‘Party In The Park’ To Debut With Pitbull And Blake Shelton, Activated Events Expands Into New Cities

Only the strong survive and thrive in the world of independent festivals, with savvy operators finding niches and serving underserved communities while providing new opportunities for artists. Longevity is rare — especially when considering a global pandemic interrupting things.

It all makes the 10-year run of Activated Events, producer of multi-city festival properties like Boots In The Park, Coastal Country Jam and new events including Taco Fest and the Pitbull-headlined Party In The Park, all the more impressive. CEO Steve Thacher says the rapid growth means new cities (and tens of thousands of additional tickets sold) are in store for the near future.

“I think the success is the brand itself,” says Thacher after a recent two-day Boots In The Park event in Albuquerque, New Mexico, featuring Luke Combs, Cody Johnson, Jon Pardi and more attracted around 25,000 per day. “People know what the brand is, they know what to expect. We’re always adding new fun elements like the Whiskey Barrel Saloon, the Cactus Cantina, these amazing drone shows that we started incorporating in the last couple years, but there are also challenges.”

With Boots in The Park Events in California cities including Fresno, Bakersfield, San Diego, Norco, Santa Clarita as well as Tucson and Gilbert in Arizona, Thacher says Activated has seen 50 percent growth in the number of events in the past 24 months and is expecting 35 to 40 festival days in 2026 with expansion into a handful of new markets.

“The live event business as a whole, if you asked the community, I think you would hear it’s been a challenging year,” Thacher says. “We’ve had some challenging moments, but overall the year has suited us very well. We’re actually doing 23 events this year, up from 17 from last year. Some markets have proved better than others, but we’re a little bit bit different than some mega-festivals. We’re more of a boutique festival and work from 10,000 to to 30,000 people, next year probably up to 40,000-50,000 at one of the venues we have.”

The venues are almost exclusively municipally owned park spaces, which have been eager to find successful events to get people out, spending money locally and making special occasions of the familiar spaces.

Artists playing Activated events include top talent like Jason Aldean, Sam Hunt, Miranda Lambert, Blake Shelton, Chris Young and, debuting as a headliner for the new Party In The Park, Pitbull. Mr. Worldwide will play Fresno’s sprawling Woodward Park Sept. 14.

“Our price point is quite affordable,” Thacher says. “A lot of ours start at 59 bucks. If you want to take three days and head to the desert or wherever and get an Airbnb that’s gonna cost thousands of dollars and a ticket that’s gonna cost you $600-800 bucks, you can do that. But if you want to sleep in your own bed that night and pay $100 or less for a ticket to see great artists like Blake Shelton and Pitbull, you can also do that as well. There’s room for both.”

Added attractions include food and beverage options like themed whiskey or tequila tastings, which include multiple samplings for a fair price and including trained staff and presentation. Plenty of VIP options and added amenities offer additional comfort for those interested.

The events have been a hit at underserved markets, such as Albuquerque, where half of the attendees traveled 100 miles or more attend, Thacher said.

“We started Albuquerque last year as a single-day event with Thomas Rhett headlining Boots in the Park, with no databases or brand recognition in the market,” Thacher said. “We had 15,000 people in year one, but we really saw the excitement of bringing country music to a market that is really underserved, beyond country music, too, so we decided to double down and turn it into a two-day event. Now, as we’re planning into year three, the beauty of that venue is that you can fit 80,000 to 90,000 people in there.”

While markets like Fresno and Albuquerque may be underserved and filling a niche, Activated has found a toe-hold in two of the most saturated markets in the country in Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The Coastal Country Jam at Marina Green Park in Long Beach last September featured Jason Aldean, Thomas Rhett, Old Dominion, Jon Pardi and others, while the company’s entrance to Las Vegas in April with Old Dominion, Jordan Davis, Tyler Hubbard and Nate Smith was billed as the first country festival in the city since the Route 91 tragedy.

“We were really thoughtful and strategic about where we did the event, and did it 15 minutes off the Strip, which is in more of a residential community at the Desert Breeze Event Center, which just opened,“ Thacher said. “A lot of the people who came were Route 91 attendees, and there were a lot of people on the fence that weren’t sure they wanted to come back to a country festival in Las Vegas. There was a big responsibility that comes with being the first country festival post-Route 91, and we had nothing but positive feedback.”

With a strong history of multiple events to potentially package when sending offers to agents and managers, Thacher says the goal is to keep growing and finding opportunities as the brand recognition and reputation within the industry continues to grow.

“We’re continuing to build on the events that are established in the venues we’ve been doing for years, like Fresno, San Diego and Norco, where we have a show this Saturday with Sam Hunt and close to 20,000 people, and bringing Coastal Country Jam back next year as well,” Thacher said. “We’re taking over a new venue in Orange County and have a follow-up show that we haven’t announced yet in October, we’re going back to Vegas next year, turning some of our single-day events into multi-day events, one with camping, and we’re venturing off into probably four to six new markets next year as well. We might be up to 35 to 40 festivals.”