Pollstar Live! 2026: From Stubb’s To Arenas With C3’s Charles Attal And THE·TEAM’s Co-Prez Kevin Shivers

Having met each other when one was an indie promoter building what would become a major global player in live music and the other was sneaking into shows while still a student, Charles Attal and Kevin Shivers acknowledged their somewhat humble live entertainment beginnings, the wisdom and calm gained between then and now, and the talent and skill of those coming up after them in the industry.

“In many ways I always looked up to Charles and I thought that he was having so much fun by working, that’s kind of what I wanted to do,” said THE·TEAM co-president Kevin Shivers, who represents talent like Tyler, The Creator and Kali Uchis along with now running the music division for a major talent agency. “One day I drove a golf cart at Austin City Limits and I met some agents, maybe it was Matt Hickey, I don’t remember who it was, but I was talking to somebody who was driving a golf cart, and they told me they get paid to go to festivals. I just always wanted a job that I just loved to be at. And it was seeing Charles, seeing him doing all the things that he was doing that really inspired me.”

Driving a golf cart is a long way from hashing out global tours and festival headlining slots with global superstars, but Shivers and the C3 Presents co-founder Attal have made a point to help and guide those coming after them in the industry and on their teams currently, which can alleviate bumps along the road and prevent other headaches in what is generally considered a stressful working environment.

“I started teaching some classes internally in Live Nation, and I really enjoy it,” said Attal, who has been instrumental in developing festivals like Lollapalooza and Austin City Limits along with booking hundreds of shows a year in Austin and other markets. “if I can help somebody not have some of the bumps on the road that I did, It’s great. It’s mostly just problem with some of the kids that come in stressed out. Nine times out of 10, it’s not the job. It’s something else that’s in the periphery of the job.”

After decades of navigating a turbulent industry that often depends on factors out of his or anyone’s control, Attal emanates a calm and positivity that may be needed in times of crisis, or during disagreements between parties in the booking process.

“I get put in the middle sometimes when it’s whatever agent and (C3 festival talent buyer) Huston (Powell),” said Attal. “I’ll call Huston and he’ll be like, ‘Don’t! No! I know why you’re calling. Forget it!’ and I say, OK, I’ll go crawl back into my hole. But sometimes I have to play a little bit of traffic police.”

“The way i think about mentorship is I want them to be better than me,” added Shivers. “I’ll have failed if 20 years down the line, they’re not better than me and doing bigger things than me. I get the Coachella or Camp Flog Gnaw requests, I always say yes, anything I can do, because if we’re not mentoring people, we’re not helping them grow, then why am I in this every day and waking up? It’s not about me, it’s about the future of the business, the figure of the people. I learned a lot from Charles and watched him do that for people. Now, he might crack a joke about you, but he’s a great heart and always helps. I’ve never seen him say no, and he just gets tacked onto.”

When it comes to team building and motivating others, Shivers made a point to mention the power of just dropping what you’re doing to leave the office and enjoy a team meal.

“You’ve got to engage with people and talk to them and when they see me walking around and I’m in a good place, it keeps everybody calm,” said Shivers. “But seriously, food. I love taking the team out and like, ‘We’re going to go eat. We’re just gonna get up and we’re gonna go to lunch.'” This prompted moderator and fellow The*Team agent Cristina Baxter to poke fun at Shivers for complaining when one of the team may go overboard, ordering extra pie for dessert, for instance. “Yeah, I yell at everybody ordering too much food,” Shivers said. “I’m just trying to keep it in. Then we all laugh.”

Bringing the best in people and laying the groundwork for others, maybe it’s no surprise that the younger generations have shown promise.

“I look at myself and think when I was starting off, and I like to argue with people,” said Shivers with a laugh. “I learned that that’s not a good skill. You’ve got to get along with people. Some of these young agents, they already have it. When I see them, I’m like, man, I wish I was like that when I was their age. It took me a while to I get to that point.”

Likewise, Attal says, “I was a mess growing up in the business. I was not organized — the first booking, there were no computers, I was scribbling it onto a calendar. Huston (Powell) and Amy (Corbin) are the best I’ve ever seen, and there’s a lot of people on our floor that are way better at doing it than I ever was, way better.”

Looking at the current state of business, Attal says live music — and festivals in particular — seems to be in a good spot.

“I think it’s healthy,” Attal says. “What I see is people need to interact more than ever — from work-from-home, from AI, all the online chatter content and social media, people are really going to festivals to interact with other people…. Festivals are a very healthy place to go interact with people. Our onsales have been great, knock on wood, if there’s any wood anywhere. But yeah, I don’t see a slow-down in the near future.”

Expanding on that, he says C3 and its portfolio of more than 30 festival properties, is looking to grow selectively as well as in other aspects of its business.

“The overall vibe of C3 right now is to make sure you’re curating the current shows that we have and making them better,” Attal said. “We have 33 or 34 festivals, and it’s been higher than that and lower than that, but we we’re not in some crazy expansion mode. We’re being very selective and we do add one or two a year, and evaluate the ones that are struggling. Basically, we’re in growth mode, but we’re also in curation mode, making sure that everything’s being curated the way we want it to be.”