FestForums Gathers Again To Talk Challenges, Joys…And Puppies

For three days in February, the historic Mar Monte Hotel in Santa Barbara is the nexus of all things festival.

Now in its ninth year, FestForums, founded by Laurie Kirby, takes a capacious — or agnostic — view of festivaldom. Promoters and founders of music festivals — large, small, corporate, non-profit, traveling, sessile — rub shoulders, gladhand and swap tips with representatives from all the other types of festivals: food, film, arts.

Basically any mass gathering of people seeking enjoyment, fulfillment and elucidation.

Which makes FestForums itself a festival in its way. And like all the best festivals, it offers more beyond the basics of the B2B gathering. There are the expected panels about leadership and promotion and production. Discussions tackled age-old problems like financing and ticketing and more recent stalwart topics like sustainability and creating — and utilizing — social media buzz. And two very 2026 panels focused on two very 2026 innovations: AI and drone shows.

But there’s also…PuppiesPalooza, which gives attendees the chance to frolic in the Central Coast sunshine with a cavalcade of cuddly canines.

Kirby has always managed to book outside-the-festival-box speakers and the keynoter on Night One — kept a secret until the festival opened — couldn’t possibly be farther away from the concerns and triumphs of the festival world. It was former Trumpworld figure — and key to the president’s first impeachment related to pressuring Ukraine to find evidence of misdeeds by Joe Biden — turned Trump critic (and now congressional candidate) Lev Parnas, speaking via video link from his Florida home.

But, of course, there were festival folks too. Warped Tour impresario Kevin Lyman declaimed on 30 years of his now-legendary (now-revived) pop-punk road show, which was also the winner of Festival of the Year. Other awards honorees included Skunk Baxter as Living Legend and Fred Brander — the pioneer of Santa Barbara County’s wine industry — with Legacy of Excellence.

Lyman was also part of the event’s opening panel, a wide-ranging discussion of the state of the industry that set the table for the event’s three days. The discussion, which included Kirby, Hawai’i Food & Wine Festival’s Denise Yamaguchi, Dirtybird Records’ Deron Delgado, Slamdance Film Festival’s Peter Baxter and Ryan Kruger of Oilers Entertainment Group, was predictably comprehensive., but the first takeaway was the post-COVID’s pent-up demand is starting to plateau and while festivals were among the earliest success stories post-pandemic — everyone wanted to get back together, after all — now it takes some work.

“Coming out of the pandemic, anybody could host a festival,” Lyman says. “Now you have to find your audience and build your brand.”

Some of that audience-finding and brand-building comes with integration — or an expansion of what your festival may be — with Kirby herself noting that B2B is being integrated into the festival space (blurring the line further) and more festivals adopting “hybrid” models with lectures and art shows, for example, setting up to the side of the main stage at midsize music fests.

But of course, that success comes with costs. In a literal sense. Insurance rates are up and promoters are being advised to take on more insurance products. Kruger said even as recently as a decade ago, he would eschew cancelation insurance due to the cost, but now — after having festivals interrupted by everything from forest fires to avalanches — that’s not a luxury. Lyman said he was advised to take out a civil unrest policy for Warped’s DC stop last year as it was simultaneous with Trump’s U.S. Army birthday military parade (Lyman quipped Warped had been more worried about bad weather, but while the parade was famously soggy, the sun shone at Warped).

Delgado said artist fees have been climbing too, with even lower-line acts up 20% and some — below the headline level — up 80%.