Festival Promoters Say Costs, Weather and Stadium Stars Are Squeezing the Market

Festival promoters have warned that running a large music festival is getting harder, with rising costs and severe weather both putting pressure on the business. The warnings came at Billboard's Live Music Summit, held at the 1 Hotel in West Hollywood, California, during a festival panel led by Billboard senior correspondent Katie Bain.

Five industry figures sat on the panel: Huston Powell of C3 Presents, Heather Kolker of Dreamshop Management, Jeremy Shpizner of the booking agency ROAM, Melissa Ormond of Goldenvoice, and Allen Scott of Another Planet Entertainment. They discussed how to decide on a festival headliner, the top-billed act, and how to cope with severe weather and rising costs. They also looked at when a lineup should be announced.

Powell offered a blunt summary of the market. He called it "a year-by-year fight to stay alive." He also said that stadium-level stars such as Harry Styles and Justin Bieber drop off the festival booking list for most promoters, because they are playing stadium tours. Coachella, he said, is the exception.

Money was a major theme. Scott said U.S. inflation, the general rise in prices across the economy, has probably been around 27% since 2021. He said costs at the Outside Lands festival have gone up 60% over the same period. Those higher bills cover everything from staging and sound to security and crew.

Ormond argued that premium experiences, such as VIP areas and upgraded packages, are becoming a necessity. Her reasoning is that they help take pressure off the price of general-admission tickets, the standard, cheapest entry option. Selling more expensive packages, she suggested, can help keep the basic ticket within reach.

Weather has also become a serious planning problem. Bonnaroo will take a year off in 2027 to let its grounds rest after severe weather events in both 2025 and 2026, the panel said. Ormond noted that California had never evacuated a festival until Cruel World in 2023. She also said Coachella had never evacuated the desert in 25 years, then evacuated twice in the last six months.

For fans, the picture is mixed. Higher costs can mean higher ticket prices, and extra premium tiers give buyers more choice about how much they pay. Festivals that pause or move a year, as Bonnaroo plans to do, can also mean fewer dates on the calendar for artists, crews and fans.

For the crews and suppliers behind the stages, the numbers are concrete. A year off means a year without the work that a festival brings, from stagehands to catering. Every extra percentage point on costs is money that has to come from somewhere, whether that is ticket sales, sponsors or the promoter's own margin.

The full panel discussion, with more detail from each speaker, is available on Billboard's website.