Insomniac Acquires Club Glow, Echostage And Soundcheck In D.C.

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Doug Van Sant – Echostage
The crowd at Echostage in Washington, D.C.
Insomniac Events has announced the acquisition of promoter Club Glow and several Washington, D.C. venues and is partnering with Club Glow president and CEO Pete Kalamoutsos. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Club Glow, a D.C.-based electronic music promoter founded by Kalamoutsos, has been running since 1999 and organizes 150 events per year at Echostage and Soundcheck, along with the Moonrise and Preakness InfieldFest festivals. 
There are also staffing changes at Glow in light of the acquisition: Heather Church has been named VP of Talent & Marketing, while Matthew Cronin has been made VP of Venues & Sponsorship. Kalamoutsos will remain president and CEO after the acquisition.
“Glow has been a champion of dance music culture for over 20 years, and Pete and his team have been instrumental in helping grow and shape the entire East Coast scene,” Insomniac Founder and CEO Pasquale Rotella said in a statement. “I couldn’t be happier to align our teams and continue raising the bar for live dance music experiences.”
Kalamoutsos added: “We are thrilled to be joining the Insomniac family. …. After two decades of producing some of the biggest dance music events on the East Coast, it’s time to write a new chapter. Pasquale and I were cut from the same cloth, and our visions align when it comes to dance music. I couldn’t imagine a better opportunity to continue to grow Glow, Echostage and Soundcheck than with the team at Insomniac.”
Insomniac is a major player in the electronic music space and staged EDC Las Vegas as a Virtual Rave-A-Thon in May, during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic and has had a strong digital presence.
Rotella was named to Pollstar’s Impact 50 list for the second year in a row this year. 
The acquisition of active clubs like Echostage and Soundcheck may accelerate in the coming months. The struggle of independent venues to keep the lights on during the COVID-19 pandemic and moratorium on large gatherings has been a constant topic of coverage for Pollstar. Organizations like NIVA have been lobbying extensively for the RESTART Act and Save Our Stages Act, and recently partnered with YouTube for the Save Our Stages Fest, which included performances from Foo Fighters, Miley Cyrus and The Roots and raised $1.8 million for venue relief.
Marc Geiger recently announced he was forming a new company, SaveLive, to keep independent venues afloat while acquiring a 51% controlling interest in them. 
Insomniac has a creative partnership with Live Nation, which in recent years has been expanding its presence at the club and theater levels.