Destination Events Get Heavy With ‘Tool Live In The Sand’

Despite a proliferation of lifestyle festivals, concert cruises and other experientially minded events, some events still come as a surprise.

“We were really excited that they wanted to work with us on curating their destination event,” said Tyler Fey, partner and co-founder of destination event producer Festication.

“They” in this case is heavy prog titans Tool, a band known for its technical prowess musically and intense visual live experience. The band’s devoted fanbase sees it sell out arenas and headline festivals in markets as varied as Rochester, New York, to Knoxville, Tennessee, to Fresno, California, with no new music required to draw large crowds.

“Destination events are unique to other festivals in that they really take that artist-driven curated approach,” said Fey. “Tool is someone that takes anything with their name on it incredibly seriously, and they take their brand and art and everything very seriously. So we’re, we’re honored to be part of the thing.”

That kind of devoted fanbase has led to the band announcing its own destination event, titled Tool Live In The Sand, taking place March 7-9 at the Hard Rock and Royalton Resorts in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. It’s the band’s first branded festival event of any kind.

“Us” is Festication, a partnership between Feyline Presents, led by Tyler Fey, son of noted Denver concert promoter Barry Fey, and Disco Presents, led by James “Disco Donnie” Estopinal, founder and CEO of Disco Presents and a pioneer in U.S. electronic dance music for over 30 years.

The company is in its third or fourth year producing destination events in Mexico for electronic artists Kaskade (Sun Soaked), Illenium (Ember Shores) and Excision (Paradise Blue). Like Tool Live In The Sand, those were large-scale resort events featuring full music lineups, the rock-focused format and additional bands means more crew and people involved on stage.

“It’s definitely different,” said Fey. “The touring crews are bigger, with drum techs, guitar techs, it’s quite an extensive list of backline and touring gear, but it’s something Feyline was always accustomed to. The first show that I ever threw, with partners, was the Disco Biscuits at Red Rocks with Shpongle in 2013, so it feels good to get back into that realm. There’s a certain sentimental value to doing a rock show as Feyline again.” Barry Fey, a fixture in the Colorado music scene dating back to the late 1960s, died in 2013.

The lineup includes Tool collaborators Primus, fellow pro-metal bands Mastodon and Coheed And Cambria, and others such as Eagles of Death Metal, King’s X and Fishbone, which Fey says has gone over well since going on sale Oct. 30.

“On these destination events, it’s really about tapping into the core super fan, the ‘Tool Army’ as they have named themselves,” Fey said. “Obviously, Tool was instrumental in in helping us get to the lineup we have, which we’re extremely proud of, and it was awesome to see some of the comments on social media. And then, every promoter should be doing it for this reason, but when someone leaves Paradise Blue or Ember Shores and hopefully Tool In The Sand, you want to see them post, ‘That was the best weekend of my life.’ That’s why we do it.”

For Tool Live In The Sand, the Hard Rock & Royalton Resorts at Punta Cana will be taken over exclusively, offering all-inclusive packages that include room, food and drinks, music events and transportation to and from the airport. The Hard Rock acts as the primary hotel, with the Royalton properties acting as overflow.

Packages start at around $5,000 for one or two guests, with about 4,000 people being able to attend depending on how the rooms are shared between couples, singles and groups. Ticketing is handled by Tixr, a platform that has become known for facilitating customizable ticket packages that include hotel rooms, merch and other amenities.

Fey says there was a bit of a learning curve in getting immersed in the hotel and hospitality aspects of the destination events business, but the model has its perks.

“It’s definitely different from a normal festival and comes with challenges as well as things that make it a little bit easier,” said Fey. “ You don’t have to set up fencing and windscreen and 300 porta-potties or handle camping. You’re buying a lot of infrastructure when you buy out 1,700 rooms for that specific show. It comes with thousands of beds and bathrooms. There’s definitely hurdles, but it’s a festival style that we have become quite fond of doing. There were really no successful electronic ones prior to what Festication was doing. We’ve really set the bar on the production level as well with the electronic ones that we’ve done.”

Tool Live In The Sand will be Festication’s first Dominican Republic event, which Fey says comes down mostly to timing, with hurricane season also coinciding with Mexico’s “Turtle Season,” a period during which turtles nest and no lights or sound are permitted on the beach as to protect the reptile. That period takes place from May to October.

Despite the nuances and differences from a typical festival, Fey says the core principle remains for all live events.

“The fans come first and the experience needs to come first,” said Fey. “Despite me never wanting to be in the music business, that’s something that my dad instilled upon me at a young age. When it comes to destination events specifically, even though you’re not in charge of the hotel, you have to make sure that their hotel check-in experience is efficient and fluid. In the eyes of fans, your brand is responsible for (all aspects of the experience). That’s why we get so granular with housekeeping and running the hotel check-ins, the rooming list, all those things. Those are things we never thought we would be involved with but it’s necessary in order to provide that level of experience for the fans.”