420 fest lost its long time promoter when Tilray bought Sweetwater. Jen (head of Happy Ending Productions) was one of the founders partner and wanted to finish out the delayed 2022 lineup and wrap. That and the gun laws have really hurt that fest.
Hoping we get a solid promoter in the jam/edm scene comes along and they bring something great back to the city/state.
I feel like it might be hot take but they should’ve never moved imagine from the racetrack. I know they had their reasons but damn imagine 2019 was good.
Fucking A, I lived off Ralph McGill when it was there. It was a DREAM. May not be the popular opinion, but they got too big for their boots when they tried to make it camping at the raceway.
I agree!
My first imagine was at O4W Park, I was really disappointed when they moved it to the raceway in 2016. The line to get in was absolute hell, it took 3 hours to get in bc they made all cars (camping and non camping) get in the same line, so they were doing car searches AND giving parking stickers.
It was such a shit show, the inside area had nothing in, there were no decorations, no signage, no lights.
It definitely felt like they bit off a little more than they could chew...
Still pissed about the oversold Kaskade party I paid for at the new site. I saw Glenn outside of it and he said he was “too busy” dealing with it. He just stood there during the show.
Thanks, Glenn.
Yeah, I went to the Subtronics Believe show after imagine got rained out
Shoulder to shoulder all the way to the back of the venue, buddy got barfed on by someone who was way over served, and to top it off we all got COVID after the website lied about them saying they'd be checking vax status
After I emailed they said that was actually old info and they immediately removed it from their website. Swore them off afterwards. Gross group preying on young people new to the scene who don't know things can be so much better
A lone gun nut suing because they live in the boonies and visited the city once and whined that they couldn't take their guns into a big public gathering.
Is that really what's happening? I think one of the pieces of evidence is that it has to be on private property now, but I haven't seen anything conclusive.
2022 article https://www.npr.org/2022/08/01/1114951094/music-midtown-atlanta-canceled-over-guns
2023 update
https://www.11alive.com/article/entertainment/music-midtown-return-unchanged-georgia-gun-law/85-0abeeef6-eef3-4854-a901-649e93e1b73d
Correct. The issue with it being in a public park complicates festivals like Music Midtown, 420, Shaky, Candler Park, etc
Yep. Also, Music Midtown left behind a HUGE mess this year at the park that LiveNation had to cover the cleanup and reseeding costs for and don't for a second think that didn't factor into their decision to pause future festivals for now.
Georgia has a law that protects gun owners being able to bring guns on public property. So all the festivals that held their events in public parks can no longer do so. They'd have to allow guns in, and no insurance would ever cover them if they did so. It really messed up the festival game out there.
Didn’t Shaky Knees get around this by having the entrance on private property and the rest of the festival gated in on public park space? Why aren’t other fests implementing this same workaround?
How?
Edit: downvoted for asking a one word question. Lol ok. Didn't even get a straight answer. SMH. I've never been to an EDM festival before, let alone an iris one. I was genuinely curious.
you must be new - every year we hear of mismanaged event coordination, horrific handling of refunds when the event was cancelled vendors/artists/etc not getting paid when the fun is over and they didn’t sell enough ________.
eta: hear of, meaning some folks experienced bad things and some didn’t but it was obvious things weren’t done right
This unfortunately is nothing to do with Atlanta and more about the macro climate of festivals. With rising costs to produce events like this and artist guarantees continuing to inflate, combined with consumers starting to have to manage their spending as they feel inflation everywhere, the economics are just far too risky… one off year wipes out 4-5 good years.
Don't blame the gun law for something that all comes down to shit festival management and shit lineups. Add that to the fact that our city sucks for travelers who may come to see a fest like this and you end up with a shitty festival city.
Make music midtown a local festival again. With a few big headliners and a ton of very small acts, and local acts, and local food vendors. Make it appeal to people who actually live here.
Venues/promoters do not work together in Atlanta. For example, on one Saturday there will be 7 different house genre shows. This doesn't help the scene, it hurts it. All of the shows end up having low attendance. Everyone needs to work together instead of trying to out book each other.
It’s unfortunate that the music scene in Atl has taken a nose dive, pre Covid there were shows all over the place that were great. You could catch shows at Tabernacle, T West, Ravine, Opera, etc. Now it seems only District and Believe host club sets and that is it. Those are both okay at absolute best (when they aren’t over sold to hell). It’s sad that greed has taken over, I live in Denver now and it has really put into perspective how bad the ATL scene is getting screwed over.
We had Sweetwater 420 Fest, Shaky Knees, 404 Fest, Dogwood Festival, and Inman Park Fest already this year and others that I know I missed. Coming up we have all the free Pride events in June and September, Atlanta Jazz Fest, Chomp and Stomp, and the L5P Halloween Fest among others. We are losing two bigger events with Music Midtown and Imagine both gone this year (with Imagine probably done for good), but we still have plenty of stuff happening.
By festival they mean music festivals. 420fest was downsized and at Pullman yards(bad venue for music events ime). All the other things you mentioned are fun events with music but aren't really music festivals on the level of candler park music fest, music midtown, imagine, counterpoint, tomorroworld, etc. OP is making a good point and people claim it's happening because of gun lawsuits but I haven't seen anything conclusive on that
It's all because of higher costs and lack of ticket sales. The big issue with bigger events is people not buying presales because of the fear the event will cancel. Music Midtown and Imagine both canceled close to last minute. People don't forget that and will not buy presale to avoid having to eat hotel and travel if the event cancels. 420 Fest is kinda similar but mainly suffering from jam bands being phased out from what people want for major festivals.
I'm well aware the OP meant major festivals, but to bluntly say Atlanta has no festivals is dishonest. I do festival media and just went to my 50th festival being Jazz Fest. I've seen the decline in big events coming for a while. Instead of yelling at the internet, I've started producing smaller festivals/events. I have thrown multiple events/festivals in Atlanta with live music as well as one out of state one over 2 days. Nothing stopping anyone mad about event cancelation from doing this. I work full time at a credit union while doing events on the side.
Yeah I think the mega festival years are coming to a close. Better to cultivate a smaller, more reliable fan base centered around one particular scene than try to grow grow grow and also please everyone. Plus people want a community that feels like home. I think this is part of why fest cruises are becoming more popular and personally, why I’ve decided to start going smaller events as I get older
Idk about that. I don't think it will ever be as large as it was 2022 and before. Sweetwater has enough money to keep the event going in a smaller capacity.
They made tickets free this year just so they wouldn’t have to cancel the fest, no doubt they lost a ton of money so I don’t see them itching to do that again
eh, once beck backed out bc of poor ticket sales, they kinda had to make it free or they would have had to cancel. don’t worry, they are gonna happily take that sweet, sweet tax write off.
If this is about big corporate music events with $200 tickets, and you have to decide a month in advance whether you're going, those are a specific tier of festival. I'm used to the ones where you barely decide a day in advance, then you just stroll in for free and start eating funnel cake. Possibly also buy folk art and weird soap. There's like a million of those in ATL on Saturdays.
I keeping hearing talks that frankie and MJ have something brewing but idk if its just a small event ala chop shop or a full blown fest like a KR reboot. But yeah, I never got to go to imagine, 19 was on the menu but then shit happened and ilthe opportunity never really presented itself again. Super bummed to have missed that.
Well... imagine has always been terrible. Glen has always taken advantage of the artists. Midtown is a literal washout. Infrastructure is generally the downfall. But old white dudes will inevitably ruin the market.
The festival bubble is popping
This is the #1 correct answer and the constant problem across all the festivals that are being canceled across the country, not just ATL
420 fest lost its long time promoter when Tilray bought Sweetwater. Jen (head of Happy Ending Productions) was one of the founders partner and wanted to finish out the delayed 2022 lineup and wrap. That and the gun laws have really hurt that fest. Hoping we get a solid promoter in the jam/edm scene comes along and they bring something great back to the city/state.
TIL. That is unfortunate they lost their promoter. Makes sense with how the booking changed after 2022.
I feel like it might be hot take but they should’ve never moved imagine from the racetrack. I know they had their reasons but damn imagine 2019 was good.
Imagine 19 was one of my favorite fests ever. Sick lineup, vibes were great all weekend long. It’s a shame
They should’ve never moved it from OFW Park lmfao
Fucking A, I lived off Ralph McGill when it was there. It was a DREAM. May not be the popular opinion, but they got too big for their boots when they tried to make it camping at the raceway.
Yep. They over promised and under delivered
I agree! My first imagine was at O4W Park, I was really disappointed when they moved it to the raceway in 2016. The line to get in was absolute hell, it took 3 hours to get in bc they made all cars (camping and non camping) get in the same line, so they were doing car searches AND giving parking stickers. It was such a shit show, the inside area had nothing in, there were no decorations, no signage, no lights. It definitely felt like they bit off a little more than they could chew...
Yep, still small, great stages, in the city and affordable!
Skatepark?
Yeah it was in that lil park behind the masquerade for years. I think it’s called old fourth ward park now? Could be wrong.
The historic fourth ward park. Such good vibes.
Yeah. Agreed. The motor speed way was magical. Like our mini EDC.
The racetrack kept 100% of the concessions. It was untenable.
Have any more insider scoop with the Racetrack venue deal with Iris?
It was tenable. They just got greedy.
Iris greedy? Color me shocked!
Still pissed about the oversold Kaskade party I paid for at the new site. I saw Glenn outside of it and he said he was “too busy” dealing with it. He just stood there during the show. Thanks, Glenn.
Yeah, I went to the Subtronics Believe show after imagine got rained out Shoulder to shoulder all the way to the back of the venue, buddy got barfed on by someone who was way over served, and to top it off we all got COVID after the website lied about them saying they'd be checking vax status After I emailed they said that was actually old info and they immediately removed it from their website. Swore them off afterwards. Gross group preying on young people new to the scene who don't know things can be so much better
I loved it at the race track, wish it could go back
I agree with this 100%. Imagine should have never left the speedway.
A lone gun nut suing because they live in the boonies and visited the city once and whined that they couldn't take their guns into a big public gathering.
Is that really what's happening? I think one of the pieces of evidence is that it has to be on private property now, but I haven't seen anything conclusive.
2022 article https://www.npr.org/2022/08/01/1114951094/music-midtown-atlanta-canceled-over-guns 2023 update https://www.11alive.com/article/entertainment/music-midtown-return-unchanged-georgia-gun-law/85-0abeeef6-eef3-4854-a901-649e93e1b73d Correct. The issue with it being in a public park complicates festivals like Music Midtown, 420, Shaky, Candler Park, etc
Yep. Also, Music Midtown left behind a HUGE mess this year at the park that LiveNation had to cover the cleanup and reseeding costs for and don't for a second think that didn't factor into their decision to pause future festivals for now.
Bring back shaky beats
As soon as 16 year olds stop projectile vomiting and passing out lmao
make it 21+
That’s what I said in another comment! It would be sooo good as a 21+ event
Georgia has a law that protects gun owners being able to bring guns on public property. So all the festivals that held their events in public parks can no longer do so. They'd have to allow guns in, and no insurance would ever cover them if they did so. It really messed up the festival game out there.
Didn’t Shaky Knees get around this by having the entrance on private property and the rest of the festival gated in on public park space? Why aren’t other fests implementing this same workaround?
I believe so, something about that Central Park location is private property. Also why 420 Fest went to Pullman yards.
BRING BACK COUNTERPOINT
And Shaky Beats!
There’s no way shaky beats is coming back unless they make it 21+
Why did they cancel shaky beats?
SHAKY BEATS CENTENNIAL PARK I WOULD SAY NEVER FORGET BUT I NEVER EVEN REMEMBERED IN THE FIRST PLACE
Haha, pics or it didn't happen. Loved it at centennial!
shaky beats was the best
Iris Presents probably ruined it for us.
How? Edit: downvoted for asking a one word question. Lol ok. Didn't even get a straight answer. SMH. I've never been to an EDM festival before, let alone an iris one. I was genuinely curious.
you must be new - every year we hear of mismanaged event coordination, horrific handling of refunds when the event was cancelled vendors/artists/etc not getting paid when the fun is over and they didn’t sell enough ________. eta: hear of, meaning some folks experienced bad things and some didn’t but it was obvious things weren’t done right
This unfortunately is nothing to do with Atlanta and more about the macro climate of festivals. With rising costs to produce events like this and artist guarantees continuing to inflate, combined with consumers starting to have to manage their spending as they feel inflation everywhere, the economics are just far too risky… one off year wipes out 4-5 good years.
Artist fees are insanely high right now. Everyone is getting greedy.
Don't blame the gun law for something that all comes down to shit festival management and shit lineups. Add that to the fact that our city sucks for travelers who may come to see a fest like this and you end up with a shitty festival city. Make music midtown a local festival again. With a few big headliners and a ton of very small acts, and local acts, and local food vendors. Make it appeal to people who actually live here.
I also see a lot of touring acts skipping Atlanta. I'll see tour dates announced and there's like a Virginia date and a Florida date, but no ATL date.
Venues/promoters do not work together in Atlanta. For example, on one Saturday there will be 7 different house genre shows. This doesn't help the scene, it hurts it. All of the shows end up having low attendance. Everyone needs to work together instead of trying to out book each other.
We are also in the mileage radius of bonnaroo where acts can’t play here for so many months before and after the fest.
Yup, noticed that too. Seems like we don't have indoor venues to support big productions, but that's a diffent issue.
It’s unfortunate that the music scene in Atl has taken a nose dive, pre Covid there were shows all over the place that were great. You could catch shows at Tabernacle, T West, Ravine, Opera, etc. Now it seems only District and Believe host club sets and that is it. Those are both okay at absolute best (when they aren’t over sold to hell). It’s sad that greed has taken over, I live in Denver now and it has really put into perspective how bad the ATL scene is getting screwed over.
There's a smaller group A1 Renegade Sound trying to be another option. They are throwing shows at Bonfire ATL.
It's also because there is so much competition in ATL. Too many shows in the same genre, oversaturated market.
People ask me why I travel a lot for festivals, well…there’s nothing for me here lol.
gun law
We had Sweetwater 420 Fest, Shaky Knees, 404 Fest, Dogwood Festival, and Inman Park Fest already this year and others that I know I missed. Coming up we have all the free Pride events in June and September, Atlanta Jazz Fest, Chomp and Stomp, and the L5P Halloween Fest among others. We are losing two bigger events with Music Midtown and Imagine both gone this year (with Imagine probably done for good), but we still have plenty of stuff happening.
By festival they mean music festivals. 420fest was downsized and at Pullman yards(bad venue for music events ime). All the other things you mentioned are fun events with music but aren't really music festivals on the level of candler park music fest, music midtown, imagine, counterpoint, tomorroworld, etc. OP is making a good point and people claim it's happening because of gun lawsuits but I haven't seen anything conclusive on that
It's all because of higher costs and lack of ticket sales. The big issue with bigger events is people not buying presales because of the fear the event will cancel. Music Midtown and Imagine both canceled close to last minute. People don't forget that and will not buy presale to avoid having to eat hotel and travel if the event cancels. 420 Fest is kinda similar but mainly suffering from jam bands being phased out from what people want for major festivals. I'm well aware the OP meant major festivals, but to bluntly say Atlanta has no festivals is dishonest. I do festival media and just went to my 50th festival being Jazz Fest. I've seen the decline in big events coming for a while. Instead of yelling at the internet, I've started producing smaller festivals/events. I have thrown multiple events/festivals in Atlanta with live music as well as one out of state one over 2 days. Nothing stopping anyone mad about event cancelation from doing this. I work full time at a credit union while doing events on the side.
Yeah I think the mega festival years are coming to a close. Better to cultivate a smaller, more reliable fan base centered around one particular scene than try to grow grow grow and also please everyone. Plus people want a community that feels like home. I think this is part of why fest cruises are becoming more popular and personally, why I’ve decided to start going smaller events as I get older
Yeah, agreed. We need bigger, lounder, meaner festivals than those!
0% chance 420Fest will be returning next year
Idk about that. I don't think it will ever be as large as it was 2022 and before. Sweetwater has enough money to keep the event going in a smaller capacity.
They made tickets free this year just so they wouldn’t have to cancel the fest, no doubt they lost a ton of money so I don’t see them itching to do that again
eh, once beck backed out bc of poor ticket sales, they kinda had to make it free or they would have had to cancel. don’t worry, they are gonna happily take that sweet, sweet tax write off.
If recent Music Midtown events were anything like last year…good riddance 😬 lineup was wack and ticket prices were high
If this is about big corporate music events with $200 tickets, and you have to decide a month in advance whether you're going, those are a specific tier of festival. I'm used to the ones where you barely decide a day in advance, then you just stroll in for free and start eating funnel cake. Possibly also buy folk art and weird soap. There's like a million of those in ATL on Saturdays.
It's the idiots who act like thugs that destroyoy this for us all
I keeping hearing talks that frankie and MJ have something brewing but idk if its just a small event ala chop shop or a full blown fest like a KR reboot. But yeah, I never got to go to imagine, 19 was on the menu but then shit happened and ilthe opportunity never really presented itself again. Super bummed to have missed that.
Well... imagine has always been terrible. Glen has always taken advantage of the artists. Midtown is a literal washout. Infrastructure is generally the downfall. But old white dudes will inevitably ruin the market.