Moogfest, despite having a seemingly successful 2014 event, will move to a biennial setting, hosting performers and speakers every two years rather than the annual format the festival previously followed. Organizers and representatives from the Moog Music company said that finance wasn't an issue.
"Even if we had $10 million, we would opt for every two years," said Emmy Parker, Moog's brand director. "Ten months is not enough time to secure the level of talent that we need."
The company didn't have $10 million however. The company invested $3 million into the festival and came up $1.5 million short. This wasn't wholly unexpected. Moog had previously run the festival in partnership with A.C. Entertainment, a Tennessee-based promoter, but the pair of companies spilt, which led to a lack of Moog Fest during 2013. Moog Music relaunched the event during 2014, albeit on its own. It doesn't anticipate the same startup costs when it comes back during 2016, but taking 2015 off will allow it to save up just in case. Either way, Moog president Mike Adams believe that a biennial calendar will make the event seem more "special." It already seemed fairly special by our reckoning, as the festival brought in more than 100 performers, including electronic music godfathers Kraftwerk. A litany of speakers and vendors also made the event a must for those invested in the electronic music industry.
The city of Asheville, NC would certainly like to see the event come back as big as possible. The Asheville Citizen-Times reports that the festival generated 1.3 billion international media references to both Moogfest and the city itself. More than 7,000 badges were sold and as many as 25,000 gathered for free programming.
