Danny Wimmer Presents festivals drew 500,000 attendees last year.
Los Angeles-based Danny Wimmer Presents has announced a partnership with ticketing firm Front Gate Tickets, the festival production company’s first multiyear ticketing agreement.
Initially, the three-year contract included five North American festivals, but this was recently expanded to nine and is expected to grow. At press time, these include Louisville’s Louder Than Life; Chicago Open Air; Monster Energy Welcome To Rockville and The Big Ticket, both in Jacksonville, Fla.; Monster Energy Aftershock in Sacramento, Calif.; Monster Energy Carolina Rebellion in Concord, N.C.; Monster Energy Fort Rock in Ft. Myers, Fla.; Northern Invasion in Somerset, Wis.; and a new Houston festival currently in development.
The contract includes festivals involving AEG, such as Fort Rock, Carolina Rebellion and Northern Invasion, with the exception of events held at stadiums that have existing ticketing deals. The financial details of the deal have not been disclosed.
Danny Wimmer Presents festivals drew 500,000 attendees last year.
“We are looking to add more upsells with parking and merchandise, and Front Gate’s ticketing platform is built well to accomplish that,” said Danny Hayes, CEO of Danny Wimmer Presents. “The reporting tools are easy to use and customer service has been great for us and our customers.”
The goal of the partnership is to create ticketing consistency across Danny Wimmer’s U.S. festivals, while adding flexibility for multiple offerings and data tracking.
“We’re seeking a seamless user experience for us and our customers by making ticketing more uniform at our events,” said Hayes. “This platform also allows us to use information across all of our events, which can be difficult when utilizing different ticketing platforms.”
Established in 2003 and acquired by Ticketmaster last year, Los Angeles-based Front Gate Tickets clients include Electric Daisy Carnival, Coachella, Austin City Limits, Electric Forest, Lollapalooza, RBC Royal Bank Bluesfest and X Games.
Prior to the deal, Front Gate Tickets approached Danny Wimmer Presents, which then scoped out the ticketing company’s operations at Lollapalooza in Chicago.
“Our goal is to make deals with the best fests in the world, and Danny Wimmer was on the list,” said Maura Gibson, Front Gate Tickets’ president. “They have a niche in the rock and roll and festival markets.”
Under the agreement, Front Gate Tickets will run Danny Wimmer Presents’ festivals’ box office management, assisting with the software, staffing and overall ticketing operations.
“Two years ago, Front Gate was running down artist ticketing clients and then we made the strategic decision to put all of our development and technological efforts into the festival space and do what we do best,” said Gibson.
Front Gate Ticket’s system was designed to accommodate festivals’ high on sales volume and provide tracking details, such as real-time data on the number of people in the queue at one time.
The technology platform also includes RFID-powered access control, experiential marketing and cashless POS systems designed to streamline festival entry, sponsorship activations and concession sales.
Interviewed for this story: Maura Gibson, (310) 691-6913; Danny Hayes, (310) 307-3210