In a recent interview with The New York Times, AEG/Goldenvoice’s Paul Tollett, promoter of Panorama and the main impetus behind the upcoming Desert Trip event in October at Empire Polo Field (the site of Coachella), discussed the actual gross sales of the massive two-weekend event. While Tollett mainly discussed this weekend’s Panorama Festival at NYC’s Randall’s Island with the likes of LCD Soundsystem, Arcade Fire, Kendrick Lamar, and more, the conversation did take a turn towards what many are calling “Oldchella,” which features headline sets from The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Paul McCartney, The Who, and Roger Waters.
The most mind-blowing part of the interview came when Tollett discussed the current gross sales that the one-of-a-kind event has taken in thus far: “the gross (for Desert Trip) is approximately $160 million for the two weekends….it is the highest-grossing show by far. It beat No. 2, which is Coachella, by far.” While this number doesn’t take into account all of the various expenses, that number is already astronomical and still has nearly three months to grow.
While discussing Panorama, which Tollett remains unconcerned with whether or not the festival will sell out, he explains the decision to allow the concept to grow in New York rather than go heavy on the marketing right now. “It’s a big city. In the Los Angeles area, you probably have 250,000 or 300,000 people going to music festivals, between Coachella, FYF and others. I’m talking about the non-electronic ones. In Chicago, you’ve got 100,000. You get to New York, there are maybe 40,000. That’s the biggest city in America,” he explained.
Tollett continues, “Some people might think that New York doesn’t need festivals. But London is just as cool as New York, and probably a million people go to festivals there, if you count Glastonbury, Reading, Wireless, Hyde Park. It’s big numbers.”
It certainly sounds like big numbers to us. You can read more from the interview with The New York Times here.
[Hat tip – JamBase]