Speaker 1: twenty four?
Speaker 2: There was no event in twenty twenty four because after
Speaker 2: we separated, I needed to raise funds again, uh and
Speaker 2: build up a team of of of people since I
Speaker 2: don't didn't have a team anymore. So all of that
Speaker 2: took a tremendous amount of effort to put everything together
Speaker 2: and you know, get people to reinvest into the festival.
Speaker 1: Okay, did you part ways with Insomniac? Because no, money
Speaker 1: was being made or creative differences.
Speaker 3: I can't actually go into detail of that. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1: Okay, it's done with Insomniac. The last show plays in
Speaker 1: twenty twenty three. At that time, were you always planning
Speaker 1: to come back or were you planning to sit on
Speaker 1: the sidelines and all of a sudden decided let's do
Speaker 1: it again.
Speaker 2: I wake up every day without no matter what happens
Speaker 2: in my life, with the ambition to come back to
Speaker 2: Sunshine Grove and put on the festival.
Speaker 3: So it's always.
Speaker 2: My my my resondet, you know, my.
Speaker 3: Drives me is to put on this show.
Speaker 1: Okay, the festival's never made any money. What is your
Speaker 1: pitch to the new investors.
Speaker 2: Well, it's it's it's that you know, we are a a.
Speaker 3: A pivotal.
Speaker 2: Music festival in the southeast of the US. We we
Speaker 2: mean a lot to so many people here, so there's
Speaker 2: an incredible opportunity to UH to develop something not only
Speaker 2: on the music festival.
Speaker 3: Side, and.
Speaker 2: Also in the development of the of the property, to
Speaker 2: create a a three hundred and and sixty five days
Speaker 2: a year.
Speaker 3: Situation. So I think that.
Speaker 2: For a lot of people, it's it's it's they see
Speaker 2: the bigger picture. And also we all know, you know
Speaker 2: that Coachella took you know, ten years or so to
Speaker 2: to make money, and and and after that they made
Speaker 2: a lot of money. Right, So it's it's it's a
Speaker 2: matter of of of of sticking through with it, and
Speaker 2: it's the people who are able to stick through with
Speaker 2: it the most who succeed at the end.
Speaker 3: So it's not about you know, someone said success.
Speaker 2: Is is falling down seven times and getting up eight times, right,
Speaker 2: So that's what it's it's all about.
Speaker 1: You know. Okay, we're a week out. How many tickets
Speaker 1: have you sold?
Speaker 2: We sold a lot of tickets. I'm not gonna go
Speaker 2: into details, but we've sold out of a lot of
Speaker 2: different areas and we of course always would like to
Speaker 2: sell more tickets because we can always make more space
Speaker 2: if we want. And we we're just excited to be
Speaker 2: coming back and to uh and and to to putting
Speaker 2: on the show. You know, we're where everything is coming together.
Speaker 2: The stages are almost uh all of them up already.
Speaker 2: The fence lines, all the fencing is is already laid
Speaker 2: out across. A lot of containers have been dropped, a
Speaker 2: lot of comfort stations, all the poor the partties. So
Speaker 2: we're we're pretty much you know there, what's what's happening
Speaker 2: now between now and uh and and and the day
Speaker 2: we open doors. It's all the scenic all the the art,
Speaker 2: all the the decoration that goes around the property.
Speaker 1: Okay, you keep talking about this property, and you talked
Speaker 1: about long term things using the property. Who owned the property?
Speaker 2: The property is owned by by myself, you know, through
Speaker 2: a company that basically at the beginning it was kind
Speaker 2: of divided in one hundred and fifty plots or something
Speaker 2: like that, and when we formed the business in twenty fifteen,
Speaker 2: a quarter of it of the property was bought straight up.
Speaker 2: The second part was rented from the original owner, which
Speaker 2: was the house in the center, for seven years, with
Speaker 2: the obligation to buy it after seven years. And the
Speaker 2: third part was you know, bought with mortgages from private
Speaker 2: individuals that was like, you know, let's call it thirty
Speaker 2: to forty plots. And then the remainder of the thirty
Speaker 2: to forty plots that we didn't own, we used to
Speaker 2: rent them year after year when we did the festival,
Speaker 2: and we eventually bought them one by one until recently
Speaker 2: maybe a few years ago when the last plot was
Speaker 2: bought and the whole property was consolidated into one big plot.
Speaker 1: Okay, before you had the festival, there were there events
Speaker 1: in this same area.
Speaker 2: There were no events in the same area other than
Speaker 2: something called Mudfest, which is basically a bunch of off
Speaker 2: road lifted trucks sliding around in the mud. And it
Speaker 2: was a pretty rustic kind of festival. That was the
Speaker 2: only experience from the county for any type of festival
Speaker 2: in the region.
Speaker 1: Okay, there's a city called Okechobee. How far is your
Speaker 1: site from air? Quote civilization and what does civilization say
Speaker 1: about it? Some communities are open to having a festival,
Speaker 1: other ones are a thorn in your side.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, Oki Chobe center of Okichobe is is,
Speaker 2: you know, twenty five minutes away from where we are located.
Speaker 2: And just to to give you a little bit of
Speaker 2: the of the color, you know, when you when you
Speaker 2: get to the center, there's a there's an army tank
Speaker 2: and an army helicopter and an army machine gun on display.
Speaker 2: So that's a a CVS and a and a Walgreens.
Speaker 2: So that's what the center of town looks like. The beginning,
Speaker 2: I think that well, to take a step back, Okichobe
Speaker 2: has around one hundred and twenty thousand cows and thirty
Speaker 2: thousand people.
Speaker 3: So it's a very rural.
Speaker 2: County where the Cattleman's Association hold a lot of power
Speaker 2: here and and you know, extremely hard working people who
Speaker 2: you know, all give their everything to to to their
Speaker 2: land and their animals and and the whole industry that
Speaker 2: that they operate. So at the beginning, we were welcomed
Speaker 2: with some skepticism. You know, of course, uh some people
Speaker 2: didn't want us around. But I think that after our
Speaker 2: first year and and you know, them realizing that we
Speaker 2: were mostly a peaceful organization, uh with with kids who
Speaker 2: just come here wanting to have a good time and
Speaker 2: not getting into fights or anything like that, basically they
Speaker 2: they we we won the people over little by little.
Speaker 1: Okay, what is so special about this land?
Speaker 2: I think what is mostly special about it is that
Speaker 2: it's it's pretty much untouched other than having a very
Speaker 2: large log cabin in the center and a system of
Speaker 2: roads that connect the whole property.
Speaker 3: From one area to another.
Speaker 2: But more importantly that it has this incredible vegetation which
Speaker 2: makes you feel like you're somewhere in the tropics with
Speaker 2: palm trees and jungle and underbrush that is very atypical
Speaker 2: of the rest of the country. And lots of wild
Speaker 2: animal here, so you know, everything from deer to armadillos, skunks, raccoons.
Speaker 2: We of course have alligators that we remove before the festival,
Speaker 2: but you know, in Florida, if you remove alligators, you know,
Speaker 2: a few weeks later they come back, so you know,
Speaker 2: they're generally harmless if you stay out of their ways.
Speaker 2: But we definitely remove these. But this is what makes
Speaker 2: this land special. It's the the the topography of the
Speaker 2: trees and grass and everything else that we have here.
Speaker 1: So if I'm at this festival forgetting the alligators, I
Speaker 1: will see wild animals.
Speaker 2: It's very, very possible that you will see wild animals
Speaker 2: from sandal cranes who come right very close up to people.
Speaker 2: They're kind of used to us, they're not afraid of
Speaker 2: us to you know, many other types of birds, blue
Speaker 2: hair blue herons, which is the largest I think it's
Speaker 2: the largest bird in North America, as well as lots
Speaker 2: of armadillos, lots of uh, you know, raccoons and skunks. Yeah,
Speaker 2: the high chance you might see some animals.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, okay, sell me, not me. The average person in America,
Speaker 1: they're walking down the street, they don't know something and
Speaker 1: they run into you and you say, oh, I have
Speaker 1: this festival. There's you know, there's a number of festivals
Speaker 1: out there. What is your pitch about what makes your
Speaker 1: festival so great?
Speaker 2: Well, we're one of the few truly camping festivals in
Speaker 2: our region. We are the weather is excellent, it's not
Speaker 2: too hot, not too cold. It's it's not humid and
Speaker 2: muggy like other places. It's it's really blue skies at
Speaker 2: that time of the year. March in Florida. We're close
Speaker 2: to you know, close enough to Miami and Orlando.
Speaker 3: We are.
Speaker 2: We have incredible music. We have one hundred and twenty
Speaker 2: artists for four days, so the the bank for your buck,
Speaker 2: as they say, is highly worth it. We have an
Speaker 2: incredible amount of food offerings from you know, anything from
Speaker 2: hot dogs and French fries to you know, an Argentine
Speaker 2: Argentinian parilia.
Speaker 3: Which is like an Argentine word for barbecue.
Speaker 2: We have so many different activities, you know, from yoga
Speaker 2: and meditations to uh frick frock black jack, which is
Speaker 2: you know, a really fun place where you can go
Speaker 2: in and play casino with with you know, you could
Speaker 2: put your pair of shoes or or something like that,
Speaker 2: because obviously we're not doing it with money. But there's
Speaker 2: there's a lot of of different things to do and
Speaker 2: walk around and being outdoors with your best friends and uh,
Speaker 2: and and and seeing some incredible talent on six different
Speaker 2: stages on an eight hundred acre pro which I always
Speaker 2: tell people that's the size of Central Park in New
Speaker 2: York and it's clean.
Speaker 1: Okay, you have VIP packages. What percentage of your audience
Speaker 1: buys VIP and what are the varying VIP packages look like?
Speaker 2: I would say the percentage is around ten percent of
Speaker 2: the audience we have mainly you know, within VIP you
Speaker 2: can either stay in a glamping tent or in a
Speaker 2: preset RV, or you can even go one step up
Speaker 2: than that you stay in a rockstar type of bus,
Speaker 2: you know, which is that's like the top of the
Speaker 2: top of the VIP.
Speaker 1: Okay, you have rooms in the electronic music world, how
Speaker 1: does Cage the Elephant become the headliner?
Speaker 3: Well, it's very simple.
Speaker 2: You know, it doesn't matter what I like, it's uh,
Speaker 2: it's you know, we we have to cater to a
Speaker 2: very wide audience, and that's what we're trying to do.
Speaker 2: And that's what you know Ben Baruk and Dave nit
Speaker 2: Niedbowski from Grand Rising Curations uh do very well. Is
Speaker 2: that they book all of the other stuff. You know,
Speaker 2: I can focus on the on the techno and house
Speaker 2: music DJs and and and some other odd artists here
Speaker 2: here and there, and they can take care of everything
Speaker 2: that is, you know, the cage, the elephants, the t panes, uh.
Speaker 3: The grizz the Grizzes of this World.
Speaker 2: And uh uh and and more, you know, LCD sound System,
Speaker 2: et cetera, et cetera.
Speaker 1: Well, you've been doing this for a while. To what
Speaker 1: degree is a festival success dependent on the line up?
Speaker 2: The festival success is I think I would say maybe,
Speaker 2: you know, it's something that we haven't been able to
Speaker 2: actually determine. I'd love to be able to know the
Speaker 2: answer to that, but my guess is that it's you know,
Speaker 2: sixty percent lineup forty percent location. I'd like it to
Speaker 2: be more location than lineup. But I think that people
Speaker 2: have a lot of very high expectations from the lineup
Speaker 2: because we started in twenty sixteen, very very big.
Speaker 3: So it's very.
Speaker 2: Difficult for us to backtrack from that and say, Okay,
Speaker 2: you know what, we're not going to be booking any headliners,
Speaker 2: you know, but what's the headliner anyway?
Speaker 3: Nowadays? Right?
Speaker 2: You know, you know very well that we're not living
Speaker 2: in a in a monoculture anymore, and that one headliner
Speaker 2: means something to someone and nothing to a lot of people.
Speaker 2: So how do you how do you even pick the headliner? Right,
Speaker 2: it's a it's it's it's still a mystery to me.
Speaker 1: Okay. Coachella famously has certain restrictions, you know, in terms
Speaker 1: of worry the act can play, how close, how frequently
Speaker 1: you're a festival, unlike you're like very early in the season.
Speaker 1: So when you book talent, do you put any restrictions on?
Speaker 1: Are you worried about the fact that your one act
Speaker 1: may play twenty festivals? Are these considerations?
Speaker 2: Look, we we book first of all, Coachella is a
Speaker 2: month after us. They're in April. I think they're also
Speaker 2: very very far from from where we are, So for me,
Speaker 2: it doesn't make sense their restrictions. You know, we've had
Speaker 2: several artists in the past who had signed contracts with US,
Speaker 2: and they decided last minute because Coachella wanted to book
Speaker 2: them to kind of you know, rip the contract apart
Speaker 2: and uh and and and go with Coachella. And you know,
Speaker 2: of course we can legally attack them, but we're not
Speaker 2: going to do that, because what's the point. You know,
Speaker 2: you're you're you're doing business with all these agencies, and
Speaker 2: you know it's fine. You just find a replacement and
Speaker 2: you move on, you know, you know, with with with
Speaker 2: with what we're doing here in in Florida. We try
Speaker 2: to put a a a a five hundred mile kind
Speaker 2: of radius clause which covers most of the state of Florida.
Speaker 2: And you know, some artists, especially in my world, they
Speaker 2: always ask me, they say, okay, but can we play
Speaker 2: you know, the Winter Music Conference in Miami, which is
Speaker 2: you know, the weekend after US which is now called
Speaker 2: Myami Music Week by the way. And you know, I
Speaker 2: always tell them, you know, sure, but you can't announce
Speaker 2: it until after our festival, you know, so they have
Speaker 2: to keep it as a special guest and then they
Speaker 2: can start promoting it once with.
Speaker 3: I think that's a fair approach.
Speaker 1: Okay, you are in Florida, One of the advantages of
Speaker 1: Coachella is the weather. It could be hot, it can
Speaker 1: be cold, but it ain't gonna rain. These New York festivals,
Speaker 1: you know, they'll have it down poor. What is the
Speaker 1: situation in Florida? Been doing this for a while? Can
Speaker 1: it rain and ruin a whole day?
Speaker 2: So we're we're at the end of the dry season.
Speaker 2: The rainy season is typically from April to November and
Speaker 2: dry from December to March. So we're at the end
Speaker 2: of that, and it has been extremely dry for the
Speaker 2: last two three months. You know, it actually froze. Everything
Speaker 2: froze a few months ago. I think it was in
Speaker 2: January or early February, and I was here and I
Speaker 2: was wearing you know, I didn't plan for this, and
Speaker 2: I just brought a hoodie and a light jacket, so
Speaker 2: I was it was supposedly colder in Florida than it
Speaker 2: was in Alaska on those days. I don't know if
Speaker 2: you remember that, I do, but in any case, that
Speaker 2: was kind of unusual. And and since then it's been
Speaker 2: extremely dry with danger of fires, you know, wildfire's happening,
Speaker 2: and so it's in the past few weeks since I've
Speaker 2: been here on site. It's been raining a little bit
Speaker 2: here and there, which has been most welcomed, and it
Speaker 2: has only in the past six years that we've done.
Speaker 2: The past six events that we've done, it only rained
Speaker 2: once on Thursday, opening day and that was just a
Speaker 2: tiny bit of rain. It didn't affect much, you know,
Speaker 2: so we've been very lucky. But it could you know,
Speaker 2: you could have a thunderstorm, freak weather's climate happening, you know,
Speaker 2: like you can you know what happened at in Tomorrowland
Speaker 2: in Georgia where they had to cancel, and Bonnaroo and
Speaker 2: all these other festivals. So we've been extremely lucky up
Speaker 2: to now.
Speaker 1: How do you establish pricing.
Speaker 2: Well, we we we back out, that's a very good question.
Speaker 2: We we basically back out of our costs and we
Speaker 2: priced it based on how much everything costs us. You know,
Speaker 2: we can't price the tickets lower than what it cost
Speaker 2: us to put on the show. And of course, you know,
Speaker 2: people keep on putting their prices up, so we have
Speaker 2: to put our prices up. It's not that we want
Speaker 2: to have our tickets priced at what they're we we
Speaker 2: actually would like to make it affordable to everyone. But
Speaker 2: the nature of the beast makes it that we can't
Speaker 2: uh price the tickets any lower because if now we
Speaker 2: go out of business.
Speaker 1: Are you concerned about your prices relative to other festivals?
Speaker 2: We're actually uh very well priced. We're compared to to
Speaker 2: all the similar festivals. We're we're right on par with
Speaker 2: what everyone else is pricing. What I'm concerned about is
Speaker 2: more this uh economy that we're having in America, which
Speaker 2: is you know, propped up by the AI bubble.
Speaker 1: Uh.
Speaker 3: You know, people are really uh.
Speaker 2: Suffering out there. There's there's there's a real problem of
Speaker 2: disposable income. And and you know, festivals I think are
Speaker 2: are are are are what goes goes out the window
Speaker 2: the fastest because people are saving up to you know,
Speaker 2: see if they can afford to go to the supermarket
Speaker 2: to buy food. So, you know, we feel it, we
Speaker 2: see it, we hear it in the comments. It's it's
Speaker 2: it's a really a good a good gauge of what's
Speaker 2: going on around the country. It's a it's a it's
Speaker 2: a real shame that we got to this point. But
Speaker 2: without any finger pointing, you know, this is where we are.
Speaker 1: What percentage of people sleep overnight on the site.
Speaker 3: Everybody.
Speaker 1: Everybody, Okay, close.
Speaker 2: To ninety eight percent. I mean other than people who
Speaker 2: come in for the day. We sell day passes, you know,
Speaker 2: so you know I would say I would say ten
Speaker 2: percent maybe come for the day.
Speaker 1: Let's just assume. You know, it's like at Bontaroo. There
Speaker 1: are people who stay at hotels and drive in. Is
Speaker 1: that even an option? Or the hotels are too far away.
Speaker 2: The hotels are kind of too far away. They're the
Speaker 2: closest tell is the Hampton's Inn in Okechobe Town. That's
Speaker 2: twenty five minutes, third thirty minutes. It's it's really you know,
Speaker 2: if you're coming to this camping festival, you you really
Speaker 2: want to experience the event by staying on site, which
Speaker 2: is which is not recommended to stay in a hotel,
Speaker 2: but you can do that and get a day ticket.
Speaker 2: Or some people who live in Port Saint Lucie or
Speaker 2: Orlando or Miami, you know, they can come in for
Speaker 2: the day, but then they have to drive back for
Speaker 2: two hours or whatever. So you know, it's much nicer
Speaker 2: to just slip into your tent or your RV at
Speaker 2: the end of the day and waking up on site.
Speaker 1: What percentage of people are intents, what percentage of people
Speaker 1: are in RVs and what percentage of people are glamping
Speaker 1: in structures that you construct.
Speaker 2: I think I would say eighty ten eighty, and then nine,
Speaker 2: like ten percent in in bell tense, and then maybe
Speaker 2: another ten percent in r vs.
Speaker 1: Roughly, Okay, you're in Florida. Festivals are known for illegal
Speaker 1: drug use, and Florida is not a state that is
Speaker 1: friendly to that. How do you approach that issue?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, thankfully that's in the hands of the
Speaker 2: law enforcements I have. I'm pretty hands off when it
Speaker 2: comes to the stuff. The law is the law, and
Speaker 2: you know, you get nicked, you can get you get kicked,
Speaker 2: So that's what happens.
Speaker 1: Well, to what degree is our presence from law enforcement
Speaker 1: on the site?
Speaker 2: You know, we we have dogs you know, at the
Speaker 2: at the gate and there present. You know, we have
Speaker 2: some undercover walking around.
Speaker 3: You know. We we just.
Speaker 2: Do whatever we're old you know by the county. We
Speaker 2: stay out of it, and we're we're focused on producing
Speaker 2: the event. And and and really when it comes down
Speaker 2: to to, uh, you know, keeping the law, it's up
Speaker 2: to the Sheriff's department and and and and the sheriff's
Speaker 2: departments organizations.
Speaker 1: So, Julio, who are you? Where do you come from?
Speaker 3: Well, that's always a.
Speaker 2: Complicated answer, but basically I grew up in Geneva, Switzerland.
Speaker 2: My mother is Brazilian. She comes from a Brazilian Jewish
Speaker 2: family from San Paulo, which had originally emigrated from Moldova
Speaker 2: in the early twentieth century, so before World War One
Speaker 2: even we emigrated from Moldova and Ukraine. And then in
Speaker 2: the fifties there was a military dictatorship in Brazil and
Speaker 2: my grandfather and grandmother took my mother and my aunt
Speaker 2: to Geneva and that's where my mom moved to when
Speaker 2: she was ten years old, and that's why when I
Speaker 2: was born, I was basically born in Phoenix, Arizona. My
Speaker 2: parents met in New York City. They my mom used
Speaker 2: to live in New York in the seventies and and
Speaker 2: met my father there and eventually they moved to Phoenix
Speaker 2: for a couple of years when my dad went to
Speaker 2: have an MBA at Thunderbird University in Phoenix, and shortly
Speaker 2: after he graduated. He graduated in May and I was
Speaker 2: born in May of eighty five, and I immediately moved
Speaker 2: out of America and moved to Geneva and then didn't
Speaker 2: come back to the US until university, where I went
Speaker 2: to college in Boston. So essentially, my mother is Brazilian,
Speaker 2: but you know, spent her childhood in Switzerland. And my
Speaker 2: father was born from a Brazilian mother and a Colombian father,
Speaker 2: and he was his parents divorced when he was very
Speaker 2: young and moved to Paris when he was like six
Speaker 2: seven years old. And so I grew up speaking French
Speaker 2: to my parents.
Speaker 1: And are your parents still together?
Speaker 2: My parents separated in maybe nineteen ninety eight, and my
Speaker 2: father passed away in two thousand and nine, and he
Speaker 2: had lung cancer and he was a heavy smoker. And
Speaker 2: it was even though they separated, you know, in ninety eight,
Speaker 2: they always stayed very close and very good friends. And
Speaker 2: so I had the chance to spend and vacations, you know,
Speaker 2: Easter vacation and summer vacations with both my parents.
Speaker 1: And what did your father do for a living?
Speaker 2: My father basically started in the eighties a a something
Speaker 2: called the funds of funds. Was one of the first
Speaker 2: funds of funds. It was called Alpha Asset Management, and
Speaker 2: he did that in Geneva. But he his passion was
Speaker 2: always music, and he always wanted to get into the
Speaker 2: music industry, but you know, he he basically wanted to
Speaker 2: provide also for his family, so he he went into
Speaker 2: he he went into the finance world and and had
Speaker 2: you know, analyzed what was working at the time and
Speaker 2: created this company with his partner who now lives in
Speaker 2: Los Angeles, a guy called Nicholas Bergruen, who who does
Speaker 2: a lot of interesting things. He has a think tank
Speaker 2: called the Burgrun Institute. And you know, eventually my dad
Speaker 2: left his business to Nicholas and and was was sort
Speaker 2: of disinterested by this whole world and started collecting UH
Speaker 2: frantically books about all sorts of UH, high and low
Speaker 2: art and UH and mind travel and and you know,
Speaker 2: all sorts of substances and and when my father passed away,
Speaker 2: we essentially made a donation loan of the collection to
Speaker 2: Harvard University, which was kind of.
Speaker 3: A a A A.
Speaker 2: A a full circle moment from when they kicked out
Speaker 2: Ramdas and Timothy Leary for for for for.
Speaker 3: Giving L s.
Speaker 2: D to their UH students, where they accepted this collection,
Speaker 2: which had the original research papers from Albert Hoffman uh
Speaker 2: as part of the collection back into their libraries. And
Speaker 2: it was kind of a meakupa from Harvard that said,
Speaker 2: you know what, where there's actually something worth studying in
Speaker 2: these books? Uh and and and and that's what this
Speaker 2: beautiful collection uh where it resides nowadays. My father, my
Speaker 2: my my father was was was was a bookworm and
Speaker 2: an intellectual and he he really enjoyed reading more than anything.
Speaker 3: And he he.
Speaker 2: Read thousands and thousands of books and and books was
Speaker 2: his whole life.
Speaker 1: Do you have brothers and sisters? I have one sister,
Speaker 1: so who inherited all the money?
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, uh listen, uh there was all the money.
Speaker 3: Was uh uh uh.
Speaker 2: Uh split amongst amongst the whole family. And uh and
Speaker 2: uh we we we all had our part. And you know,
Speaker 2: I put my what I had into my music festival,
Speaker 2: you know. And and and here we are.
Speaker 1: You know, Okay, if you grew up in Switzerland, what
Speaker 1: is that like compared to America?
Speaker 2: Switzerland is is is a social democracy. It's very similar
Speaker 2: to Norway and some Scandinavian countries where it's it's someone
Speaker 2: once said, it's the only true democracy in the planet
Speaker 2: where any little issue that is raised, you can vote
Speaker 2: on it. So if you're Swiss, you can vote on
Speaker 2: pretty much anything, and you can, you know, propose anything
Speaker 2: to be voted on, and and people can vote online
Speaker 2: and very easily, and so everything is always decided by
Speaker 2: the people as as they go along.
Speaker 1: Okay, So if you snap your fingers, do you want
Speaker 1: to live in Switzerland or the U? So what are
Speaker 1: the advantages and disadvantages of both?
Speaker 2: I think that the US has a lot more of
Speaker 2: an open market. I think that if you have a
Speaker 2: good idea and a good product, you can make it
Speaker 2: much bigger.
Speaker 3: In the US.
Speaker 2: There's a lot more entrepreneurs here, the sheer numbers of people, right,
Speaker 2: It's a much bigger country. In Switzerland and Europe in general,
Speaker 2: I think that there's a lot less opportunity to develop
Speaker 2: new ideas and new businesses. You know, they don't call
Speaker 2: it the old world for nothing, because people are stuck
Speaker 2: in their little clans and their little private clubs, and
Speaker 2: you know, nobody wants to move the needle too much
Speaker 2: in Europe compared to America. America, people come here, you know,
Speaker 2: and they take risks and they either succeed or they crash.
Speaker 2: But at least they have an opportunity to take a
Speaker 2: risk more than in other places.
Speaker 1: So where did you go to college?
Speaker 3: I went to college in Boston University.
Speaker 1: And did you graduate?
Speaker 2: I graduated undergrad and then I went to a school
Speaker 2: of Audio Engineering in New York City, and that's where
Speaker 2: I learned the ropes of you know, how to record
Speaker 2: a band and work myself around the studio.
Speaker 1: Okay, so you're forty one now, or you'll be forty
Speaker 1: one this year. You go to college, you go to
Speaker 1: the audio school. What happened after that? What was you know?
Speaker 1: You got the festival? Now you talked about the underground parties?
Speaker 1: How did that arc happen?
Speaker 2: So I left college in two thousand and seven and
Speaker 2: I moved to New York and I took some classes
Speaker 2: at the Secondary school School of Secondary Education. I took
Speaker 2: some like, you know, economics and kind of I think
Speaker 2: it was a microeconomic class. I forgot what it was.
Speaker 2: I took a few classes at the NYU Secondary School
Speaker 2: of Continuing Education for that year, and then I realized
Speaker 2: that while I was taking these classes that I really
Speaker 2: had a burning calling to dj because I had been
Speaker 2: DJing before that. I had a radio show back in
Speaker 2: Switzerland where we had a reggae a weekly reggae show,
Speaker 2: and that was how I started djaing. So, you know,
Speaker 2: I had been going to parties in New York and
Speaker 2: I was so dissatisfied with the level of music that
Speaker 2: was being showcased by other DJs that I always told myself, listen,
Speaker 2: I can do a better job than what I'm listening.
Speaker 2: I know I can do a better job. And I started,
Speaker 2: you know, putting these little events in two thousand and
Speaker 2: eight where I would create a Facebook event. Back in
Speaker 2: the days, it wasn't so popular to do a Facebook event,
Speaker 2: but now you know, it quickly became overcrowded in the
Speaker 2: in the on Facebook, but at the time, people would
Speaker 2: still receive the invites, and so people started coming to
Speaker 2: my events and it's I started. I continued doing them
Speaker 2: week after week and growing them very organically, and people
Speaker 2: were having a great time, and eventually I started booking
Speaker 2: other DJs. So I went from being the promoter and
Speaker 2: the resident DJ and playing six hours from ten pm
Speaker 2: to four am, you know, every single Thursday, to then
Speaker 2: started booking other DJs, creating a collective of artists and
Speaker 2: eventually booking DJs from overseas and growing my brand like
Speaker 2: that until I decided to bring Circo Loco from Ibiza,
Speaker 2: which is probably the most famous dance music brand that
Speaker 2: comes from Ibiza, and they do now, I think a
Speaker 2: Halloween party in New York with ten thousand people. But
Speaker 2: at the beginning I was the first one to bring
Speaker 2: him to the US and that was really special in
Speaker 2: two thousand and eight because it was still pretty raw
Speaker 2: and authentic and it wasn't the level of production that
Speaker 2: things are now.
Speaker 3: So it was it was.
Speaker 2: It was as the owner of Circoloco had told me,
Speaker 2: He said, it reminds it reminds me of our early days.
Speaker 2: And for me that was a badge of honor, because
Speaker 2: you know, everything is so overproduced these days that you know,
Speaker 2: you like it when things are authentic and a little
Speaker 2: bit more grimy and a little bit raw.
Speaker 1: Well, you're plugged in. What's the status of both electronic
Speaker 1: music and the parties which you labeled is underground? What
Speaker 1: the great does that still exist? You know, in the
Speaker 1: nineties that was all that was everything, then everything came
Speaker 1: above ground. What's the status the world today?
Speaker 2: Well, I think that today there's nothing underground anymore, right,
Speaker 2: because everyone has so much access to everywhere, to everything
Speaker 2: at the same time, so you really can uh find
Speaker 2: out about a secret party happening somewhere. The only way
Speaker 2: to really create a secret party would be to not
Speaker 2: use the internet and uh and and and leave a
Speaker 2: business card somewhere, you know, in a in a store
Speaker 2: and tell you to call a number. And no one
Speaker 2: really wants to do that because no one wants to risk,
Speaker 2: you know, producing a party.
Speaker 3: And and and and and and losing money.
Speaker 2: You know, it costs so much money to rent a space,
Speaker 2: It costs so much money to rent gear. Uh, it's
Speaker 2: just not what it used to be and anymore. But
Speaker 2: you know, people are always complaining about everything becoming uh
Speaker 2: so generic and everything you know, it's it's it's kind
Speaker 2: of like when people in the fifties complain about rock
Speaker 2: and roll, right and uh and and and then there's
Speaker 2: always if you want the older people are always complaining
Speaker 2: about how things used to be, and there's always budding
Speaker 2: new movements that are happening that you're either in the
Speaker 2: know or you're not right.
Speaker 3: You're either hip or you're not.
Speaker 2: So I think that if you want to look for
Speaker 2: cool music, out there. And when it comes to electronic music,
Speaker 2: there's so much music out there that you just have
Speaker 2: to stay there for hours and hours and hours and
Speaker 2: digitally create dig into the files of these you know,
Speaker 2: companies like a beatport or band camp or Kobo's, any
Speaker 2: of these these these amazing downloadable websites. If you if
Speaker 2: you want to find great music, you just have to
Speaker 2: put in the hours and the effort.
Speaker 3: And that's what it's.
Speaker 2: That's the way it's always been, you know, it's it's
Speaker 2: you have to be your own curator, and you have
Speaker 2: to have flair and know how and and have taste
Speaker 2: also because you know, there's a lot of DJs out
Speaker 2: there and people think it's easy, but you know, the
Speaker 2: actual mechanics of DJ is the easy part. But the
Speaker 2: hard part is actually having taste in music and finding
Speaker 2: good music. Right, that's not a given talent to everyone.
Speaker 2: So to people who say there's no good music out
Speaker 2: there and I can't find everything sounds bland and repetitive.
Speaker 2: I mean, you put in the hours, you'll find out
Speaker 2: some pearls out there and you'll be so happy when
Speaker 2: you find one.
Speaker 3: It's like the Holy Girl, right.
Speaker 1: Okay, Other than the investors. What's the organizational structure of
Speaker 1: Oki Chobe Festival.
Speaker 2: So I've been working for more than ten years with
Speaker 2: a wonderful person called Alissa, Alissa Richardson. So she's kind of,
Speaker 2: you know, the executive producer of the event. She sits
Speaker 2: at the top. I'm on the brand creative side. And
Speaker 2: then you have our marketing team, which is you know,
Speaker 2: Grace and Alex who run that and uh and then
Speaker 2: Grace also takes care of media.
Speaker 3: We have a PR.
Speaker 2: We have then some junior people who work for us,
Speaker 2: and then that's that's pretty much our our internal team,
Speaker 2: you know, other than our social media manager and our
Speaker 2: email SEO person, you know, these are all of our
Speaker 2: internal people. And then we have on the ground we
Speaker 2: have a team of three incredible gardeners who take care
Speaker 2: of the property. We have JD who's our local Okchobian
Speaker 2: who's the head of our of our of our of
Speaker 2: our land here and uh and and and also helps
Speaker 2: out with the county relations. And then we have a
Speaker 2: lot of you know, uh contract contracted people who who
Speaker 2: are with us for just the event, you know, and
Speaker 2: they they basically work I think up up to ten
Speaker 2: months ahead of the event, and they're available whenever we
Speaker 2: need them, and they they're also working other events. And
Speaker 2: that's pretty much a lot of the side ups UH
Speaker 2: and UH and and our health and safety department and
Speaker 2: and then there's all the vendors, you know, all the
Speaker 2: all the different vendors that we employ from from the.
Speaker 3: Porter parties, the the catering, the power, so many different things. Right.
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've ever played SimCity on your computer,
Speaker 2: but when people ask me, how is it building a festival,
Speaker 2: I say, well, it's it's kind of like playing SimCity.
Speaker 3: You're just going to make sure the city.
Speaker 2: Works and uh and that all the all the all
Speaker 2: the areas are covered and powered and and you know, plugged,
Speaker 2: and and that every system supports each other.
Speaker 1: Okay, how many people around the year round payroll?
Speaker 3: I think it's a round maybe less than ten.
Speaker 1: Okay, does the buck stop with you? Are you ultimately
Speaker 1: in control?
Speaker 2: I am ultimately in control with when it comes to
Speaker 2: the first three festivals and this coming festival.
Speaker 1: Okay, so this is a corporation, you have a title.
Speaker 1: I mean, how do you do it?
Speaker 2: I'm just a founder of Soundslinger. I can't I think
Speaker 2: it's boring to give yourself a title, right, It's just
Speaker 2: everyone can find me if they want.
Speaker 1: I agree with you totally.
Speaker 3: I started the festival. I mean.
Speaker 2: It's just as founder for lack of a better title.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm the officially, I'm a chairman of the board,
Speaker 2: but I mean we don't have board meetings, you know.
Speaker 1: Right, Okay, are you open to having another partner?
Speaker 2: I'm completely open to having another partner. I think that
Speaker 2: it needs like any marriage, it needs to be uh
Speaker 2: uh the correct marriage.
Speaker 4: Uh.
Speaker 2: It needs to be somewhere where the partners respect each
Speaker 2: other and and and and and and and know you
Speaker 2: know which lane they're supposed to swim in and uh
Speaker 2: and and and give each other space and more important
Speaker 2: to give it give each other support for to achieve success,
Speaker 2: you know. So I I think that, uh, I'm completely
Speaker 2: open to having uh a new partner who who sees
Speaker 2: the who sees and wants to share the vision, because
Speaker 2: I can't do this you know alone, for sure.
Speaker 3: It's it's it's it's a lot of weight.
Speaker 2: And responsibility and and and the more the more people involved,
Speaker 2: the merrier, as long as we're all pulling in the
Speaker 2: right direction, the same direction.
Speaker 3: For sure.
Speaker 1: Let's say hypothetically, at the end of the day the
Speaker 1: numbers are the same as it's been in previous festivals,
Speaker 1: so you get let's just call twenty odd thousand people come,
Speaker 1: they pay, they have a good time, but you lose money.
Speaker 1: Will there be a festival in twenty twenty seven.
Speaker 2: I think if we lose money, it's it's an unanswered
Speaker 2: question mark. My goal, my ambition is for it to
Speaker 2: keep going always. But of course when we lose money,
Speaker 2: we have to go back to the drawing board and
Speaker 2: get people involved again. You know, we would like nothing
Speaker 2: more than being able to put this year after year
Speaker 2: and for it to be a long and never ending story.
Speaker 2: But for it all comes down to to being able
Speaker 2: to at least break even and to continue to finding
Speaker 2: the support out there to make this happen.
Speaker 4: Okay, and you know the festival has not played yet,
Speaker 4: what number of the ten ds would work for you,
Speaker 4: satisfy you that you know you're not losing money and
Speaker 4: you can go forward.
Speaker 2: I think if we have thirty thousand, people will be
Speaker 2: very very happy. We got to a point where where
Speaker 2: we're able to, you know, keep our costs under control.
Speaker 2: You know, we've turned over every single stone on the
Speaker 2: property where we know where all the levers are. You know,
Speaker 2: we have a very very well oiled machine. Our accounting
Speaker 2: is in I would I would like to say that organizationally,
Speaker 2: we're the best that we've ever been. We have a
Speaker 2: stellar team working together, and we have extremely tight control
Speaker 2: over our finances and our costs are very manageable. So
Speaker 2: if we can get to thirty thousand, people will have
Speaker 2: done our mission.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 1: Okay, once again, assuming everybody's on site, assuming I'm not
Speaker 1: watching the music, what are the other activities, what am
Speaker 1: I going to be doing?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 2: You can go and eat at a number of places.
Speaker 2: You can go and play some games from volleyball to.
Speaker 3: Other things.
Speaker 2: You can walk around and look at all of the
Speaker 2: incredible art that we have on the property. This year,
Speaker 2: we have a new sculpture from a young Colombian artist
Speaker 2: who's a half Columbian half American. I think he's actually
Speaker 2: from based in Brooklyn. His name is Asikas Monzon Aguire
Speaker 2: and he created a massive of uh sculpture made in
Speaker 2: a very shimmery mother of pearl type uh uh tint
Speaker 2: that is purple and that will be uh you know,
Speaker 2: permanently installed installed at the Jungle fifty one stage. The
Speaker 2: longer goal for the property is to have it as
Speaker 2: a as an art park, something close to what you
Speaker 2: know Storm King is in New York or in yo
Speaker 2: Ching in Brazil, as well as as as having a
Speaker 2: a resort where people can come and and stay.
Speaker 3: On the property.
Speaker 2: You know, I'm not talking about a club med type thing,
Speaker 2: but something tasteful that blends into the scene, to to
Speaker 2: the scenic, to the nature, and and keeps the natures
Speaker 2: undisturbed as possible. So you know, I've since I've acquired
Speaker 2: all of the land a few years ago, I've been
Speaker 2: able to work finally with a team of architects and
Speaker 2: and we're we're just about finished designing the phase one
Speaker 2: of the master plan and we're ready to go shop around.
Speaker 1: Do you personally own the land?
Speaker 3: I personally own the land. Yes.
Speaker 1: Okay, Well, you're a very sharp and passionate guy, Hulio.
Speaker 1: You're very impressive. You know, festivals, there's a lot of
Speaker 1: moving parts. As you mentioned earlier, you don't really know
Speaker 1: whether it's all going to work to the place, but
Speaker 1: I you know, you've definitely got something unique, and I
Speaker 1: wish you all the luck.
Speaker 3: Well, thank you.
Speaker 2: I know you know I once heard a quote from
Speaker 2: David Bowie where where he said, you know when you're
Speaker 2: when you're when your feet are are not quite touching
Speaker 2: the ground and you're and you're unsure of where to step,
Speaker 2: that's when the magic happens. So I feel like that's
Speaker 2: where we're we're at when we're producing this this festival,
Speaker 2: where we're looking for that magic and and and trying
Speaker 2: to figure it out, figure it out as it comes.
Speaker 2: But you know, again we were we have ten years
Speaker 2: of experience, so we know where everywhere where where, where
Speaker 2: all the levers are and uh and uh and and
Speaker 2: we work with an incredible team and you know the
Speaker 2: rest is uh is.
Speaker 3: Is yet to be told.
Speaker 1: Well, it sounds great, And thanks for taking this time
Speaker 1: to explain the festival in yourself to my audience.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much, Bob and I I hope that
Speaker 2: you're able to come. You know, let me know if
Speaker 2: you if you're if you decide to come along, and
Speaker 2: we'll make sure that you're very comfortable.
Speaker 1: Well, as I say, I can't come in a week,
Speaker 1: but next year look for me.
Speaker 2: Well I'm going to tell you one one little extra,
Speaker 2: uh wonderful piece of experience that we've created for fans
Speaker 2: this year. And we there's an old horse tables on
Speaker 2: the property which had a disgusting, little crummy apartment. Uh
Speaker 2: that reminded me of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre house, you know,
Speaker 2: with like cockroaches and whatever. So you know, we cleaned
Speaker 2: that whole place up completely and turned it into this
Speaker 2: you know, cowboy luxurious Cowboy ranch experience, which we are
Speaker 2: giving away to the lucky winner of our contest that
Speaker 2: is on social media.
Speaker 1: So wait, wait, wait a second. If you win, you
Speaker 1: get the horse structure.
Speaker 2: If you win the competition, you get to stay in
Speaker 2: the apartment which has two bedrooms, and then there's space
Speaker 2: for six RVs in the garden area which is surrounded
Speaker 2: by bambo and closed by bamboo, and you get a
Speaker 2: golf cart driver who will basically drive you to each stage.
Speaker 1: Sounds great, Julio, until next time. This is Bob Left
Speaker 1: six
Speaker 2: Sh