Production Live! 2026: Venue/Tour Relations – Beyond The Rider

Venue/Tour Relations: Beyond The Rider

Moderator:
Jake Berry – Jake Berry Productions

Speakers:
Scott Preston – MGM Grand Garden Arena
Erika Hansen – Omaha Performing Arts
Keller Taylor – BOK Center
Michael Sciortino – UBS Arena
Ralph Marchetta – Legends Global / State Farm Stadium/Desert Diamond Arena

Venues from small clubs to massive arenas are going above and beyond the traditional rider to make artists and their production teams feel welcome and appreciated by the venue. And hopefully, that effort will translate into fond memories and repeat business.

Venue operators discussed how they make their facilities feel like home during a Production Live! panel during Pollstar Live! 2026 today in Los Angeles moderated by legendary tour manager Jake Berry.

“When you are away for a long time, feeling at home is a beautiful feeling to have,” said Berry, who toured with the Rolling Stones has been named Pollstar’s Road Warrior of the Year multiple times.Venues started rolling out the welcome mat with coffee carts and today there are dedicated staff whose mission is to research and curate a unique backstage experience that keeps raising the hospitality bar.

Panelist Erika Hansen of Omaha Performing Arts customizes the artist experience from personalized post cards to collaborations with local charities that are meaningful for the artist from animal advocacy to music education. OPA has a partnership with Omaha Steaks with plated steak dinners served on site. A “listening corner” is stocked with music selected specifically for the artist.  

“The one thing I want to stress is that we were able to put together a backstage experience at our venues in Omaha that really provided welcoming amenities for the tours and you don’t necessarily need an extravagant budget to do it,” she said. “A lot is just paying attention to what the tours want and need.”

Some of those crew needs include having a massage therapist or hair stylist available at the venue.

At State Farm Stadium/Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona, Ralph Marchetta of Legends Global said they’ve programmed everything from puppies (“Nothing is more metal than puppies”) to  Wilbur the rescue pig, customized ridables, a taco truck and cactus hats to engage artists.

“Honestly, it’s a really fun part of the job and an opportunity to be really creative,” he said.

At MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Scott Preston said they are focused on the environment with room enhancements, refreshed dressing rooms and spit-polish corridors.

“I approach it a little different at my building the Grand Garden,” offered Preston. “It’s got a 30-year history. For the first 20 years, we were the place to play and then 10 years ago, T-Mobile opened, Allegiant Stadium and the Sphere. So, I had to step the game up.”

At the venue, the booking team takes care of the artist and Preston and his staff focus on the crew.

“Being someone that’s from a production background, it’s very important to me when you walk into my building that you are welcomed and it is clean,” said Preston. “Our guests are not just the artist, but their crew as well.”

UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, opened in November 2021 and was designed with production needs in mind including a star suite compound and a dramatic hallway of engraved discs commemorating dates instead of show photos.

A basket of high-end toiletries with hand-written note is in the dressing room, there’s a red-carpet marquee for social posts and NYC pizza from King Umberto’s is delivered in a UBS Arena-branded pizza box. A rolling red push cart stocked with “I (heart) NY” merchandise – shirts and hats and socks – is free for the taking.   

“The tour can take what they want and usually clean it out every single time we do it,” laughed Michael Sciortino of UBS Arena. “It’s very well received and very authentically New York.”

At the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Keller Taylor said they create custom themes for visiting artists from caricatures for Nate Bargatze’s “big dumb eyes” to a spa day for Kelsea Ballerini and her crew complete with slippers to take home.

“For us, we do a lot of strategic things, thinking about a thoughtful theme for the day,” explained Taylor, who added that the arena even customizes venue merch by genre. “We do a good job of leaning into the theme of the tour and then maximizing that experience for folks.”

The venue often extends the artist gifting program to the promoter and agent.

“Looking at opportunities to take that message outside of the venue is important for operators like us to enhance that message and then get more bookings at the end of the day,” offered Taylor.

Many of the operators also provide recaps of artist activations for their key contacts following a show as a way of staying top-of-mind if they are in a market that isn’t an obvious routing play or even venues in major markets competing with similar capacity facilities for tours.

Whatever the motivation, Berry said, “They are all going over and above the rider.”