Virtual ROO-ALITY Weekend with Jeff Cuellar of AC Entertainment

A podcast for Bonnarooians by Bonnarooians.

Welcome to the What Podcast. I am Brad, that's Barry.

Lord Taco along for the ride.

You're not in a bus this time, Barry. You've got your own setup.

No, I thought we'd go back to Camp Nut Butter since it's Bonnarooo week.

It is it. It's happening, man. It's happening.

Haven't you heard?

It was something that we talked about for a long time.

Why weren't they doing a certain thing? Why weren't they doing virtual stuff?

Why weren't they pushing content out?

Well, you know, they did it and they did it really quickly.

It seems like it came out of nowhere and it's happening this weekend.

Starting Thursday the 24th, yeah, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.

They're going to have some classic old shows.

Beastie Boys, Killer, I can't wait to see that.

James Brown, I can't wait to see.

Yeah, I mean, it kind of came out of nowhere.

But in honor of that, we wanted to talk to our old friend Jeff Cuellar from AC Entertainment and the Bonnarooo Festival.

But, you know, there's a lot more stuff to talk to him about.

And hopefully he answers a few things because we've got a lot of questions.

What in the world is happening in the world?

And I think Jeff Cuellar is as good as it gets to try and answer some of it, especially from what's going on inside the building.

Absolutely. And you and I have both hinted and talked and whatever about for the last six months that we talked to people sort of on the, you know, QT, the side, nobody official.

So this is really the first guest I think that we've had on the show that can directly speak to what has happened over the last six months.

And I have to say, I don't know that there were any surprises.

I think he just confirmed everything that you and I have been saying and thinking and talked about, which is that it's a very complicated time.

And there are a lot of moving parts. And we've said it before. I've said it before.

That first time he was on with us was a huge eye opening experience.

Yeah, it really changed the whole direction of what we did with this podcast.

I mean, we thought we were just going to sit around and talk about bands that we like.

And then it turned out like, oh, I know why we we want to talk about the electricity.

We want to know how they keep the lights on. They play grass. Yeah, they play the grass.

Yeah, they move to the nuts and bolts.

And and I think he's I think he's terrific at sharing that with us.

And he gives us a lot of good information. Yeah.

And then when we repeat the information back to his coworkers, they're all like, he said, what? He said, what?

Why did he say that? He told you what?

All right. Here we go. Let's do it. Jeff Quay are from AC Entertainment.

Let's bring him on to the what? Podcasts.

Welcome back, Jeff. How are you?

Hanging in there. Got a got a little bit of information for us here in the last couple of days, huh?

Yeah, we've got you know, we've got a we've got a virtual festival that we're going to have.

I wonder why we need to do that.

I have, you know, we just thought it'd be a you shape things up a little bit.

Yeah, I would do something different, you know, going back to the farm every year.

Let's let's let's try something.

Uh huh. It's funny.

I interviewed Kevin Kenny for the paper a couple of weeks ago.

And I, you know, in my usual smart ass way, I was like, so my first question.

So how's your summer been? Yeah.

Thinking and he went for like 10 minutes, very serious.

Talked about recording new stuff and all this.

And so I was going to ask Jeff, so how's your summer been?

You've been busy?

Been very busy, actually.

It's actually it's funny to think that, you know, the first part of the summer

or first part of the year was more or less dedicated to shifting

and figuring out, you know, what can happen and what's possible.

How can we make that stuff happen?

OK, we can't make that happen. So then what's up next?

And we kind of always have had the idea of doing something along these lines, period.

And so let's just say we, you know, forced to fast forward that

and really pay attention to, you know, kind of what's going out there.

But I think we had a little bit of luxury of knowing that the festival was, you know,

since we were able to move dates to September,

it gave us a time to step back and really evaluate one,

are we going to be able to pull it off this year?

And then two, if we can't, what do we want to do?

And how do we want to do it the bottom real way?

I want to talk about reality that's coming up here a little bit in a bit,

but I want to go backwards for a second,

especially when it comes to, you know, you're looking at the country

and the environment in the first of March.

And, you know, Baderu was essentially one of the last ones to call it, you know,

one of the last ones to pull the plug,

really definitely one of the last ones to reschedule.

Go through the process and where your mind was, at least, did you in March say to yourself

when you saw Coachella go, did you say to yourself, this isn't happening?

Or were you still trying to hold out hope and rearrange your mind to, you know,

oh, this could work and then that could work?

It all depends on which moment I blinked to determine, to kind of give you that answer.

Yeah, there definitely was an insomniac feeling that, you know, this is, it's not going to happen.

But there was also the wait and see, you know, what are we really dealing with here

and how will the country and how, you know, our lawmakers and how will the science react

and what are we really dealing with?

Because I think for a lot of it, you know, you were kind of paying attention to what was going on overseas,

but really is that going to, you know, to impact us?

And, you know, for, you know, for I'd say a good number of us,

we're focused on the physical festival at that point in time.

I mean, when you're in March, I mean, even in February, we're in thick of it.

We're dealing with a sold out event.

So we had a lot of, I don't want to say changes,

but there were a lot of operational pieces that we were, had been working on

that were kind of, you know, kind of almost put your blinders on a little bit

from, you know, adding roads to, you know, fabrication of structures to just a lot of the pieces

and kind of clean up to get into it.

Because once, you know, the positive side of once you know you've got a sold out event

and you're walking into that year, some of that decision making changes

in terms of how you budget, how you look at things.

So there was a lot of that.

And then once we realized, and I think some of the other decision making,

I mean, granted, you know, I think Coachella was forced obviously to make a decision early

because the festival was earlier in the year.

So with new science and information coming on a daily basis,

we didn't want to jump to conclusions too early.

Plus for other events that made different decisions,

some of them hadn't released lineups yet.

You know, some of them hadn't even gone on sale yet,

or if they had, they were very early in the cycle.

We were dealing with a sold out event.

So it was what is the best way to make sure we have a safe event?

And then how do we ensure that we're able to maintain the fan experience

and everything, you know, all of those domino pieces moving forward before,

you know, we're ultimately, you know, forced to make a decision on the actual moving of the event.

And we felt like when we made that decision, it was the right time for us

and the right time to kind of make that decision for our fans

in terms of preserving what we all know and love about Boundary.

But up until the moment it was announced, was there a question?

Was there a possibility that you could have made this happen?

Were you guys going back and forth up until the moment it was announced?

Or did you really feel it sometime in June or July?

Let me add to that.

Just because this is really the first time, Jeff, that, I mean,

Brad and I and Russ obviously have been talking about this since March.

But this is the first time that we've really had you,

you know, somebody who was in the in the room, so to speak.

What was that like?

Because, you know, I've been writing about it as a reporter and it was what you knew,

what you thought you knew at eight in the morning,

completely changed at ten and then again at noon, like every day.

Right. I mean, that's the way it looked from from where I was.

So talk about that and really has it changed?

I mean, does it still feel like that?

It does in a way.

But I would say you're right.

You know, what you wake up to in the morning was definitely different by lunch

and then probably changed four more times before dinner and then overnight.

You know, the conversations it was it was ever evolving.

And I think the bigger challenge is everyone wanted answers.

And we took the standpoint of like, we're not the experts from, you know,

the medical community, the scientific community.

We need to wait and hear from them.

Additionally, you need to wait and hear from lawmakers because there's a certain

amount of permitting process that goes along with producing a large scale event,

especially one the scale of Bonnarooo.

And so what are you or aren't you allowed going to be allowed to do?

And, you know, they were struggling to make decisions because everything's

changing so fast.

I mean, you know, no one wants to sometimes make that difficult call.

But I think once we realized that there was not going to be a shot to play in

June, like this thing is there's just, you know, it's not going to happen.

Prior to that, we had already started looking at what is our backup plan and

can we move it and then going through all of the traps or the process to

determine, OK, now we're going to focus on this date.

Let's make sure all of the major pieces can be aligned in order to move it.

And then, two, I would say even like the secondary and tertiary pieces behind

that because as you know, it's not it's not just like opening an amphitheater

up.

I mean, they're there, you know, from conversations, Department of

Transportation to other permitting organizations, traffic control, all of

that changes when you change the time frame.

And what we were looking at specifically, obviously, changing the date to

September schools in session.

And what does that mean?

And how is that going to how is that going to impact our audience knowing

that you've got, you know, a large number of our population or our patrons

Bonnaroovians that are in college and or have may have small children and have

to send them back to school.

So what is that going to look like?

So there definitely was it was not an easy decision to be made because of all

of the factors that had to be considered to be able to make it happen.

And when we finally ran through all of the traps and said, OK, operationally,

logistically, from a, you know, a booking standpoint, we can make this

move.

You know, then then it was, you know, parallel pathing that piece with are

are we able to present Bonnaroovian?

So take let's take the like the functional decision making off the table.

Can we present Bonnaroovian in a way that is still Bonnaroovian?

So if it's not in the summer, will we have the leeway with our fans, our

staff, with our artists to be able to still deliver the Bonnaroovian experience?

And, you know, I would say that was the last piece that we kind of almost had

to overcome was feeling like, yes, we can still deliver.

So functionally, we can make all the pieces happen.

But will it still be Bonnaroovian?

And kind of from that standpoint, you know, the thought process was, yes, we

can.

And based on everything, kind of where we were to the point of making the

final decision and then making it public, what was the, you know, being

able to to say, I think we have the support from our fans to do it because

they want to see something happen.

When you see when you say you you want to make sure that the last piece is

being the Bonnaroovian experience, were you willing to?

And I'm guessing that the answer is going to be 100 percent.

You could have made it what we know of and what we love in June.

You could have made it in September.

But was there a number you were willing to go with?

Like if you could get it to 80 percent, if it wasn't fully Bonnaroovian, could you

skirt around the edges and lose a few things and miss a couple of things?

If something fell through, could you could you make it work at 75 percent?

Can the car run?

In Bonnaroovian, run with a half tank of gas.

I don't know.

We didn't have to make that call.

You know, I think it all depends on, you know, using your car analogy, do you

need the windshield?

Well, if you're going 25 miles down there, you know, 25 miles an hour and you're

only going two miles, yeah, probably don't need a windshield.

But if you're cruising down the highway, you probably want that windshield.

So that's where, you know, what I love about I've always loved about the Bonnaroovian

team and even has even how it has evolved.

Everybody is bringing their perspective to the table and everybody's opinion is

valued in a sense of what the overall Bonnaroovian experience is.

I always say we are just the, you know, we get to make it happen.

But, you know, it's the fans event and we just get the pleasure and the joy of

being able to produce it every year.

So it is, it's thinking about what that is because we know, you know, this would

have been the 19th year.

So that is, you know, that's a very, none of that is weighed lightly on any one

of us.

We understand the power that we have with that decision making and never want to

take anything for granted because we want to make sure that our fans, you know,

stay true to Rue and we deliver the product that is true to that.

I think that's a great question, Brad.

And it sort of gets to the T-shirt.

It gets to the whole Ken Weinstein never not great.

You know, we came out of the whole 2016 conversation of the numbers were down.

It was still a great Bonnaroovian, which the idea that something would have changed

were to happen live in September.

Would have had to because of what you said, school.

I didn't think about really, you know, we got college football in Tennessee.

You would have had state troopers pulled this way and that way there would be a

lot of considerations.

And you have to have to say it.

This lineup was so good.

How does that hurt?

I mean, how bad does that hurt?

You guys, it was a sellout, but the line out was just amazing from the time it

was announced.

It does.

It stings from the standpoint of even if like, you know, what would have happened

in September, you know, we talk about the next iteration of it, even if it's 99%

of the lineup, it's still only 99%.

So it's like it is the lineup that won't I don't think could ever 100% make it

there.

And that yeah, that's a shame because there was a lot of it.

And it's funny, you know, we joke before and then we talked about the planting of

grass and, you know, it's not a sexy thing.

No one's going to write home about it or jump on social like, oh, my God, you

know, that fescue is amazing.

It's never going to happen.

Only me.

Only Barry.

I'm the one who talks about that.

But all of the other pieces that we had in place to go along with that lineup.

So I mean, you talk about like the stars, the lining, it's like the perfect

lineup operationally.

We're doing a lot of things visually.

We're going to be doing so many things and all of that paired together.

Yeah, it's a real blow not to be able to keep those pieces together.

Just to kick extra sand in the face that weekend's weather is amazing.

Oh, my God, I remember that.

Yes.

It sucks.

You know, is there is there.

And it was like even better than the previous year, which was by far and above

the best weather to the weather to the weather point.

Is there is there a person in the room or or an active conversation that, you

know, September might be a better date anyway.

It's not a lot of room.

I mean, can you say that that conversation hasn't happened?

I mean, I would be lying to say that it hasn't happened in that sense.

But there is something there's still something about even as our world changes

across the board on every facet about summer escape.

And I think that there is something to that because Bonnarooians, you know,

revere Bonaru as it is my escape.

And when other you know, it's hard to be able to, I think, collectively have

that escape in another time of year.

You can maybe have bits and pieces of it over holiday weekends or something

else, maybe like a fall break.

But to have that the ability and almost expectation to be able to shut down

for a certain period of time and be in this this fantasy land.

Yeah, I don't think you can take that away from the summer.

You know, it is one of those things.

Do I think you can still have an amazing event that probably will be successful?

I think you could.

But is it going to be everything that you want it to be?

I mean, I never say never.

But June is Bonnarooian.

I think that your points are totally right on target.

And but with the reason I sort of ask is because we're looking at reality in

twenty twenty one and and you know, Coach Ella has already said they're going

to go to the fall for next year because they're not you know, the country's not

going to be ready by March probably.

So if if if it's not already an active conversation that you guys are leaning

into September of twenty twenty one already, I would be stunned.

I'd be stunned.

So sure, you can you can probably say that June is is the right time for it.

But is it the right time for it in twenty twenty one to be determined?

Yeah.

Well, I mean, look, it's it's an unanswerable question in all honesty.

If you go on through the list of what you would need to do to even make June

happen, aside, like you said, the tears of what you needed to to happen in

September, what is number one?

What's the number one most important thing to happen between now and June for

June to happen?

A vaccine?

Is it a vaccine?

Is it is it the lineup?

It's fair.

Is it?

Yeah, it's it's 100 percent fan safety and it's how do we ensure a safe

festival?

You know, the mantra is if you can't produce a safe festival, you can't

produce a festival.

It doesn't matter how great the lineup is.

It doesn't matter how awesome the pyro is.

It doesn't matter.

All of those are the pieces.

It has to be a safe festival first.

And that is where I think our heads are at.

And it's it's just having kind of the understanding.

So, you know, what is that step in terms of safety?

It you know, you could do a whole separate weeklong podcast just dedicated

to what that may be.

And that changes.

I mean, that's that's the other difficult thing is, you know, as as we

learn more about, you know, what the science is and what the medical

community is saying about it, there is definitely a it adjusts our thinking

in terms of what is the best approach to produce a safe event.

And so I think that is what you know, that's our focus right now is really

producing a safe event.

Let me let me jump on that.

And we want to get to the Thursday event, the virtual event.

Obviously, that's that's.

Yeah, there's a lot.

There's a lot to unpack there.

I know.

I know.

We should be talking about.

I want to get into that.

But this is a good logical sort of progression sort of ties into the question

I'd asked earlier about that eight o'clock in the morning to noon sort of thing.

To me, it sounds it's it's the analogy would be like trying to turn a giant

ship around in a river.

You know, there's so many elements that are required for you guys to put this

festival on and you've had all of this happen.

You had the industry shut down.

You've had layoffs.

You've got everything else like everybody else.

So it's not.

And this is something, Brad, and we talked about on here.

It's not just a simple matter of somebody blowing a whistle and saying, hey,

we're back.

You know, we're back live.

Talk a little bit about that.

What what's it going to take to get this ginormous thing back?

I mean, safety obviously is key.

And I think that's obviously the right answer.

But I just want to maybe give people a sense of what all is sort of involved

from from your guys point of view to get this thing going, whether it's June or

September.

There is no one.

I mean, as you mentioned, it's not one thing.

I mean, it's, you know, I think having a better understanding of how this can

be controlled.

I think the other piece of it is how receptive people are to things may

potentially not be the same.

I mean, you see how people react to wearing masks.

And so if we have to institute a a mask policy to where everyone is wearing

masks because they're traversing around the grounds, will it be adhered to?

And so I mean, there are definitely is exactly.

And so it isn't one thing.

I mean, it isn't there has to be a vaccine.

You know, there isn't like there has to be a four step treatment plan to where,

you know, you're going to be good and you're not you're not, you know,

spreading it in a certain way.

There's there's multiple factors that are going into it.

And, you know, some of it has to do with, you know, the lawmakers in terms of

each in each state.

And I think Tennessee has been, you know, with the Tennessee Pledge,

I think there definitely has been some very positive examples of how they

move forward and have instituted things that have been successful.

And I want the race in Bristol, I think, went off.

If I'm not mistaken, it went off pretty flawlessly.

And there hasn't there hasn't been anything coming back on that yet.

There's been, you know, you've seen other examples of like a chase

license or what happened to chain smokers.

So it isn't just simply I don't want to say our call,

because ultimately it is our call on whether or not we decide to move

forward with things.

But it's taking all of the various information points and just being able to

make the most qualified decision and is one of those points large enough to

basically derail and cause us to say, OK, we're not ready yet.

And is it all five factors?

Can we deal with having four out of the five or which four out of the five

make it work?

And that's, you know, I would say that's it changes very much.

And I wish I could I wish I could say, you know, it's like a vaccine we're

in because we still could have a vaccine and still not be ready because the

vaccine has not been able to hit a penetration point of 70 percent of the

U.S. population.

And that's and that's going to be it.

You know, where do we feel like people entering the grounds maybe after I

think we've heard about ready ready the ready tests that you get results back

in 15 minutes.

You know, is that part of it?

I don't know.

And then we're going to take tests.

And by the way, the expense of that for, you know, one hundred thousand people

is come on.

You know, if you thought, you know, money was tight before Jesus, you know,

the the so let's put it in this weird last six months.

Have you done any of the virtual shows?

Have you done any of the drive in shows?

You personally have you been a part of any of them?

Did you go to any of them?

Have you liked any of them?

I personally have not been I've done a lot of virtual ones.

I've done a lot of our festival friends and competitors of I've watched I'd say,

you know, a lot of it's honestly I've watched just mainly from a research

standpoint to see what has worked, what hasn't, what I like, what I dislike.

I mean, that's one thing I would have to say we're very fortunate before going

to talk about the virtual reality stuff is a lot of people pulled theirs off

before we did.

So we got to learn from what others did.

And, you know, Bonnaroo's always been, you know, I think kind of setting the curve

a lot of ways and I think we're benefiting from like, let's let other people,

you know, pull this thing off and then and then we'll go forward with it.

And, you know, it's it's different.

You know, I would say how it's changed and where I see it evolving.

I don't think virtual is going to be gone.

I think virtual in some form or fashion is going to really enhance the festival

experience specifically for those that can't be on the grounds in later years.

So, I mean, let's just go back to where, you know, festivals are at full capacity

and running like normal.

I think there are going to be opportunities that the virtual space can really do

some fun and interesting things because let's be honest, we all have things that

come up, you know, whether it's family obligations, a vacation, whatever it may

be, it cause you to miss a festival from, you know, from year to year.

And I think this may be the opportunity for folks to try something different and

still engage with the brand.

So I think there's a lot of opportunity for that piece to kind of expand and

happen.

And when I think about it, it's like this is the this is the first real go through

with with one of these by the next time we go through some of these.

Look at the DNC and the RNC, right?

They had to completely remake their entire presentation and it actually sort of

made it better, you know, and they had to rethink every like even the roll call

had to be completely rethought.

It was brilliant.

And they're never going back to the way that they did it before.

You know, the first time that you do this, the first time anybody does this is

going to be, you know, a little strange, but then it could turn into a really

impressive event, especially, you know, the way that it can grow, you know,

putting, you know, I can I can envision a world where you're you're creating a

virtual online festival and you're putting the the the patrons, the listener,

the viewer into it with you, having them in and out of shows, introing shows,

coming at, you know, the way that you can program it, you know, you can program

any way you want to.

You know, it doesn't have to just be a list of artists and a list of bands,

you know, but we're learning that we're learning how this is happening really on

the fly and watching it grow is been sort of neat.

I mean, it's one of the one of the side benefits, I guess, of this whole thing.

Yeah, everybody everybody's figuring out why they do something.

They're asking themselves why they do it, what works, what doesn't work, and then

they're making it better, which is, you know, typically, hopefully what we do.

Well, to me, the the the best move that you made for the virtual reality was

the Beasties.

I think that the the thing that got me this summer the most out of anything was

the Beastie Boys documentary.

It's the one thing that I think I I mean, you can scream Tiger King all you want

to.

But for me, it was it was the Beastie documentary.

And then, you know, the day that Barry watched it, he called me afterwards.

He's like, I didn't realize the last show they ever played was Bonnarooo.

Yeah. And being able to watch that whole thing through.

I mean, we were 20 feet from the stage at that show.

It was really one of the most magical moments of our of our life, especially

if you grew up with the Beastie Boys.

Putting that on there, that was that was a good move.

I'm really looking forward to watching that again this week.

It is. I'm so excited for people to see something like you just talking about

about like Goosebumps when one of our arms again, it it was an amazing set.

And then to have the impact of what it will mean to Beastie Boys fans across

the world. I'm really excited about it.

It's you know, there's other ones. I mean, like the Dave Matthews set that

we've got on there, too.

You know, their campus, it's one of their favorite sets of all time.

And it's I think it's because that the level of the special guest and everybody

who came to be a part of that show.

This was the Anne French show, right?

Yeah.

Is this the Anne French show? Yeah. Yeah.

And it's something special.

I mean, if you really look at all of the archival sets, there's something

special in there.

And that's one of the questions that I've received a lot is like, you know,

there's a lot of things going back in some of the earlier years.

Why not some of the stuff that, you know, you know, over the past two or three

years? And I'm like, not to say that, you know, we didn't have some amazing

sets in the past two years because we have some mind blowing sets that

you can't imagine. But if you look at some of the technology and what people

are kind of capturing, you know, even on YouTube and what phone technology

has and things along those lines that didn't happen back in 2006.

That didn't happen back in 05 and 09.

And I think that is another piece of why we decided to dive a little bit back

further into the archives is some of these things people have never seen

before unless you were there.

Or we put it included in like some of our earlier documentaries that we

talked about.

And I think like in the beginning of this podcast, we were like,

Hey, we're going to have a radio show.

And we're going to have a radio show.

And then we were like,

Oh,

I don't know if you're going to be able to hear me.

And then you know,

you know,

James Brown comes to mind,

I mean,

the guys here on the radio were just talking. Yeah, I missed that.

I was one of those. I stayed at camp.

They were thinking James Brown, you know,

Seeing him.

He's old. Why would I go to that?

And then everyone kind of came back and like, Oh my God.

I mean, that's, that's the thing.

Like what we've noticed, Jeff,

is that the people that are in the show,

the people that are in the show,

they're not the people that we are.

They are the,

they're more of the Russ,

the Lord tacos of the world where this is our third Bonnarooo or,

you know,

Yeah, of course they want McCartney to come back because they didn't see

him the first time.

And that feels like yesterday to me.

So yeah, to me, I think,

I think the magic is,

is going back to the roots and where some of these like first shows

started.

Man, EOB was,

I know Lord tacos really excited about the EOB show.

I mean, that one about kicked me in the gut.

His Instagram post was,

he got a 2006 Bonnarooo poster in the mail and he said,

one of my absolute favorite gigs of all time was that,

was that first radio head show at Bonnarooo.

That's where some of that magic is.

And even if you found it in the last two years, boy,

it was birth, you know,

so long ago.

So yeah, stay, stay with that old stuff.

I think that you can't,

you can't miss with the hits.

You can't miss with the hits.

You hit the hits.

And then where I think we were able to, again, you know,

being able to look at it from this standpoint,

we got to watch what others did.

That's where we went after the, the,

I'd say the more fresh stuff or the more new stuff with original

content that has come in the, the appearances.

So I think that's when we're able to leverage, you know,

our relationships to do, you know, like Chromio's new project and to have,

you know, some of the other things, you know,

where Tank of the Bangas and St. Paul and the Broken Bones and some of your.

Tank of the Bangas is literally across the street from making wave to them,

if you want me to.

Yeah.

So I think having some of that, that, that piece into the mix,

that's where you're going to get, you know, it's the good, the good,

I mean the, the, the new stuff,

as well as some of the, the archival footage that all plays together.

And then some of the original programming.

I'm, I'm really excited for a lot of people to hear some of our campfire

tales.

Oh, good.

And then, you know,

we're going to have a lot of other things that are coming out there.

And then, you know, even the more the philanthropic stuff, you know,

we're doing with the Cheers to Live and Bacardi where, you know,

we're hitting, you know,

some of the national historic theaters in the state of Tennessee and giving

them an opportunity to, you know, do something fun.

Let's take a drink break,

mix a drink and then, and then be able to, you know,

share that as a fundraising opportunity for those, for those nonprofits.

And then the Ducky dance party. I mean,

we are staying true to Rue from the standpoint of we're even doing different

things like, Hey, listen, bands on a stage is fun.

This new content is fun, but let's get up and dance with our pets.

Like, yeah, it's just going to be fun.

I am excited about a lot of the stuff.

That's really good.

I'm sure I'm sure, you know, I'm sure our call is coming any minute.

You know, I'm sure we will take the call.

We'll be there whenever you need.

I'm sure it's going to be coming in any minute now.

Yeah. Like a small little box. I, I think about the idea of,

of me just sitting at the house in a bathrobe and having my own robe party.

Yes.

Well, I like doing it right.

I thought that was just Thursday at the Steiner house.

You know, I have mine actually just arrived today.

Oh yeah.

So I like, I like all, like all the other Bonnaroovians,

I made the pre-order back in July, August,

and my, my care package just arrived today that I, that I,

that I ordered to support, support the cause myself.

Does the robe match the banana suit?

That we go to the two-foot.

That sounds like a sexual euphemism to be honest.

It does. It really does.

Now that I hear it in my head.

So yeah, those, those specialty things for people who have never been to Bonaru,

they probably don't understand how it is so much more than just the shows.

The shows are amazing, but it's the special events.

It's the experiences. It's the camping. It's the whole thing.

And you guys, I've always taken that.

I always had felt as seriously as everything else.

Those, those extra things don't feel like they're just sort of put there to fill out,

you know, somebody's day. I'll put it that way. Yeah.

No, they're, they're very important.

And if you do not leave the stream and go make big Frieda's booty popping potatoes,

like we have failed. I got to see the rough cut of it.

And I was like, and that's what we're eating for dinner tonight.

And wow, probably made some booty popping potatoes.

And you're talking about all of my neighbors right now.

These like Frieda's around the corner too.

She's just come to New Orleans. You can do all this together.

Well, she was very kind enough to deliver her recipe for that.

And I can't thank her enough.

How long, how long did it take to put the whole thing together?

Oh God. Is it still being done?

It's not finished. Yeah. We're out of here.

Yeah. We've got some pieces that are still, they're still being finalized.

We've got a campfire tale.

One last one that is getting edited as we speak that we should be able to see that.

I can't wait. I've heard bits and pieces, but not the full story together from,

from a special guest that it will be great.

Now, what fire are you talking about? Because there's no fires at Bonnarooo.

Remember? You can't set a campfire.

Okay. All right. We're virtual. Yeah.

Speaking of, speaking of things you can and can't do at Bonnarooo, I'm just, you know,

I'm, I'm not going to insinuate or jump to conclusions, but there's an arch behind you.

Jeff and not a squarch.

Just been waiting for that question.

So someone at home can make their own assumptions.

You know, that's, I, I, I will let you jump to conclusions, Matt,

and make any conclusions you want based off of that.

Whatever Easter eggs you want to drop. That's fine by me.

What is the, just as, as the future going into the future,

knowing that there's going to be very difficult to figure out, you know, what happens.

We haven't figured out what happened the last six months to help what we know about the next six months.

So after the reality thing comes and goes and, and, you know, you debrief on all of that,

what's in the next process for you guys? What happens next?

I think I'm going to be at the bottom of 2021. So, you know, I mean, that's where we are.

We are focused on, you know, getting, having the most amazing virtual festival that we can produce out there

and still focus then on the turn our attention to 2021 and, and, and celebrate our 20th anniversary.

So I think that's going to be our next big thing.

We're going to take all the information and everything that we've got and make the best decisions

for the festival moving forward. But, you know, right now it is, that's, that's how we have to look at it.

It's, you know, we're, we're full steam ahead.

On that roller coaster, if you will, we were talking about earlier.

How does that feel? Can you, can you, do you feel confident you have a picture of what 2021 looks like?

Or does it feel like that 8 a.m. noon to four type of thing still?

You know, there's one thing I learned, I want to say early on, because it definitely wasn't early on.

And this whole process is the speculation.

I just have to kind of remove it and really focus on what we can control and where we can push things.

And for us, there is every year we look at how we can make Bonnarooo and any festival we produce better.

And the one thing I will take away from this time is the amount of focus and attention we've been able to put towards it

and really thinking about all of those minute details, as we joke about grass and other things,

are where, where can we re-prioritize stuff?

What now, when you have, you know, more than like you're dedicated, almost meeting time to have a discussion about this

and then pull certain pieces back together, I think we've been able to really reflect on some of those big, you know, bigger pieces

and smaller ones and how that whole puzzle puts together.

And so I remove, you know, some of the speculation and what to think about and push it more towards,

here's what I can control and here's what our team can control and here's how we're going to move forward on what we can control.

And once, you know, decisions can get made based off of new science, new leadership, new whatever it may be,

then we will move forward with that.

Well, you know, we'll have our plans and then our contingency plans in place, but that's every festival.

So it doesn't, I mean, take pandemic, take whatever you want off the table.

There's always going to be something.

There's always going to be something that we have to pay attention to, that we have to make sure that we're aware of

and think about how it impacts us.

But at some point in time...

Last year you had to deal with the Las Vegas shooting.

Exactly.

And how that changed, you know, your security plans.

Yes. Weather.

I get that.

You get it.

So, but wise guy, wise man once told me that don't show me your values, show me your budget.

How does your...

How does the things that you want to accomplish if this was a normal year do with the budget restrictions?

Are there budget restrictions?

What has 2020 done to the overall bank account?

Because I know it's done to my business' bank account.

I know it's done to so many small businesses' bank account.

I think that, you know, it's no secret.

You guys are under the umbrella of Live Nation,

but we all know what Live Nation's having to go through and what the entire industry's having to go through.

So how does the budget work in all of it?

I mean, the budget's always going to be a factor.

I mean, there's a certain amount.

I mean, we may have to make some tough decisions at times to make it work.

But, you know, in my opinion, it's no different really than any other year.

I mean, every year, you know, there is a budget and here's the budget that you have to stick to.

And if there is a deviation for whichever reason for the budget, you know, there's got to be a damn good reason.

But, you know, prior to Live Nation and then with Live Nation, that's always the case.

I mean, if you're trying to build a successful business is, you know, being mindful of that.

I think, you know, I know Live Nation knows the sensitivity as well as the what they have in an asset like Bonnarooo.

And they have never stepped in from a standpoint of like forcing it one way or another because it's so special.

And it's taken, you know, all of these 19 years to get to this special place.

And now it is our opportunity.

It's our pleasure to be able to keep pushing this thing forward and continue to make it and improve upon it.

So that part doesn't concern me.

I think, you know, again, there are realities in terms of financials that we'll have to think about.

But coming out on the other side of this, I look at we look at more of the opportunity.

And if we didn't have the backing and we weren't under the Live Nation umbrella, I would probably be way more concerned about that question than I am now because it's a global organization.

And that is, you know, that's we've got amazing leadership at the helm there.

And it's going to, you know, it's going to allow us to make the best decisions to keep this amazing event going.

How much does and along those same lines, and it's maybe an obvious question, but how much does the fact that you guys own the farm play into long term future and goals?

Does that help tremendously because you kind of in control?

Does it, you know, does it is it a level of commitment?

You know, it's not a rental. You know what I mean?

Is that does that make sense?

Oh, yeah. Yeah.

No, it does make sense. And it's extremely helpful.

You know, it makes it we drive the schedule versus, you know, if you're going into, let's just say an arena or another another facility.

You've got to worry about everything else they're doing.

And, you know, and what else could be in the schedule for that particular space?

We are the schedule. We made the schedule.

And so that has it has been a blessing for us from from everything from capital improvements to our decision making process.

It is it's one less decision we have to worry about in terms of moving things around, shuffling them or when we start to build how we do the build.

And it is with that side and owning it, we can protect Bonnarooo in a way that perhaps if we didn't own the site, we wouldn't have that we wouldn't have that ability.

So it's a big point. And Brian, let me let me say before you got on, we were just chatting TACO and Jeff and I.

And I think the quote was you would rather do six or seven live Bonnarooo's than one virtual Bonnarooo.

Yes. It's that much work, huh?

It is. It is. I mean, yes.

And I would say probably if I was a seasoned veteran at producing virtual music festivals like I am about producing physical festivals, I may not feel that same exact way.

But you kind of don't know what you don't know.

And we've been very lucky to have, you know, have a team and some very skilled people within our team that that, you know, do know that space extremely well.

But all of it's changing, too. I mean, the number of new platforms that came up from March to now is almost mind numbing.

So you can just try to make a decision on what platform you're going to go with and why you're going with a different platform.

Do you charge? Do you not charge? I mean, all of those various things, I think probably put a lot of it at play.

Plus, you know, let's be honest with this type of virtual festival and trying to do new things, there are still limitations because people aren't traveling.

It's not like you can with your typical of it.

I mean, unfortunately, I didn't get to watch the Emmys last night, but the fact that people were making their acceptance speeches at home and things along those lines, you couldn't even do.

You couldn't even do like an NBA bubble. You know, like that's not even possible with this type of thing.

So you tack on the fact that that's we don't produce virtual festivals and then you throw in all of the hurdles to kind of get there.

It just made it very, very challenging.

Then to that point, who's who's actually who's the director, who's the producer, who's actually making the whole operation work?

You still got the same team and it's just I would say our production team led by Daniel Gibbs is the heavyweight kind of in that in that make sure that kind of understands the holiday piece.

But you still got talent buyers because the talent buyers have to interact with the artist to get the permissions to be able to play archival set or do new stuff.

You still have our partnerships team talking to the various brands that are helping to make sure everything functions and works together

and come up with the integration ideas to say, you know, how is that authentic and staying true to who we are as Bon Rue?

What other cool things and different things can we be doing that is just, you know, that stays unique to the festival branding?

As we mentioned, I mean, Big 3D and booty popping potatoes doesn't work at a lot of other events and it does work for us.

So it's being able to have that type of stuff. You still had a lot of your same team. It's just causing us to think in a way that is not physical, but virtual.

And then what opportunities come into play? And I'll be honest, I wish we had, you know, probably six more months because there were probably about a solid 10, 15 other ideas that would have been amazing to execute had we had more time.

And I think that's kind of speaks to where we're going. The opportunity is endless. And so a lot of some of these ideas that we came up with, like, that's awesome.

Let's put a pin in that one. And then we're going to come back to it because potentially we use it for the 20th anniversary, potentially use it for ways to interact with fans as we are moving forward, for leading into the physical event.

And so I take the blessing of this entire exercise as one expanding skill set and two forcing us all to think in a way that I don't want to say is uncomfortable, but, you know, is it second nature like producing large scale event.

So you didn't hire. So what I'm learning is that you didn't go outside your your basic operation to hire like a director or somebody who does videography for a living. You didn't go outside the bubble to make this work.

No, I mean, I say just about everything is internal. All the skill set was internal. It's just taking that skill set and saying, instead of this, reimagining it.

Reimagining it to this. And so that's what I think the beautiful thing was, is you have a number of so many talented people on our team that, you know, to make this to make this happen.

They all have the skills. Everyone have the skills, just a matter of we haven't had to use the skills in that fashion. And that's been kind of the fun is to really kind of have the conversations with team members and be like, but wait a minute.

You know, walls are down. We can we can do whatever we want. Now we just have to stay within budget. Did you do anything on the farm.

There are some pieces that may have happened on the farm. Okay. All right. Interesting.

I have a so back to Brad's point about the fact that, you know, we've done this for a long, long time and a lot of people don't. I think you told me last year during one of our interviews that what 60% of people are new each year. Is that getting that number about right?

That's about right. When you look at it, they didn't return from last year. So, but of those 60%, I don't want to quote numbers here. There's a good chunk of that 60% that maybe didn't come last year, but have been to a bar before.

So, so in our mind, we get it's the same people every year, you know, because it is.

And it's an unfair question, but I'm going to ask it anyway.

For those of us who are familiar and used to it a certain way.

Can you look into a crystal ball or whatever. What do you think it looks like, is it going to be somewhat similar. Not at all similar I mean is this pandemic going to completely change.

It's hard for me to imagine 80,000 people like we have in the past on the farm, given everything.

What are you guys thinking.

I think it, it will return and I don't want to say to normal because normal, you know if you if you just look back in the context of history.

Normal is whatever today is that it changes every day from that standpoint.

What if this has taught taught us all something is to don't skip out on those opportunities, take those chances because you may spend the next six months in your house and not able to do so so take advantage of the ability to have the experiences

you have don't don't take it for granted, because it can be fleeting and it can go away.

So, will it be the exact same. Probably not, but if you go back, you know, was Bonnarooo, how we ran Bonnarooo in 2019 was it the same as 2018. No, it wasn't.

And you know was 2018 the same as 2006. Hell no it wasn't. You know we've, you know, the core of it was there and it will always be there, but how those pieces kind of work together, change, and, and, and I think you may see a more of a

drastic change, drastic, you know more of a perceivable change from, you know, 2019 to 2021 or you know even even moving forward, it may not be a slight, but there will be changed.

But I, I have faith in people that we are just dying to come back together and to be together and ultimately if it means we're all wearing face masks, and we're doing, you know, hopping on one foot, then we're all going to wear face masks and hop on one foot because we are,

we are a tribe, and the tribe wants to dance and sing and eat and break bread and just be together and I, so I think we will, we will overcome and it will be, it'll be great.

It'll be amazing. Man, Jeff Quay our eternal optimist he's got much more optimism than I do.

I think the point of what that whole 60% sort of thing is, those guys don't know what last year was like. Yeah, it's just where they are today. So, I think that gets lost sometime, I know Brad and I both we've had those kind of aha moments like well they weren't there in 2013, they don't know.

You mean when you mean when they moved the hill, when they move the hill. Jeff, you know, like, you know this, we love you and we so appreciate your time. We value it immensely and, you know, you drop a lot of knowledge on us every time you stop by so, you know,

keep, keep, keep the positivity man because it's seeing the election thing play out and watching what's happening around, you know, what's around us every turn.

Ain't easy. It ain't easy to keep that up so vote.

Yeah, vote.

If you can work the polls go work the polls, because if you don't vote.

You don't have the right to complain.

So I go vote. Well thank you for everything in the time and man I, we can't thank you enough and hopefully we'll see you soon. Is PBR coming back, were they supposed to be here this year, can you can you think that matters the most taco is the only question I had.

All I can say to that is that we will always have delicious amazing beer on tap and in cans.

Always.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Hey and California now.

Yeah, we meant to, we meant to leave her left. I did. I live, I live in the Bay Area not just outside of San Jose. My wife is now a professor at San Jose State. Well, we intended on going back to the southeast and we took a wrong turn.

And, yeah, just a bit. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

They gave us nice warm fire welcome. Yeah, no kidding. So, you, so this is great you you moved to a new city during a pandemic. I got to, I got to New Orleans two days after Mardi Gras and 10 days before everything shut down I didn't get festivals I didn't get jazz fast I didn't get

I didn't get.

So now I'm just in a, you know, you know, watching ferns grow, essentially I'm watching your ins grow.

Thank you man. Thank you. I appreciate it. See you guys this weekend, virtually, as we enjoy as we enjoy enjoy.

There you go Jeff play our on the what podcast, another amazingly brilliant chat from Jeff who always seems to put things in perspective for us.

I think that my favorite part of that was hearing Barry's ship analogy. I really did enjoy that it's sort of like making a ship turn in a river.

It's pretty good. Yeah, it's pretty good. I thought that was important and the fact that he would not give up whether the arch was coming back or whether PB paps was coming back PBR was coming perhaps is coming back.

Well, I think that we all knew if you put it this way, you can tell who wasn't the biggest fan of the squarch.

No matter who they were, whether they inside the building outside the building, you could just tell the way that they, they talk. Some people like the squarts other people, you know, well, but, but to the PBR and the, the squarch thing he turned he puts his hat on because he was the one who had to put lipstick on that.

And he did as good a job as he could do. You know what it's it's we're all just trying to make a paycheck. Okay, we're just trying to get that paycheck side needs new shoes.

We've got patreon's to thank you. Let's go down the line. Timothy Proctor Aaron Carlson Leslie Condor David Grimes Phil Hanley Chloe Hannon Benjamin Wells Tory musical antlers and Mary T.

Skyler Melanie and Jesse Feldman Parker Reed Dan Sweeney Joshua Herndon Lauren at home Nick Yeatman Tyrone basket Evan Brown and Ross McNamara William Richards William will hoist Sean McCarthy Ryan Matthews and Chelsea Davis Lucy young Jason Hazel Baker DK Linda dolls Jake's Jacob Marty and Andrew T McBride

Justin Nigro David Solano Catherine Riccio Meredith Ritman DJ Bryce Brinston DJ back in one of our new ones as we have some new ones as is Kyle Boyle Riley Benson Madison.

Zeke Oh Zeke Oh, please let me know how to say that Madison Daniel and Charlotte Horton and Sean McCain with David Henson Brooke Tussie and Ella. So thank you guys for being so supportive. It's lethal. It's lethal. What did I say? You said Leslie. I didn't say lethal.

They said you said you said you said it wrong. We had her on the show. She said it rhymes with diesel. I said I thought I said it right. That's my apologies. Man. Now that's how I got to end it. I've got to end it with that big fat failure.

If you want to do it again, you can. She got her name mentioned two or three times. Yeah. All right. Anything else to get to before we wrap up for today? Now I am looking forward to watching that Beastie Boys set. Do they have the set times out yet? They put that out? That's a great question. I don't think I've seen the schedule. You know that was you know what we should have somebody on to talk about this and ask them questions like this that would be important to know.

All right. I'm on it. Set that up. Yeah. All right. We'll talk to you next time on the What Podcast. Love you. Bye.