Environmental Analysis for Bonnaroo / LN

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An Environmental Analysis for
Live Nation: AC Entertainment: Bonnaroo
Nick Orlando
Full Sail University
Project & Portfolio II: Business and Marketing
09/09/2017

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The STEEPLE Analysis
SOCIOLOGICAL:
Social media is perhaps the greatest factor and trend that has led to the massive expansion of
the music festival business in the past 10 years. The producers of Bonnaroo, AC
Entertainment, Superfly Presents, and Live nation are able to use social media to properly “plan
a mega-scale event for people with variable tastes” (Monnappa, 2017). Fans can log-in to the
Bonnaroo Facebook page to purchase their tickets, and from there the algorithms get running
collecting data about their audiences likes, dislikes, habits, and media consumption
preferences. Jeff Cueller, a VP at ACE, says that his team can now use GPS coordinates from
tagged photos to know what attendees are watching. This has enabled them to stop asking
routine questions in surveys like ‘which show did you watch’ and instead ask quirky questions
like ‘Do you like tabasco sauce on your tacos?’ They then can use these answers to promote
free product giveaways and fun games to better interact with their audience (Monnappa, 2017).
TECHNOLOGICAL:
The latest and greatest technological advancement for music festivals like Bonnaroo is the use
of RFID (Radio Frequency ID) wristbands. Ticket purchasers each get issued their own bracelet
or wristband which has a small chip inside it to be able to store and transfer data. Attendees
can link their credit cards or load up a prepaid amount of money onto them, making their festival
experience a completely cash and plastic-free experience. The main use for this technology is
to be able to track GPS coordinates and social media data from the attendees. In 2012,
Bonnaroo’s alliance with RFID technology company, Intellitix, made social media history as “the
largest integration ever between a live music event and social media” (Intellix, 2013). Once fans
register their ID bracelets online (usually promoted to action by a contest entry), the technology
can be used to see what attendees go where, how long they spend at certain stages or
campground areas, what foods or merchandise they purchase, when and where they post on
social media or upload pictures – there are almost endless applications. At Bonnaroo 2012, the
‘Intellitix click stations’ located throughout the event generated “250,000 live clicks and saw
punters upload more than 20,000 photos to their Facebook walls” (Intellitix, 2013).
ECONOMICAL:
With the death of the traditional record labels and decline of revenue for artists and promoters
from recorded or streamed music, music festivals have become the driving force that is
“propping up” the music economy. Fans no longer purchase music by traditional means, and
even though this trend was driven by the advent of new technologies, they want to abandon
their screens for an all-inclusive experience such as the modern music festival. At SXSW 2017,
a music festival/industry conference in Austin, Texas, Jeff Vetting (producer of Upstream
Festival in Seattle) shared his thoughts about the role of music festivals the in the music
economy. He sees a new role for festivals - helping artists “make money after they play, to
continue to make money…we want to help the emerging artists, not just have them play our
stages”. What Vetting means by this is that music festivals should be used as a platform to
launch the careers of up and coming artists, to help them grow a fan base that will follow them
after the event and continue to contribute to their income and success (Keene, 2017).

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ECOLOGICAL:
Sustainability initiatives have become a staple of the music festival scene – Bonnaroo is one of
the festivals that is considered to be at the forefront of this trend. Since its inception in 2002,
Bonnaroo was worked with an event waste diversion organization, Clean Vibes, in efforts to
keep the environmental impact of the event minimized, by diverting thousands of pounds of
waste and recycling from local landfills. They work together to hold the all the vendors and
attendees accountable for their environmental footprint, and use as much recyclable content as
possible and compost everything they can and reintroduce it right back to the land (Brill, 2014).
They also promote the use of re-usable water bottles by providing water refill stations
throughout the site. On top of reducing waste and recycling, Bonnaroo also promotes their
carbon footprint on a greater scale by giving out prizes for things like carpooling to the event
and collecting cigarette butts within the festival (Brill, 2014). Not only do all of these
sustainability initiatives align with Bonnaroo’s vision and brand, but it also has become an
important part of the festival to the attendees. According to a survey done by Event Tutor, most
“Festivalgoers indicated that they both want and expect a festival to have a coherent and
comprehensive environmental policy” (Festival Insights, 2015).
POLITICAL:
Another progressive approach that Bonnaroo provides for the fans is from the work they do with
the voter registration organization, Headcount. Started by Andy Bernstein, Headcount “is about
speaking and having elected officials hear from music fans” (Greenfield, 2010). They partner
with popular musicians in the scene to try to register as many fans and attendees of the festival
as they can, talking to them about the current political climate and what issues concern them,
and how they think we can go about initiating changes. Bernstein says that “We’re big believers
that music can inspire participation in democracy”, and Bonnaroo has stood by this vision as
they have partnered with the organization for over a decade now (Greenfield, 2010).
LEGAL:
One of the biggest legal issues music festivals such as Bonnaroo deal with has to do with very
artist agreements such as a “radius clause”. Artists that are booked for the festival lineup will
often attempt to schedule tour dates near the festival to help monetize the trip as much as
possible, but performances in close proximity to the festival may affect ticket sales, and
Bonnaroo knows this. Their radius policy is that artists who enter into a contract to perform at
their event cannot perform within 300 miles, 60 days before or after the performance date
(American Bar Association). Another type of agreement or “contract” Bonnaroo enters in is the
sale of a ticket to an attendee. Bonnaroo makes sure to cover their legal ground by stating that
“lineups are subject to change”, to prevent fans from demanding refunds in the case that a
particular artist encounters an event out of the festival’s control that makes them unable to
perform (American Bar Association).

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ETHICAL:
One of the main ethical issues that Bonnaroo and all other music festivals are constantly faced
with is the balance of fan security, freedom, and the seemingly “drug-tolerant” atmosphere.
Every year, a small number of fans have to be rushed to the hospital from Bonnaroo for drug
overdoses or adverse reactions. Drug use at music festivals is inevitable. It is logistically
impossible to do a thorough enough search through 80,000 vehicles containing suitcases,
coolers, and other personal belongings to prevent all drugs from making into the festival. Also,
people go to music festivals to feel free and to have powerful and memorable experiences –
often times, the “responsible” use of drugs is part of that. That being said, to have a music
festival where there are absolutely zero drugs, is basically to not have a music festival. Fans
will go elsewhere. A current trend that is happening to help keep fans safe is allowing free “drug
analysis” at music festivals. Often a third -party organization, they will have a location set-up
where fans can bring their substances to be tested chemically for dangerous impurities. Some
people argue that “we have a moral obligation to minimize the risk of harm to festival-goers”
since health professionals have cheap and easy access to this technology. Unfortunately, this
is going to be a long-standing debate, because the counterargument is that by providing such
services, festivals are not only but promoting illegal drug use.

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The SWOT Analysis
HELPFUL HARMFUL
INTERNAL
STRENGTHS
1. Thanks to Bonnaroo’s partnership with
Clean Vibes, they have maintained one of
the cleanest festivals in the world for 15
years now. This has been a huge part of
the Bonnaroo brand, and it not only
“doesn’t hurt the experience but defines
and improves it” (Brill, 2014).
2. Now that they are partnered with parent
company Live Nation, they have virtually
unlimited resources to continue to make
infrastructure and site improvements.
According to Ashley Capps, founder of AC
Entertainment, he believes that “our teams
could complement one another” and
enable them to “grow as a company in the
coming years” (Waddell, 2016).
3. Although the line-up and crowd has
changed over the years from neo-jamband
to more of a mainstream feel, their vision
for a loving, inclusive, community remains
completely intact. As stated by EVP of
Superfly, Chris Isaac, “We still maintained
that same level of community in terms of
why people attended, but now it reflected
broader tastes in music” (Haden, 2017).
WEAKNESSES
1. Bonnaroo 2016 was the least attended
year in the festival’s 15-year history – only
45,537 tickets were sold. This was 28,000
less and a 45% drop since the festival’s
peak in 2011 (Galbraith, 2016).
2. Internal factors that could have led to
this decline were lackluster lineups, and
the “average ticket price ballooning to
$324” (Galbraith, 2016). With the
organizing team constantly trying to stay
current with targeting younger audiences,
they have pushed away some of their
older, veteran attendees.
3. Now that Bonnaroo has a team of AC
Entertainment, Superfly, and Live Nation
working together on the festival, it has
taken some adjusting to ensure that every
team’s vision and idea for the festival
meshes together in a cohesive manner.

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EXTERNAL
OPPORTUNITIES
1. Their new partnership with Intellitix and
use of RFID technology has vastly
improved their ability to know and
understand their audiences. Now that
they don’t have to ask survey questions
about what bands or amenities more most
liked, they can ask goofy, more engaging
questions about brands and trends to help
improve the overall experience for the
attendees (Intellitix, 2013).
2. Bonnaroo and its founders realize they
have a tremendous opportunity to use
their audience reach to make charitable
contributions. They created the
“Bonnaroo Works Fund” which donates
money from ticket sales to help make a
positive impact on the surrounding
Tennessee community as well as other
communities that are impacted by the
event (Phillips, 2017).
3. By educating fans through various
workshops and organizations such as
Clean Vibes, and Headcount, they can
inspire tens of thousands of people each
year to get involved in protecting the
environment as well as participating in
democracy to help make our country and
world a better place.
THREATS
1. The festival landscape has become
immensely oversaturated, which has
drawn some of Bonnaroo’s loyal fan base
to seek out their festival experiences
elsewhere. It is harder and harder every
year to stand out and maintain their typical
average attendance numbers of about
80,000 fans.
2. Firefly Festival, which is partly owned
and operated by Live Nation’s biggest
competitor, AEG, has become a major
competitor for Bonnaroo’s ticket buyers.
The festival boasts an equally if not more
diverse lineup than ‘Roo, and is also held
in June. In 2014, Firefly saw attendance
numbers over 350,000, dwarfing
Bonnaroo’s 80,000 (Canal, 2016).
3. Every year there happens to be a
handful of drug-related deaths or injuries,
as well as reports of assault or theft at the
festival. Although Bonnaroo is safer than
many other festivals, this is still a very
valid external threat as the surrounding
community and Tennessee as well as the
media tends to over glorify these events to
harm the Bonnaroo brand.

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Conclusions:
The original fan base of the jamband community has harshly criticized Bonnaroo’s
chameleon-like state, and have for the most part abandoned the festival. They see
Bonnaroo as having “sold-out”, and now do not trust the brand to stay true to their roots
and their vision. Although the type of fans that attend the festival change almost every
year, the one thing that has stayed constant is the sense of community at the festival.
Different, younger crowds, have adopted the same loving, inclusive atmosphere,
making Bonnaroo one of safest festivals in the world.
Up until now, Bonnaroo has survived the growing bubble that is the music festival
industry by evolving with the ever-changing audiences of popular music. What started
as a jam-band festival, has now become a cornucopia of the tastes of contemporary
music fans – from pop, to indie-rock, and of course EDM and electronica.
This is a rather untraditional approach to building and maintaining a customer base.
Most companies see what works with bringing in revenue, what makes their most loyal
customers happy, and then continue to put time, money and resources into improving
and maintaining these relationships. Instead, Bonnaroo has utilized industry research
and technology such as RFID and social media algorithms to get to know the newer,
younger audiences every year. In a long-term sense, this is a very smart strategy –
there will always be newer, younger, audiences, and music tastes will always be
changing. What doesn’t work about this, is that there are dozens if not hundreds of
festivals doing the exact same thing. The “mainstream” music festival scene has been
harshly criticized in recent years for many events having similar lineups, which is in part
due to the fact that the majority of them are owned by one of two parent companies,
Live Nation or AEG. This oversaturation of mainstream acts and copycat lineups is only
going to get worse – the bubble is going to continue growing and then it is going to
burst. Some of these big-name festivals will disappear. On the other hand, what will
never disappear, is the jamband community. Yes, it is true that the younger millennial
generation is not nearly as fond of this music scene as those 10 years their senior, but
the jamband scene is where the “hardcore festies” reside (Eventbrite, 2017).
The hardcore festies are the most loyal customers in the live music business, and
attend their favorite festivals year after year. Without making a drastic change all in one
year, Bonnaroo needs to get back to their jamband roots. A jamband festival with the
amazing infrastructure of The Farm and Tennessee, and the resources of a parent
company like Live Nation does not exist. If they chose to make this change back to
marketing their brand back to their original loyal fans, they can again become the
biggest player in the jamband festival niche (Eventbrite, 2017).

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References
Bonnaroo Festival Embraces RFID Technology. (2013). Retrieved from
https://www.intellitix.com/en/bonnaroo-festival-embraces-rfid-technology/
Brill, J. (2015, December 12). Sustainability at Bonnaroo - AXS. Retrieved from
https://www.axs.com/sustainability-at-bonnaroo-11877
Canal, E. (2016, April 16). Retrieved from
https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilycanal/2016/04/22/coachella-vs-other-music-festivals-
the-numbers/#38da0ec83039
The Driving Force Behind Today’s Growth in Music Festivals - Eventbrite US Blog. (2017).
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valuable-fan-driving-todays-growth-in-music-festivals/
Festival Fans Want to Know More About Sustainability Initiatives | Festival Insights. (2015).
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Sound. Retrieved from https://consequenceofsound.net/2016/07/bonnaroo-2016-was-the-
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Haden, J. (2017, April 25). Bonnaroo: How to Build a Loyal Community Through a Culturally
Relevant Brand | Inc.com. Retrieved from https://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/bonnaroo-
how-to-build-a-loyal-community-through-a-culturally-relevant-brand.html
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