Impact NextGen: Haley McCollister

When Haley McCollister was in college, she secured an internship at Greenville, South Carolina’s Bon Secours Arena. During her tenure, she saw many great live performers, including Bruce Springsteen, KISS and Taylor Swift. Thrilled by the impact of what concerts deliver, she says it “became very clear to me that I wanted to work in live music.”

A few months after graduation, McCollister landed her first official industry job: Ticketing Assistant with Louis Messina. A dozen years later, the focused and hard-working young woman who’s helmed the touring trajectory of the Lumineers from club band to stadium-sized headliners was tapped in August to establish the Messina Touring Group’s Nashville base.

McCollister will solidify the Austin, Texas-based concert promoting powerhouse’s Music City footprint – and expand its reach into country, Americana and Nashville’s growing pop music scene. And she will continue spearheading the Lumineers’ concert business.

“In a few weeks The Lumineers will wrap up the North American leg of The Brightside World Tour at Wrigley Field in Chicago,” McCollister says. “Seeing how much this band has grown since I first started working with them has been incredible. … All of my career highlights are related to being a part of making an artist’s touring dreams a reality. Most recently, when The Lumineers played their first headline stadium show to a sold-out crowd at Coors Field in July the energy in the stadium was indescribable. There is something magical about the moment that everyone realizes that this band/artist was meant to play stadiums.”

Having spent her career working in close proximity to Messina, a man known and respected for his ability to take artists to stadium-sized success, it’s no wonder McCollister cites him as her most enduring mentor: “The most important thing he taught me is to always be thinking about the next 10+ years. He always says, ‘We are not tour promoters, we are career promoters.’ We only work with a few artists, so we can be extremely intentional in how we build their touring careers.”