Prime Social Group Unveils 2019 Calendar With 11 Festivals

– Adam Lynn and Zach Ruben
Prime Social Group managing partners

Columbus, Ohio-based festival promoter Prime Social Group has announced its full festival calendar with Prime Festival in North Carolina in May and the flagship Breakaway Columbus Aug. 23-24.

First up is the 17th edition of #FEST, headlined by Rae Sremmurd and Rich the Kid. #FEST precedes Prime’s namesake festival experience, PRIME Music Festival, happening in both Raleigh and Lansing. 

Prime Social Group’s signature event Breakaway Music Festival returns to Nashville for a second year in the Music City, with three other Breakaway Music Festivals taking place in Grand Rapids, Columbus, and Charlotte. 

Prime will also throw three Halloween celebrations under their Haunted Fest banner in Grand Rapids, Columbus, and Indianapolis, and they’ll wrap up the holidays with the debut of the two day New Year’s Eve party, Timeless, in Columbus.

Prime Social Group continues to bring the biggest hip-hop and EDM talent to hundreds of thousands in America’s heartland markets. 

“2019 is shaping up to be our biggest year yet,” says Prime co-founder Adam Lynn. “With the additions to our festival portfolio we are going to keep pushing the envelope with genre crossing lineups. Bringing A-list performers to markets that don’t typically get that level of talent, it’s exciting!”

Prime Social Group has played host to hip-hop heavyweights like Chance the Rapper, visionary and Grammy-winner Kendrick Lamar, Lil Uzi Vert, and Atlanta Trap legends Travis Scott, Migos, Rae Sremmurd, and Playboi Carti. 

Prime has also hosted explosive hip-hop stars like ScHoolboy Q, Blackbear, Lil Yachty, Wiz Khalifa, and Young Thug among many others. 

Prime’s EDM bookings have included Grammy-winner Zedd, international superstars Galantis, The Chainsmokers and Diplo, trap lord RL Grime, Australia’s Empire of the Sun, bass-god Bassnectar, Dillon Francis, Alison Wonderland, Worlds mastermind Porter Robinson, OWSLA founder Skrillex, and many more.

Breakaway started in 2013 with events in Columbus and Dallas, but took a break after “we learned our lesson as first-time festival promoters, we went a little too big and stretched too thin,” Lynn told Pollstar previously, with managing partner Zach Ruben adding that maybe it wasn’t the right venue. 

Now with multiple brands and a strong reputation, they have some added leverage when booking talent.

“Since we’re not just a one-off festival, we can buy in a similar to manner to how Live Nation or AEG do, with almost bulk festival buying,” Lynn said. “Because as you know, and we know, artists are getting paid more to do a festival event than a hard-ticket show.”

Prime Social Group also recently opened a Nashville and launched a new in-house agency called Prime Brands that will focus on sponsorships and brand relationships across its 18 festival properties including the multi-market Breakaway and Prime Music Festivals.

Prime Brands launches with an 11 event multi-year partnership with Blu, and Prime already counts Diaego, Babe Rose, Pernod Ricard, US Marines, Four Loko, Amazon, Netflix, Anheuser-Busch, Constellation Brands, Same Side, Loop.tv. PlayStation, Aquafina, Mikes Hard, Red Bull, Monster Energy as brand partners.

Joining the Nashville team, Jeremy Tharp will take the lead position for Prime Brands, with more than 10 years of experience in the music industry at talent agencies, management firms, and more recently in the sponsorship/experiential sector.