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Q’s With: Milwaukee Summerfest’s Bob Babisch On Booking A ‘Festival Of The People’
– Bob Babisch, vice president of entertainment at Milwaukee’s Summerfest
Bob Babisch, vice president of entertainment at Milwaukee’s Summerfest, spoke to Pollstar about putting together the “giant chess board” otherwise known as the festival’s massive, star-packed and utterly diverse lineup. Summerfest upholds its nickname of “The World’s Largest Music Festival” by presenting more than 1,000 sets from more than 800 acts on 12 stages. Last year the festival boasted an attendance of 831,769 – up 3.4 percent over 2016.
The 51st edition of Summerfest returns to Milwaukee’s Henry Maier Festival Park June 27 through July 1 and July 3-8.
How do you approach putting together the lineup?
The [American Family Insurance] amphitheater is a different animal – it’s a hard-ticket piece of the puzzle so that’s where you have Imagine Dragons, Halsey, Dave Matthews Band, Journey, and Def Leppard this year. Shawn Mendes, Blake Shelton, The Weeknd, Arcade Fire. A lot of great acts in the amphitheater. Those are separate, hard-ticket [events]. We’re working on 2019 already and 2020 because everything seems to be planning out ahead a lot earlier.
The rest of the grounds, the whole theory behind the festival is to have as an eclectic as possible lineup every single day. Usually about the second or third week of July we’re starting [to plan] for next year’s headliners on the secondary or smaller stages. So that’s a little tougher – if somebody decides they want to hold a Wednesday [for] a country act, well, you don’t want to put another country act that day. Now you need to put a classic rock act or a hip-hop act or an R&B act to make sure that the lineup is real diverse. And then if the country act that you had on hold decides they can’t do that day, now you have to find a country act. It’s a giant chess board that we’re [navigating] to try and make it successful.
Are there certain agents you work with more than others?
We work with all the agencies that are out there – we do some things with Live Nation or AEG if they have a tour out … but by and large we’re hitting all the agencies. When you have an 11-day window of a festival with all these stages, you pretty much need all the inventory that’s working out there. So anybody that wants to work during that time you’re taking a good long look at and trying to get them in. And even if they don’t want to work during that time period, you start the begging process because you have a lot of slots to fill.
How do you keep ticket prices so low?
Well, there’s a couple of ways but most important to us is sponsorships. Some people think our festival has a little more signage out there than most festivals do but the bottom line is that gives us the opportunity to put national acts on all these stages every night and have a price of $21 or you can get in free. There’s always something, like “food for families” opening day, if you bring three non-perishables you get to see all those bands on the grounds for free.
Well, there’s a couple of ways but most important to us is sponsorships. Some people think our festival has a little more signage out there than most festivals do but the bottom line is that gives us the opportunity to put national acts on all these stages every night and have a price of $21 or you can get in free. There’s always something, like “food for families” opening day, if you bring three non-perishables you get to see all those bands on the grounds for free.
When this festival started 51 years ago the whole theory was to have a festival for the people. And we’ve tried to stay as true to that as we possibly can. … That’s the charm of the festival.
How are ticket sales going?
The amphitheater shows are going great. We’re extremely happy about that. It’s really hard to judge how you’re going to do on the Summerfest grounds because the tickets are so inexpensive. I can’t really tell you how we’re going to do until Day 11. If the weather is great – and it looks like it’s going to be – and there’s a buzz in town and people want to come out, it’s going to be fantastic.
The amphitheater shows are going great. We’re extremely happy about that. It’s really hard to judge how you’re going to do on the Summerfest grounds because the tickets are so inexpensive. I can’t really tell you how we’re going to do until Day 11. If the weather is great – and it looks like it’s going to be – and there’s a buzz in town and people want to come out, it’s going to be fantastic.
Any performances you definitely want to be in the audience for?
I can’t watch more than two songs of anything because I’m always moving – there’s stuff going on everywhere. … So that’s kind of tough. I did watch a lot of the Stones a few years ago. I plunked myself down and watched maybe half the show. I couldn’t miss that one.
I can’t watch more than two songs of anything because I’m always moving – there’s stuff going on everywhere. … So that’s kind of tough. I did watch a lot of the Stones a few years ago. I plunked myself down and watched maybe half the show. I couldn’t miss that one.
A few years ago you had to reconfigure the Marcus Amphitheatre for Britney Spears’ set. Did anything like that happen with the lineup this year?
Nope, nothing like that for this season. We’re getting pretty excited now because we’re going to build a new amphitheater. In 2020 we’ll be ready to go with that. It will be state of the art, we’re going to put a higher roof, better amenities backstage, and better amenities for the audience.
Nope, nothing like that for this season. We’re getting pretty excited now because we’re going to build a new amphitheater. In 2020 we’ll be ready to go with that. It will be state of the art, we’re going to put a higher roof, better amenities backstage, and better amenities for the audience.
What’s new to Summerfest in 2018?
We built a brand-new stage sponsored by U.S. Cellular. It’s called the U.S. Cellular Connection Stage. The old stage only held maybe 2,500 people. This one holds 10,000 people and it has state-of-the-art video screens on it. It’s a state-of-the art facility – beautiful backstage, beautiful amenities for the artists, beautiful amenities for the audience. … We’ve got a couple other odds and ends. We’ve got a smaller stage, sponsored by Klement’s Sausage, which will be a beer garden. We’ll do local bands there.
We built a brand-new stage sponsored by U.S. Cellular. It’s called the U.S. Cellular Connection Stage. The old stage only held maybe 2,500 people. This one holds 10,000 people and it has state-of-the-art video screens on it. It’s a state-of-the art facility – beautiful backstage, beautiful amenities for the artists, beautiful amenities for the audience. … We’ve got a couple other odds and ends. We’ve got a smaller stage, sponsored by Klement’s Sausage, which will be a beer garden. We’ll do local bands there.
What are your thoughts on the current North American festival market?
I think you’re starting to see a few of the festivals drop out. … There’s a lot of festivals out there. Perhaps too many festivals out there and a lot of times they end up having the same lineup as one or the other.
I think you’re starting to see a few of the festivals drop out. … There’s a lot of festivals out there. Perhaps too many festivals out there and a lot of times they end up having the same lineup as one or the other.
What works for us, what helps us stand out, is we’re as multi-genre as we possibly can be. There’s not another festival quite like ours out there, for the price, where you can have a headliner in an amphitheater but also have on any given night, everything from classic rock to hip-hop to straight-ahead rock to jazz. You name it, it’s on the grounds.
I think you might start to see that whole format start to happen on some of the other festival bills.
You’ve worked with Summerfest for more than four decades. What are some of the biggest lessons you’ve learned?
The important thing is that you never get locked into a certain age demo when you are what we are. You have to be fast on your feet because trends change and you want to be able to have that audience that’s 18 years old down here and you want that audience that’s 60 years old.
The important thing is that you never get locked into a certain age demo when you are what we are. You have to be fast on your feet because trends change and you want to be able to have that audience that’s 18 years old down here and you want that audience that’s 60 years old.
So you’ve got to make sure that you keep changing. When people reach a certain age, they’re not coming down here anymore, so you have to make sure that you nurture that next group … find that genre of music that they’re listening to.
That and don’t lose [sight of] the fact that you’re a festival of the people. We want everyone in Milwaukee to come here and have a good time.