‘The Crazy World of Posty Fest’ 45K Tickets, $3.6 Million (and 20 Sponsors)

Mark Nguyen – Posty Fest
Post Malone onstage inside AT&T Stadium

Post Malone shows no sign of slowing down, with another 27-date North American tour leg just announced this week, a Grammy nomination for record of the year for the infectious “Sunflower” track with Swae Lee featured in the Hollywood blockbuster “Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse,” as well as leading the American Music Awards nominations with seven.

Meanwhile, his own curated festival, Posty Fest, continues to grow. Its second year saw an upgrade from the Dos Equis Pavilion amphitheatre to the Dallas Cowboys home turf at AT&T Stadium, otherwise known as the multibillion-dollar “Jerry World.”

“He was so happy. I‘ve never seen him so happy about something we’ve put together,” says manager Dre London, who’s been with Post Malone from the beginning. “We made it authentic. At Posty Fest, you’re coming into the world and mind of crazy Posty. If you’ve seen the movie ‘Wayne’s World,’ We made Posty Fest ‘Posty’s World.’”

The Nov. 2 event, produced by Live Nation with close involvement from Post Malone and UTA, sold out its full allotment of 45,000 tickets and grossed $3.6 million, according to UTA’s Cheryl Paglierani, who just last week was nominated for Pollstar’s Bobby Brooks Award for Agent of the Year.

“It was an incredible homecoming for Post,” Paglierani says. “A really special piece was that his dad had actually worked at the stadium for about 14 years, so a lot of the people working the event had known Post since he was a child. It was an incredible experience to see it come full circle and for him to play a headline show there.” The show, with two outdoor stages as well as a seated setup inside the stadium, also featured Meek Mill, Pharrell Williams, Rae Sremmurd, Jaden Smith, Dominic Fike, Tyla Yaweh and others.

R Clark – Posty Fest
The outdoor stage during Posty Fest, which brought 45,000 fans to the Dallas Cowboys’ home turf Nov. 2.

With UTA as well as Post Malone’s tour promoter involved, the team was able to route Posty Fest directly into his tour plans, and it worked out beautifully despite him playing other Texas shows immediately around the festival. Last year’s onsale, which saw the whole thing blow out in one day, was another indicator of the strong demand.

The world of Posty Fest, personified by the “little yellow devil baby” mascot known as “Dimitri,” led to many onsite co-brand products and activations. UTA head of music brand partnerships Toni Wallace was the point person with 20 different partners, including some of his existing brand sponsors like Dickies, Crocs, Igloo and Bud Light as well as newcomers seeing the consumer-facing artist-curated event as a prime platform.

Adam Degross – Posty Fest
UTA’s Cheryl Paglierani and Dimitri, the “little yellow devil baby” that personifies Posty Fest – and leads to merchandise and branding ops.

“He doesn’t do anything that’s not authentic and organic to him,” says Wallace, who started UTA’s brand partnerships department in 2017. “Everything he does he’s truly a fan of, and that’s really important.” With Post Malone’s likable laid-back persona and quirky tastes, this can lead to fun and maybe unexpected collaborations and activations.

“Caterpillar gave us three tractors onsite for Instagrammable moments. He loves Caterpillar,” Wallace says. “Same for Nerf. He loves Nerf, and they came on board and had a Nerf arena which was really great. The line was around the block, three or four activations worth all day.” Along with the lines to enter the activations and experiences, limited-

edition merch was going quickly and in a way Wallace says she hasn’t seen before, such as with the Arnette co-branded sunglasses, which were limited to 150.

“Fans were saying ‘I want No. 33 out of 150.’ They wanted their number,” Wallace says. “I’ve been doing this for 15 years and have never seen this kind of viral word of mouth.”

A lot of experiences and activations weren’t co-branded, either, but still part of the Posty Fest ethos – such as how the “Rock Star” singer smashes a guitar on stage every night. Fans were able to do this, as well as even take a sledgehammer to a car. “You have to wear a suit, goggles and a hat – safety first – but where else can you smash a car? People love it,” Wallace says.

While Posty Fest No. 3 is a certainty, and sure to be bigger and better, details are not quite set in stone yet. “I think it can get very big,” says London, describing himself as a dreamer and always happy to prove any doubters wrong. “I have a few ideas in mind. We’re going to do something crazy. I’m not going to say it. Someone will take my idea.”