Last month DMN wrote that Live Nation was rumoured to be in the final stages of purchasing major stakes in Governors Ball. Fast-forward a few weeks and it’s official.
Now there is a major battle in the Northeast. Live Nation’s major competitor AEG Live has Panorama in New York, and now that Live Nation has acquired Governors Ball there will be two giant festivals going head-to-head in the same location around the same time.
AEG already tried to fight Governors Ball when it was independent by trying to bring Panorama to New York in June a few days apart from the scheduled date of Governors Ball. But the organisers of Governors Ball petitioned saying that it was “an aggressive, greedy attempt by [AEG] to push a small independent company of born and bred New Yorkers out of business and out of the market.”
AEG lost that battle and is now held in July – but despite it taking place a month later there will still be a strong competitive impact.
It is a common practice for Live Nation to acquire festivals and consolidate them under its brand – ‘Bannaroo’, ‘Insomniac Events’ and ‘C3 Present’ are just a few of several events that Live Nation has stakes in. This is a strategy that Live Nation has been adopting for a long time and how they continue to be a leading entertainment company.
It will be interesting to see what effect Live Nation’s stake will have on the operation of Governor’s Ball and Panorama’s future success.
The battle continues…
(Image by Pexels, Creative Commons, CC0)
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