Creators of two of the United States' most popular festivals, Coachella and Firefly, have joined forces to boost the popularity of the latter.
In an exclusive report yesterday (Sept. 17) put out by Billboard, Goldenvoice, the people behind Coachella, joined forces with Firefly's Red Frog Events to help produce the Delaware festival, which has grown significantly since its first outing in 2012.
"Red Frog will still operate Firefly, because that's what they're best at," Goldenvoice CEO Paul Tollett told Billboard, "and we will assist in any way we can, such as helping access talent, sponsorships, and any tricks that we've learned along the way to help a festival get to the next level."
Tollett's company, along with putting on Coachella, is partnered with California's country festival Stagecoach, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival (with Quint Davis and Festival Productions) and FYF in Los Angeles (with promoter Sean Carlson).
The goal of the joint venture is to make Firefly, which takes place in 2015 at Dover International Raceway June 18-21, even bigger.
"This is our first day together, so we'll start right after we have some food and drinks here," Tollett said. "But we'll discuss the future of the festival and how it can get even better. We're kind of blown away about how fast it has gotten to the level it's at, it's pretty amazing that it is such a serious festival already in such a short time."
Firefly sold 80,000 tickets this year, up from 30,000 in 2012. Acts like Foo Fighters, Outkast and Imagine Dragons headlined.
The partnership will mean serious growth for Firefly –– Coachella sold 180,000 tickets this year and pulled in acts like Beck, Arcade Fire, Pharrell Williams, Skrillex and The Replacements over two weekends.
"We realized we had similar cultures between our companies, and we share similar philosophies, [such as] building festivals for the long term and investing a lot into our customers' experiences," Red Frog CEO Joe Reynolds said. "After a minute, we decided we just wanted to start pursuing a natural partnership to help propel Firefly to the next level."
