Daren Libonati

In one of the most reflective interviews featured in NACPA’s newsletter, Daren Libonati recounts his experience at the Route 91 Harvest Festival, the tragic event that changed the course of live entertainment safety measures, and the presentation he developed in its aftermath.

Daren Libonati is a name recognized across various sectors of the live events industry: as a stadium and arena executive, a content creator, festival producer, and operator. He is also a co-founder of Jampack, a company specializing in creating bundled ticket and hotel packages for festivals, sporting events, corporate teams, and conventions.

But what many may not know is that Libonati was directly involved at the 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival in Las Vegas, where, in his role as Vice President of Festivals for MGM Resorts, he and his team collaborated closely with co-promoter Live Nation. The festival was cut short by a devastating shooting that resulted in 60 fatalities and over 800 injuries.

Perhaps lesser known, but equally important, is how Libonati’s foresight and crisis preparedness mitigated what could have been an even greater disaster.

The Unknowns of Ticket Markets and Resulting Unintended Impacts on Ticket Prices

Dr. Stephen Happel, a featured guest in a previous post, alongside Dr. Marianne Jennings, is working on a White Paper regarding ticketing and wants to have NACPA members get an early read:

Building Upon Backline

NACPA Members and newsletter subscribers,

This Mental Health Awareness Month, we are highlighting Backline, the music industry’s mental health and wellness resource and last year’s recipient of a $250,000 donation on behalf of NACPA.

NACPA’s support of Backline has laid the foundation for a safer, more supported music industry. With the association’s 2023 operational grant, Backline vastly expanded the availability of their mental health and wellness resources, built programmatic infrastructure that increased responsiveness, and scaled via transformational partnerships.

Jonathan Gilliam On Concert Security

I first had a conversation with Jonathan Gilliam after the Las Vegas shooting. He had an informed opinion on how to make outdoor festivals safer. One of our followup conversations took place when he was hired to run security for Eric Church’s Double Down Tour in 2019 but, being a busy guy, Gilliam could never expand upon his experience. It took us until this week to get around to the conversation.

Gilliam’s bonafides are extensive and we’ll put them at the bottom of this article but his background includes being a Navy SEAL Officer on Counter Drug/Narcotics missions, an FBI special agent on criminal and counterterrorism squads and is currently the President / CEO of United States Continued Service, LLC consulting firm.

He has more than 1000 appearances on television.

Steve Mac

Sometimes we dismiss the familiar in search of the exotic. It was at this point I realized, knowing his background at Bill Graham Presents, as a manger of a baseball stadium, and as a production manager worldwide, I nor anyone else in the media ever asked him his story.

Before I became executive director of NACPA, I spent literally decades at Pollstar magazine and each year I would reacquaint myself with Steve Macfadyen who produced the Concert Industry Consortium, then Pollstar Live, along with the awards show. During the rebuilding of this newsletter, I realized he has never been featured in any trade magazine or other media.

So here it is.

Yet Another Take On All This Ticket Talk

In 2015, when I was the news editor at Pollstar magazine and ticketing issues were in the news, like they seem to be every few years, an Arizona paper interviewed Dr. Stephen Happel for his view on whatever that problem du jour was (Springsteen vs. scalpers). Happel was a champion of free markets who thought that a ticket should be worth what people were willing to pay for it. It was an interesting take and I filed that name in my mental Rolodex for the next ticketing concern. A few months later, the NBA and Ticketmaster got into a conflict with StubHub. It inspired a Pollstar interview with Dr. Happel that got a lot of traction, with reactions coming from all angles. It was so controversial that it created a follow-up article compiling the various reactions.

Goldenvoice’s Wiley Dailey Is Not Who You Think He Is

You think you know someone.

We all have those people– not family or BFFs – that we assume we know. That person we see every year at the holiday party, that coworker we talk to in in the breakroom, that friendly volunteer that shows up at every church function. Yet we don’t really know them; we just think we do.

This writer/interviewer has spent literally decades talking to the so-called intriguing bigwigs that everyone gravitates toward, it’s possible to zip around those whom are closer.

A Conversation With Backline’s Hilary Gleason

As the pandemic made tectonic shifts in the music business, one thing that emerged was a new, significant nonprofit service called Backline. Founded in late 2019, and launched mere months before the lockdowns, the organization provides music industry professionals and their families with mental health and wellness resources.

The service did not begin as a small project but quite the opposite. Because of events in 2019 and a laser-focused industry, an organization that connected artists and crews directly with mental health services was quickly embraced.

Van Gogh Experience With Ian Noble

Immersive experiences are one new avenue of investment for promoters, with the most prominent being the Van Gogh exhibitions. There are several that are touring North America currently. Ian Noble of Metropolitan Entertainment is involved with the version known as Beyond Van Gogh, and NACPA talked to him about it.

Tim Taber, Transparent Productions

Transparent Productions, the newest member of the North American Concert Promoters Association, continues to grow with shows coast to coast as well as festivals. Operating in the Christian music space, Transparent has emerged from the lockdowns through elbow grease, thinking outside the box and working in churches.

Tim Taber learned the basics of promotion while playing in the alt-rock band The Prayer Chain, then by managing bands and as the previous owner of Floodgate Records.