Behind the Scenes of South Star Festival with Cory Smith of C3 Presents

The festival was coming to Huntsville.

The plan was to do it in 2025.

And then there was, you know, a conversation

with one of the headliners for this year

that we were like, we could probably do it this year.

Welcome back to the What Podcast.

This is another show where we're going to talk about something other than Bonnarooo,

something that we profess to do all the time,

but don't do nearly as much as we profess that we will do it.

But we're going to today.

Our special guest is Cory Smith.

He is with the he's the marketing manager with C3 Presents.

They do festivals like Bonnarooo and Railbird,

but they're also going to put on a brand new festival down in Huntsville

called South Star.

And we thought it would be kind of fun to have somebody on

who could talk about how you birth a brand new festival.

And Cory was game to come on and talk about it.

I found it pretty fascinating.

What do you guys think?

Yeah, it's cool to to be able to to get away from trying to find a Bonnarooo angle

every single minute. And I, you know, I've just went to Huntsville

for the first time this year in May to see Neil Young, which

so glad I did now after they've canceled everything going forward.

And I was really impressed with the city.

I it's it's a big city, but not really.

It's not a very walkable city.

We touch on that a little bit, but that doesn't mean that there's

anything wrong with it. I was impressed with it.

I liked it a lot and I'm looking forward to going back and actually been thinking

since I got back back in May, like I mean, I knew South Star was coming, but

I got to get back down here. I need to find a reason to.

And so this certainly is one of them.

I'm surprised this was your first time going on as close as it is to Chattanooga.

I know. Well, hour and a half.

Let me rephrase.

I've been to Huntsville about 10, 12, 13, 14 years ago.

Panic shows and things like that, where I was in a place

where I don't really remember.

Yeah. My one and only trip was to the museum, I think, in like fourth or fifth grade.

So, oh, yeah, you got to go to the space museum.

Yeah, of course. Yeah.

So I went when I went when I was in a 10, 12, 13 year old as well.

But as a functioning, not intoxicated adult, it was the first time.

And I went functioning, functioning, being functioning.

Yeah. Yeah.

And the space rocket thing and all the all those things.

It's neat. It's a neat place.

Yeah. So we ask, as you would hope, I think we, you know, how does a city

like a Huntsville get somebody like C3 who could theoretically put a festival anywhere?

Anywhere they feel like it. And they're, Cory himself, he talks about it is only

over a few. It's kind of regional, you know, think regional management of any kind of brand.

Their list is huge.

It's like over two thirds of the entire country.

Like they really have a massive portfolio of festivals and they're all the way around.

And they're all the ones you've heard of.

And they're from Oana in and out in California to Lollapalooza to South Stardom,

Monroe. It's an impressive list.

These guys know what they're doing. They know what they're doing.

So we talk about how it got started.

We talk about some of the logistics, some of the things that people will see

and do and have available when they get there like bathrooms and walkability and parking.

So yeah. So we try to touch on all of that.

So anyway, thanks again to Cory.

He's always so willing to come on and spend some time with us.

Yeah. And plus we there is some Bonnarooo news or not news,

but a little bit of content because his band played Bonnarooo last year,

Bootscootin Boogie Nights. And it's a 90s cover, 90s country cover band,

which, you know, on paper sounds what?

But it is fantastic. I saw their show at the Who stage at Bonnarooo.

If they come through your city, go see the show.

There's a lot of fun. Go see this show.

And I'm glad you mentioned that because it gives and we touch on it.

But again, Cory is what we have discovered from talking to all the people

that are involved in putting this on is they started as fans, most of them,

and then just kept going and kept volunteering and became now their employees.

Well, he's I think the first one that we've talked to that started as a fan,

got a job and now works at these festivals and has played them.

So we talk about that a little bit. Yeah.

An interesting angle, right? Yeah.

Yeah. That's a rare, you know, triangle of, you know, three very much is.

And you know what, Barry, we really screwed this one up.

We've been doing that. We've been around this for 20 years.

Why don't we work for C3? I know, right?

Why don't we stay working at these piss and media companies in Chattanooga,

Tennessee when we could have been working for C3, AC Entertainment,

Superfly, whoever instead? Nope. We just host podcast.

I can answer that and it's going to be flipping.

But it's the truth. And Cory, I hope I'm wrong.

But my daughter worked for him for a little while.

They don't pay well. So unless you're the top dog,

they don't pay well because it's such a great gig.

They don't have to. Well, another story. I did that job for 37 years.

Another story of my life and yours too, Barry.

It's not like we were getting paid anything to do the jobs we were already doing.

They were cool gigs. Don't get me wrong. Absolutely.

Loved it. Best job in the city. But it didn't pay very well.

Anyway. All right. So here we go.

Here's our interview with Cory. Thanks again.

And we hope you enjoy it. And that's it.

See you guys later. Enjoy the interview.

Hey, there he is. There's the man.

How are you, Cory? Good.

How are you guys doing? Doing great. So good to see you again.

Doing well. Yeah. So good to see you guys.

Yeah. So as we said in the intro, we're going to focus mostly on South Star,

the upcoming festival in Huntsville that you are. And that's new for us.

Yep. And I want to get into that. Like, how does that happen?

How do we how does a festival get birthed and all that?

But speaking of new, though, speaking of new, new mustache, Cory,

it's it's it's the quasi off season for Botteries.

So we're we're trying the mustache out for a little bit.

I like it. Rocking it. Rocking it. What do you guys think?

Looks good. Definitely. It goes with the hat for sure.

I got to say, Cory, I'm sorry. I'm not a mustache guy, but hey,

that's OK. Then that's OK. It's no big deal.

I'm not upset about it. It scratches his cheeks.

That's what it is.

All right. First of all, tell everybody your title.

So to make sure to get it right, but also explain

why we're talking to you.

Yeah, I'm a marketing manager at C3 presents.

You know, I've done to know this wonderful crew via Bonnarooo,

but that's not the only show I work on.

So I think that's why we're here today.

Yeah, for sure. What are some of the others?

So I do Highwater in Charleston, Railbird in Lexington,

the new South Star Festival in Huntsville.

And that's the that's the roster currently.

OK. And forgive my my sidebar, but I have to ask.

I know we're we're going to talk to you probably sometime later

about Bonnarooo specifically, but I'm going to ask you

about the band that you guys are going to be in.

And I know you guys are going to be in Atlanta and Louisville

and all over boot scooting boogie nights, which by the way,

is a great name.

Tells me everything I know about what it is you guys do.

Yeah, not a lot of secret.

And that's why people.

Yeah, that's why people show up without having any idea

who any of us are.

Yeah, pretty good idea.

But I wanted to ask the one Bonnarooo question before we move on.

I think I'm going to have to ask you a question.

How were you guys treated?

Did you have to carry your own equipment?

Was the green room nice?

Did you have you know, do you get the big star treatment?

How did it go?

Yeah, we got we got it 100 percent just like a normal artist,

which was super cool.

The one exception is I brought my own golf cart

to the guys.

The guys all loaded up on one of the six passenger golf carts

and I was just following them.

You got to you got to get your you know, your perks in there.

Somewhere, right?

Exactly.

Home base.

Yeah.

And one more question along those lines, because I think it's sort

of pertinent because we've talked to you on this show several times

and we've made reference to the fact that the guys who put these

sort of festivals on are not only into the festivals, but they're fans

and in your case actually have performed it.

So just real quick, how does that sort of change how you approach

things?

I mean, that was that was honestly like one of the coolest experiences

I've ever had.

It was it was nice being sort of on the clock the rest of the weekend

because if I hadn't have been, I would have been super nervous.

But being so busy was really great for like taking your mind off of it.

And then we played Wednesday and Saturday and Wednesday was absolutely

insane in the campgrounds.

We were in the Galactic Giddy up and people were just spilling out of the

sides.

And then our Who's Stage show, there were way more people there than I

thought there was going to be.

So yeah, I got your Who's Stage show Saturday.

That was a lot of fun.

I saw you out there.

Yeah.

Yeah.

But does that?

Yeah, it was cool.

It was good.

Is that in any way influence your work?

I mean, can you say, OK, you know, I'm going to go to the

show and you say, OK, you know, we need to do this better.

We need to we missed this or like from the artist experience.

So yeah, now I get what they are complaining about or now I get what

they love or that sort of thing.

Yeah, I think one of the areas that I'm least involved with is probably

like the artist relations side.

So I honestly wasn't 100% sure what to expect.

Like I've spent some time back in those like green room areas and sort

of generally know like when the artists come in and what their day

looks like. But it was it was kind of just like an interesting like

first experience for me.

So I don't think I learned a lot.

I think I just got to kind of take it in on that on that one, actually,

which was cool.

How does that come to you real quick?

How does that come together?

Did do you approach your superiors about that?

Hey, I got a band.

We'd like to play this festival.

I work for or did that does that does that come together collaboratively?

Which one you go you go down the hall to Brian or Steven and say, come on,

man, we need we need.

Yeah, well, Steve, Steve actually came to our first big Knoxville show.

We did we did a couple of bar shows and we kind of noticed that people

were showing up who we didn't know and weren't and you were your

friend group, which is not usually the case for the local shows that

I played over the years.

And so we were like, oh, let's try a little bit bigger show.

And then we did the Yee Haw brewery out here in Knoxville, sold it out

at like seven under it and then wow, bumped up to the bill of mine.

And we've gotten really close to selling that out twice now.

So Steve came to the first that Yee Haw show and he was like, we're

doing this at Bonnarooo this year.

Nice.

Yeah, very cool.

All right.

So like I said, we're going to talk about South Star comes up next month.

End of September, it's a first time event in Huntsville, Alabama,

which is about an hour from Chattanooga.

I guess first of all, do we need to I know we've addressed it.

You were involved in Moon River, which was our festival here.

See three festival that we were all big big fans of and hoping it comes back.

There was some talk that Huntsville was going to replace Moon River.

That's not the that's not the case at all.

You were already working on Huntsville and it's a different festival, right?

I just want to say that's completely separate.

All right. So how do you I mean, go ahead.

Completely different vibes and everything, too.

You know. Yeah.

All right. So let's talk about the birth of a festival,

especially in this sort of market, because some are coming and going, right?

For variety of reasons, either they they grew too big or there are too many of them.

So how does it happen?

How do you get a festival in Huntsville, Alabama?

Yeah. So this one's interesting because it's actually kind of a unique story.

So the city of Huntsville is one of the fastest growing cities

in the country right now.

You know, they've got a lot of big tech jobs and industry coming in,

and they're growing very rapidly.

And so the city did something cool and they actually started this.

It's called a music office, the Huntsville Music Office.

And it's basically an office that lives out of City Hall

and functions solely to build the arts community in town.

So one of the products of that is the Orion Amphitheater.

And the kind of next big, big product of that is this conversation that they started with us.

So I guess all that to say that, you know, a lot of times we'll kind of like scope out a market.

And then there's all this groundwork that has to happen or you vet it and see if it's going to work

and find a place to do the show and meet a bunch of people locally that can help make it happen.

And this one, the, you know, the music office in the city came to us and said,

hey, we'd love to have you guys here.

What can we do to help?

And it's kind of been like that the whole time that we've been working on this thing.

Like just insanely helpful and very instrumental in making the whole show happen, I would say.

Go ahead, Ron. I can tell you because I've got one too, but go ahead.

Well, just to one thing you said when you said to vet it to see if, if we quote, it will work.

Obviously having the city on board and having a dedicated branch of their government to this is going to help that.

What are some of the steps that you look at or the boxes you check of whether it will work

as far as support, sponsors, everything that goes along with that?

What in your mind is it that makes it, okay, this hopefully will work?

Yeah. I mean, there's, there's a lot that goes into it.

A lot of the markets that we're going into, we're already familiar with from doing concert business.

And so you have a decent idea of like what sort of music sells best there.

And, you know, like, like if, if, you know, if you're going into Huntsville, you know that like rock shows usually do really well there.

And people there love that kind of stuff and that they have a really sort of feverish like music community already.

So you look for indicators like that.

And Huntsville is easy because they do have extremely active, budding music scene.

This new amphitheater has been doing great.

So it's kind of stuff like that. You look at how the other venues are doing, you look at what kind of music does well there.

And you just look to see if that community would be able to support a larger event.

And then there's also like kind of like more common sense stuff like is it close to an airport?

Is it drivable to other big markets, which, you know, you got Atlanta, Nashville,

Chattanooga, Knoxville, bunch of stuff really close to Huntsville.

So it's some, you know, key stuff like that that we look at kind of at the high first level.

We had Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly on not long, probably a week after the Moon River announcement that that was going to take a hiatus.

And one of the things he said was about Huntsville, that the mayor there very much is dedicated to bringing in things like this.

You said the Arts Council. So to appeal to certain employees, the NASA types, the tech people.

So he's actively pursuing it. How I mean, you've kind of addressed it, but how important was that to get it's a different thing if it if it's you guys trying to put something into place versus somebody who wants it.

Right. How important is that?

I mean, it's it completely changes the game, you know, like a lot of times we'll go in and we pay somebody X amount of dollars for a field and maybe a parking lot.

And then we just build everything. And this show has been a dialogue from the beginning.

You know, they're like, what can we do out here to help? You know, what can we do to this site to enhance the experience like power plumbing, like all those kinds of conversations or stuff that we're not usually,

you know, getting offered from a local partner that has come into the equation here that's been super, super helpful.

What would the timeline be on that roughly?

Like, how far back does does this idea come together and to the point to where it was a reality of year or two months?

You know, like, yeah, I think this one's been I think this one's been kind of brewing for a couple of years now.

And when we first kind of announced that the festival was coming to Huntsville, the plan was to do it in twenty twenty five.

And then there was a conversation with one of the headliners for this year that we were like, we could probably do it this year.

So how about the site?

Because it's a little different, right?

It's a park. I haven't been there, haven't seen it.

I've seen some pictures and videos. But what are people?

How is it going to be different? How is it going to be good?

How is it going to be challenging for you guys?

Like for people who don't know and I keep I hate to keep bringing up Moon River, but it's such a unique kind of situation

because you guys came into Chattanooga and you put it in a park that had never had a ticketed event.

You created fencing, boundary staging, vending.

You know, you really created a space in a space that didn't have that kind of thing.

But it was a downtown space located next to hotels, restaurants, shops, you know, things like that.

So it was something you wanted to make work.

I don't believe this site has that sort of walkability to other things.

Right. So talk about that.

What you're going to have to do to this particular site to make it, you know, what you guys want.

Yeah, that's a good question.

Our whole like parking information, you know, packet or whatever is going to be coming out in the next week or two.

There I guess the good thing about this site is it's massive.

Right. There's a lot of space.

There's room to grow.

And there is, you know, a decent bit of parking actually on site that we'll be able to offer to fans.

And then kind of surrounding it, we've got a plan to incorporate some of these.

Like there's a couple other lots that are owned by the city at a couple facilities nearby.

And then there's, you know, quite a bit of like development out past the site that will provide areas for people to park.

And then, you know, ride share.

They're they're working to get a city bus route.

So it's going to be pretty full on, which I'm excited about.

And, you know, the way a lot of those arteries and stuff work there, it seems like it'll be pretty easy to get in and out, which is always exciting.

I'm glad you mentioned. I would compare it to I would compare this one kind of to a festival like, you know, Railbird.

There's no parking on site there, and it's about a 15, 20 minute walk from downtown.

But it's kind of in an area where there's a decent bit of development.

You know, a lot of times businesses will sort of offer their lots, but there's just a lot of places for people to spread out and find parking.

It's not isolated. It's in a very, you know, bustling area.

So, OK, one of the things I'm excited about, too, because our friends that are down there, Daniel and Charler, are very excited to show off their city.

So I know there's going to be things to do during the day and after after the music stops.

So I'm looking forward to that. You mentioned the Web site.

It's that was going to be one of my questions when because I know people are looking for site maps and information and stuff like that.

Right now you get information to come. So when do you think that will that will happen?

Yeah, we're wrapping up the map right now, wrapping up the public parking info.

So I think all that will be out before the end of this month.

So give people a nice solid month to plan their weekend.

As far as the the timing of the festival, a lot of reasons that people around here in Chattanooga look at this is like,

well, I guess they just kind of took our festival and repackaged it and that we you know, that we all understand that that's not accurate.

But that's what a lot of people think is is the time frame here in September and also just being a new festival to a new to a new area.

How did the timing of it as far as being late September come into was that just it worked out because of the bands you're trying to book or you're just trying to stay away from everything else?

Yeah, I mean, a lot of the consideration in Tennessee is weather related.

You know, the spring is very active weather wise.

September can be September very much can be, too, as you know.

Yeah, it's not as bad as like March through May, though.

I remember like leading in a Bonnaroo this year.

It rained like every single day until June for like almost a full month.

I was just like, man, so very much.

And then the summer's hot. Yeah.

September, you know, has a little more rain risk than like the dead summer.

But you do get a little bit of relief on those temperatures.

And like, you know, Moon River, we remember that one year where we had a scramble and, you know, sort of make lemonade.

But oh, yeah, most of the other ones were pretty clear.

And then with it being also a two day festival, Moon River was a two day festival.

That's another kind of connection that people around here look at.

The difference is as far as booking and and and and organizing a festival that's four days, three days or two days.

Did it just make more sense for two on this one?

Yeah, I think the general I like a two day festival personally.

That's my older age. I do, too.

I'm 33 now, three, four day festivals have their challenges.

And then you got events like Bonnaroo that are just an absolute marathon, but you're here for it.

Yeah. But yeah, I think I think a lot of a lot of new concepts that we're looking at are usually two days.

You know, we've got a lot of survey data that says that that's what the less is more kind of approach.

Yeah. Yeah. But it into two days, let people have a great weekend.

And then, you know, you don't have to take all this much work.

Traveling becomes easier. So it kind of lightens the load.

Price goes down. I know you said earlier you didn't you don't really have you don't work so much with the artist.

But did you have any sort of input or were you any any any of the meetings about what this lineup might look like?

And what was that conversation?

I know you said you wanted it to be tailored more to Huntsville, which, you know, you know, from previous events that,

you know, they'll support a rock, a more rock show, but a rock festival.

So what was the thought there? How did this lineup get built?

Yeah, I mean, like I mentioned, this year's lineup kind of started with a headliner and that was Blink 182.

And, you know, I don't book the bands, obviously. And sometimes Vincent and Steve will value my advice.

And sometimes they tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about, which is I once I once told I once told Brian,

you know, he should book Dolly Parton for Bonnarooo.

So, you know, he probably get a good insight there. Thanks, Barry.

We never thought of that one. That's exactly what he said.

Oh, I'll write that down.

But yeah, this one this one ended up being kind of cool.

You know, they we all kind of started looking at it and they I did have a huge part in it,

but the the direction ended up being let's go let's go for this kind of like anthems theme,

you know, fine artists that have, you know, a catalog of songs that everybody knows and everybody remembers.

And you can really like dig in and sing along to you.

I think that that really makes for a fun weekend out with some friends and family.

That's something, you know, in that in that band, I was telling you about or that, you know, you guys saw us play of honor.

You're like, it's 90s country.

Everybody knows those songs that, you know, every show we do, people are people are out sort of like just remembering and feeling that nostalgia and singing along and just having a good time.

Yeah, yeah. Even even like me, I didn't think I was a fan of 90s country.

Somehow I knew the words to every song you played.

It's like something just unlocked when you started playing.

Yeah, yeah, they're all there.

So, yeah, we we thought that that would be a fun direction to go.

So that's how we kind of landed there.

I know, Russ, you'll put the lineup poster on for people who are watching on YouTube.

But for those that are just listening, headliners, Gwen Stefani, Shinedown, Jane's Addiction, Jimmy Eat World, TLC, Juvenile,

Jen Blossoms, Candlebox, Dexter, Winona Fighter.

Yeah, that's a bunch of sing along right there.

Then Sunday is Blink, Beck, Sublime, Goo Goo Dolls, Ludacris, Big Boy, Pete Yorn, Vanessa Carlton, Bully, Billy Allen and the Polly's.

So, yeah, that makes sense when you say it.

That's that makes perfect sense.

Well, let me see. Yeah, it's gonna be really fun.

Let me speak to that real quick, Cory, because like you kind of said it and I actually kind of guessed this a little to the Blink 182 thing was kind of like a little bit of a catalyst of a lot of this stuff.

When putting together a new festival, is there an identity that you're trying to build long term?

Because sometimes I feel like that can that can kind of maybe corner you a little bit and make further events difficult.

There was a you maybe you had something to do with it.

There was a hell, maybe not.

It was only maybe 10 years ago.

Shaky Boots Festival in Atlanta.

Really cool thing. Really cool.

But it was a one off. It was kind of a spin off of Shaky Knees.

And it was so narrow casted.

I feel I felt like that kind of hindered them going forward and maybe not.

I don't know. That's just my thoughts from a while.

Good question a while back.

How much do you look at that going into it?

And how much does that matter long term as far as an identity of a festival?

I think it's great when you can find an identity that is a little more broad.

Like I you know, when I was in college and kind of my early 20s and stuff, I was very much a jam band guy.

You know, we'd go to lock in summer camp.

And those kind of what like me and my friends would do in those festivals, you know,

they've got the same 40 or 50 bands that you can put on every single one of them.

And that's about it.

Especially lock in did that over and over and over and over.

Yeah. And so you either book the same bands every year or eventually you,

you know, just kind of run out of stuff to do and have to try to get creative.

And sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't.

So it's really important as we're developing sort of new visions to make sure that they have,

you know, a 10 year runway where you can keep doing new ideas without having to recycle people

or without having to sort of reinvent yourself.

And I think that's that's a cool one with this concept.

You know, there's a lot of artists that fall into that like anthems category.

Like doesn't have to be rock.

Doesn't have to be pop. It doesn't have to be one genre.

You can kind of, you know, pick and choose from multiple different genres

and still serve that same audience and the same vision.

So that's actually a really good question because that is that is tough.

This is clearly a design for the middle age guy or gal,

but it's also happening at a time when 90s nostalgia is booming.

And I don't know. I don't know how long 90s nostalgia has been booming as in the mainstream.

It feels like that's a rather new concept.

I don't know if that just kind of is struck as this is happening.

But I mean, I love it. I'm a middle aged guy.

I think it's a great schedule.

And luckily for you and me as a concert goer and festival goer,

this is a still a very vibrant and big pool of musicians to choose from.

But five years from now, you're going to be out and this might not look,

but it doesn't have to look the same five years from now, I guess.

And you basically just kind of said that.

Yeah, this isn't this isn't like a decade show.

This isn't an era show.

It's it's more so just like people and artists who have those songs that you'll always remember.

Yeah, there's a lot you can do there.

It's I'm excited to see like sort of what happens over the years with this one along those lines.

And forgive this question because you haven't even done the first one yet.

And here I am going to ask about the fifth or the tenth one site wise,

because we know from following Bonnarooo as long as we have there,

the changes that happen on site and have happened over the years from,

you know, being a hardcore dirt camping, you know, pitch a tent thing to now with all the VIP.

How does this site Huntsville site project?

I guess if that's the right word, because I know you guys think long term.

You're not thinking one offs.

How does this site look to you guys in that regard?

Yeah. So this site, the park is massive.

We're using probably 20 percent of the park.

Wow. And there's kind of like there's this big soccer stadium that has a bunch of parking around it.

And then the city actually set out a giant field that has like certain bits of infrastructure around it.

That was, you know, sort of designated as like a festival grounds.

I know my buddy Landon does the Rocket City Fair down there every year.

So there's there's other stuff that they do on those grounds.

But I think it always was kind of seen as like we'd like to do a festival here.

And so there's that. And then there's like a road that goes down the middle of it.

That's kind of where the food vendors will be.

And then on the other side of that road, there's kind of a bowl like a natural amphitheater type bowl where the second stage will sit.

So it's it's a really like. Spacious area.

I think I think if you guys go out there, you'll see that you can definitely fit more people out there if you want to.

There's plenty of room in the park to make make the event larger if if we wanted to do that at some point.

Yeah, it's kind of like it's kind of set up in a really good way to do a festival.

It's you know, there's not there's not a lot of obstacles like impeding movement.

It's just kind of a wide open space in the you know, the the grounds folks out there in the city have spent a lot of time

getting us some nice like lush grass out there.

I was down there a week or so ago and it looks like a really good place to do a picnic and a nap right now.

So let me ask along those lines, because again, we've done this long enough.

We know what people want to know. So flushable bathrooms or porta potties, lots of water stations going up and how much walking between stages.

Yeah, just logistics of the festival go around.

You know what people want like, yeah, same as us.

What are what's what's down there that people are going to want to know?

You could walk from the front gate to the backside and probably like eight minutes.

So it's not huge, but it'll feel really comfortable.

I think we're doing all flushables, which will be nice.

Oh, wow. Always excited to bring that product around.

Greatly enhances the experience there.

Big deal. Especially the middle aged guy in Gallaudet.

Yeah, yeah.

We'll have plenty of shade.

Excuse me. We're actually building a big.

So the Alabama UGA game is that Saturday.

So we're going to go here eventually.

I was going to go eventually, but go ahead.

Yeah. So that's that's kind of the only downside to doing it in September.

You know, you're up against some big SEC games,

but, you know, we're building a massive sports hall, kind of all the ACL beer hall.

So there's going to be a lot of space in the shade

with big fans and giant screens that people can take a break from the music and go catch the game.

I know I'll be in there.

We should have started there.

I'm sorry. That's a that's a failure on my part for not getting.

I buried the lead.

I don't know if it's the lead, but I've always thought,

Gore, I've always thought because Moon River's fought this a little bit

and other events here in Chattanooga, I'm talking to you specifically,

but all of the south and you're very aware of this.

I've always thought it's silly that college football will dominate everything

and not just college NFL, too, especially the days of now legalized betting.

But that's a big, big deal.

And how much was it like, do we really want to do this, guys?

Like it can ruin a festival.

It's happened here locally to people.

We know me and Barry know that put on events and they tank because Florida, Tennessee is going on.

And you can put it on the biggest screen in the world, but it doesn't work sometimes.

How much of that did you guys discuss?

There's a lot of pros and cons away there.

It ended up being the best weekend.

I'm not saying it won't change at some point, but it definitely doesn't seem to be a huge problem

based on where we're at on attendance and stuff.

So I think having a big sports hall where people can watch has a lot to do with that, too.

I think that's great.

I mean, Moon River, you guys did that here, too.

I wouldn't, the way you're describing this and then comparing it to an ACL event,

then clearly it's going to be better than what we did here in Coolidge Park

because the logistics weren't great for it.

But that was a nice addition.

Put screens out there.

People loved it and it worked and Moon River didn't have trouble selling tickets.

Now we're talking 10,000 ticketed event.

So that's a little bit easier.

But it's wild.

It's wild. I'm a big sports guy.

And to me, it still blows my mind.

You did. Really?

You're not going to go see Gwen Stefani because George is playing South Carolina.

What? Yeah, I will.

I'll always pick a good show over me.

There's a lot of games and DVR options are limited.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

So to finish out, same sort of things that don't bring chairs, right?

But and I'm glad to hear you say you it's going to feel loose.

That's one of the things I loved about the forecastle site in Louisville.

You could you could get close if you wanted to, but you could also back up 20 feet or 20 yards.

And that's a good comparison.

I think yeah, the forecastle site had a lot of pockets where you could chill out and,

you know, catch a second with your friends.

And I think that this one will offer that same kind of luxury back real quick to the site in future.

Do you foresee camping on the site in the future or is this strictly a city type?

Okay. No.

All right. I'm trying to think of any of the other sort of logistics.

VIP areas, all of that.

Yeah. So we've got a we've got a GA plus VIP and platinum.

You know, we've tried that we try to do that on all our shows now because kind of caters to basically everybody.

You can get what you want out of going to the show.

If you need a lounge to go relax, GA plus, you want to get a little bit closer VIP.

And then if you want, you know, free seltzer and beer at the stage and be absolutely as close as possible platinum.

So that's that's something we try to do on everything now.

We do still have all ticket types available for one day and two day tickets.

We're getting low on GA plus and platinum.

I don't think those will last up until the show.

So if you know, if our listeners are wanting to grab those, they should go ahead and make a move.

I was about to go there. Are you on tiers right now?

Like are you about to run out of a price point or are we settled in on price at this point?

Yeah, we're we're trying not to drive up the price too high in year one.

Keep it accessible. Get people out there to really enjoy it.

Like I said, it's a big space. You know, we got room to grow.

I think the first year is definitely more about like, let's let's see what we got here.

Really nailed the experience.

You know, let let everyone have a great time and see what we got going on down there.

And then what's the we can we can reassess.

I don't know what the exact cap is.

We've been kind of floating around a bit, but I think, you know, we'll probably be somewhere in the mid 20s this year.

OK, all right. That gives us an idea anyway.

That's comfortable. Yeah. Yeah.

Comfortable for sure. All right.

Well, before we wrap things up, I saw your MTSU class of 13.

I got that right, right? Yeah.

Yeah, I was I was trying to think because I always call my college days.

Murfreesboro. I went to live in Murfreesboro while my friends went to school there.

I didn't go to school. I just lived with them and then did all the college stuff.

But so it's my college days.

And I was trying to think, what can I do to like triggers like some kind of memory with Cory about Murfreesboro?

When I was there was in the year 2000.

So from then till 13 to now, there's nothing recognizable in that city except for the borough.

I love the borough. The borough bar and grill.

And they just had their thirty six borough stock.

They still do that. Did you know that?

Yeah, I played it a couple of times. I was going to say, I bet you did.

I know you got drunk there a time or two. We all did.

The diviest bar of all dive bars.

If you remember, you weren't there.

Their burgers are so good.

I mean, it's the only thing that's that that city is recognizable this this century over the last,

you know, 25 plus years.

I'd imagine you can still smoke in there, too.

I last time I was there, you could. Wow.

It's basically outdoors.

I guess it's technically inside, but I don't think I've ever seen windows be closed there.

All right. Cool. Like I said, guys, for listening, we're Cory will be a repeat guest.

We'll probably have you back on line up announcement and some other thing.

Bonnarooo lineup, but just real quick state of festivals right now as you guys see it,

because I know what six, eight months ago we were talking about, you know,

we're losing so many or they're taking a year off hiatus kind of thing here.

Right now, we're talking about Bonnarooo was a great experience.

Most everybody agrees. And now we're talking about a brand new one.

So let's just wrap up with a quick and I know I'm putting you on the spot here at the end.

No, it's OK. What's the union state of the union?

How you feel about festivals right now?

I mean, we sold all our tickets to Highwater Railbird this year.

Bonnarooo is one of the best years we've ever had kind of across, you know,

some of the other festivals that are, you know, Lala was great.

ACL is going to be awesome this year.

You know, we've introduced some new ones this year, like Minnesota Yacht Club that did really, really well.

South Star is doing great. So I would say, you know, turning up, baby, feels good to me.

Good time to go see a festival.

All right, Cory, man. Thanks as always.

It's a pleasure to talk to you. It was great seeing you on the farm.

I can't wait to see you down in Huntsville in a little over a month.

Yeah, appreciate you guys and everything you do.

As always, it's fun to drop in. I'll see you guys soon.

Thanks, Cory.

So, yeah, that was Cory Smith, marketing manager with C3 talking about South Star.

I'm looking forward to it.

How did I not think to ask him about how many times his name has gotten confused with the other Cory Smith?

How did that just come to my head now?

No, I know. I was going to leave that alone.

He's probably tired.

I bet he gets it all the time, right? Yeah.

But that was fascinating.

So what stood out as far as that for you guys?

What was the big takeaway?

I'll start real quick. The festival site, it sounds like it can't be outgrown.

Right. So that's, you know, you don't start from a place where you're that if it's successful, well, shit, what do we do?

Like, you don't have to worry about that, which I don't know if the Moon River and Sardar always use that as a comp,

but that's our local place.

I don't know if they thought of that going in, but if they did, which I'm sure they did, well, this thing successful,

then we're kind of stuck.

And that stuck out to me that they don't have to deal with that.

Yeah, that's what stuck out to me because that's you're right.

Moon River was kind of like, well, we want to keep this thing going.

We want to sell more tickets.

There's no more room.

Yeah.

Fire Marshall won't let you.

Correct.

Kind of a shame because that's why it left Memphis to begin with.

It outgrew the site over there.

Exactly.

Yeah. So it sounds like that's a non-problem in Huntsville because they've got plenty of room now.

Yeah. And I didn't know anything.

I purposely didn't look about the venue site itself.

Flushable toilets all the way around, you know, or at least primarily.

Big, big, big deal.

The price point is which we didn't discuss the dollar amount, but it's a very it's a very reasonable price point.

There's a lot of things that logistically are going to make this a really comfortable festival.

I think people are going to be really excited about it.

I think the toilet stood out to me, the growth, the hugeness of the site,

but the fact that you could walk from front gate to back in eight minutes.

Yeah.

You're not going to miss anything if you don't want to.

Exactly.

Correct.

Those were all big.

Yeah. So that and the sort of theme, if you will, of the lineup, we've always talked about they do a great job of building lanes,

which is probably more, I don't know how to, probably more important for a four or five day festival like a Bonnarooo,

because you have to think about it.

This one.

I would say it's less important on a festival like this layout.

It's still certainly part of the recipe, but not as important as Bonnarooo.

You don't want to mix up genres too much.

So that was all interesting to me.

And it's always great talking to Cory.

I love the fact that I make this point every time.

He's a fan, man.

He's just like us.

Yeah.

Right. And I think that makes a huge difference.

It's not just about how can we go in and and grab a bunch of money out of a community and go to the next one.

And in all sectors of event management, event organization, you have people who are just,

you know, they have a piece of paper that says I'm qualified to do this because of this line item right here.

Right.

And that doesn't mean you actually know what you're doing.

So it is cool to know that somebody who, you know, you would have a beer with and enjoy just hanging out with

and have a lot in common is also a big part of organizing events that you because like,

I mean, we don't know how to do it because we've never done it sitting down every single day like nine to five.

But we know what is works.

And so to see between how can we maximize this versus how can we make this a fan experience the way I would want to go?

Yeah. And that's what it feels like they do.

So. Yeah.

All right. Anything else before we go?

I think that's got us for this week.

Another good show.

I had no idea what next week will be.

Story of my life.

Probably more South Star.

All right. Thanks, guys.

Thanks for listening.

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