Edgefield in Portland, Ore.
What goes better with a Riesling — Sarah Barielles or B.B. King?
“Are we talking indoors or outdoors? What kind of food is being served? And how seriously are we taking ourselves?” asked Rich Sherman, president and CEO at Omega Events. Sherman’s Lake Forest, Calif., talent buying and promotions firm owns or operates eight wine-themed music festivals, including the Rodney Strong Vineyards Summer Concert Series, held at the Napa Valley winery in Healdsburg, Calif., since 1990.
“Everyone is trying to figure out which bands can play winery shows. It used to just be legacy bands. The safety pick is always the acts with the biggest catalogs,” he said. “I tell people ‘Let’s not limit ourselves. There’s a lot that will work here,’” noting that he often books lesser known, experimental jazz acts, including a date with Rick Braun, Kirk Whalum and Norman Brown. On the indie rock front, festivals like BottleRock in Napa, Calif., show that contemporary music like indie staples Kings of Leon, hip hop wunderkind Macklemore and pysch rockers The Flaming Lips will sell tickets in Wine Country.
“Folks will travel from the Bay Area and Oregon to see these acts, but not because they can’t see them in their own town,” he said. “They come because wine is cool again. In the last two decades, it’s gone from being foreign and out or reach to being extremely accessible and culturally relevant. And to people young and old, it’s cool.”
The Wine and Music Economy
When it comes to forecasting his upcoming concert season at the Edgefield winery in Troutdale, Ore., Jimi Biron says he doesn’t focus on ticket reports or wine sales stats. He looks at two indicators — airline ticket sales and consumer spending in the Portland, Ore., market.
“About half our ticket buyers are local, and so we watch the economy and sales at our restaurants and venues,” said the executive, whose title at the Portland restaurant and venue company is Minister of Fun. “But we also realize that about half our visitors are coming from 100 miles away or more to catch one of our 12 concerts each summer.”
It’s become a vacation destination that’s about more than the band — “it’s a great weekend for couples, or families. You come out to our farm, you stay in our historic hotel. You can taste wine, eat in gourmet restaurants — the live music is one part of the experience,” he said.
While small wine regions use music as an additional incentive to attract new customers, areas like Napa Valley are looking to live entertainment as a way to reinvent their image.
“I think there’s this perception that people only visit Napa to do wine-tasting tours or a romantic getaway, but now people want more out of their vacations. They want to go to concerts and special events. Wine isn’t enough. They want to be entertained by world-class artists,” said Joe Anderson, CEO of the Napa Valley Expo, the region’s largest nonwinery-affiliated event space and home to the annual Napa Town and Country Fair.
In response, wineries are taking a cue from vintners with longstanding concert series, like Robert Mondavi’s Napa winery, or the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, about two hours south in Silicon Valley.
“I get tons of calls from wineries asking how they can replicate the concert series we do at Mondavi and the first thing I ask them is, ‘What type of venue do you have?’” said Claire Parr, co-owner of Live in the Vineyard, which books and promotes the Mondavi series. “I cringe if they tell me they have a large field in front of their tasting room and think they’ll get the Eagles to play. There’s a lot of money and demand in Napa for music during the summer months, but the infrastructure to support large shows just isn’t there.”
Many of the wineries don’t have an understanding of the costs involved with building out a stage, staffing, ticketing, concessions and all of the logistics required for any event with over 100-200 people. But their naiveté is to the benefit of Parr and her partner, Bobbii Hach-Jacobs, whose Live in the Vineyard series is the largest event of its kind in Napa.
Now in its 19th season, Live in the Venue has become a popular stop for artists traveling through Northern California on tour, or looking to pick up a one-off date and enjoy a wine weekend on the side. Past performers include Jason Mraz, Lenny Kravitz, Zac Brown Band and Melissa Ethridge. Parr’s sell to booking agents is that hers is a high-concept, laid-back experience, with free wine served to the audience at intermission and an encouragement for artists to participate in live commentary and Q&A before or after their performance.
“And playing outdoors at a vineyard during the summertime is something you can only experience at a handful of wineries in North America,” she said. “Mondavi is a great brand and that gets artists interested in working with us.” The region’s unique food culture and access to North America’s largest collections of private reserve wine speaks to the foodie in every band.
About 75 miles south of Mondavi is the small Silicon Valley city of Saratoga, home to California’s other large winery venue, the Mountain Winery. Managed by Global Spectrum, the Mountain Winery’s history traces back 121 years, surviving prohibition and the 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
Director of Marketing Katelyn Studebaker said the 2,500-capacity concert venue is midway through one of its strongest seasons in recent history, with shows still to come from The Monkees on Aug. 14, Chris Isaak on Aug. 18 and Joan Jett on Sept. 7. Its two highest priced shows left are George Lopez’s “It’s Not Me, It’s You Tour” with top-tiered tickets priced at $105.50 and an Aug. 28 date with Peter Frampton and B.B. King, peaking at $149.50 per ticket.
With concerts going strong, ancillary projects like corporate rentals, movie screenings and weddings have become an important growth channel for Mountain Winery. The venue has also had success with its Movie on the Mountain series, screening flicks “The Breakfast Club,” “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” and “Something About Mary” in its seating bowl.
“It’s been great for corporate groups that want to include an entertainment element at a low price,” said Studebaker, noting the venue also started a Havana Night dinner series, with Cuban food, dancing and a live band.
“We’re also focused on our wedding business and are trying to position ourselves as a same-sex-friendly wedding location,” she said. “When the Supreme Court overturned (The Defense of Marriage Act) earlier this year, we adjusted the way we marketed, listing ourselves as an LGBT-friendly vendor, and we plan to feature a same-sex wedding on our blog,” which feeds into a network of other wedding blogs that are read by thousands of brides-to-be.
BottleRock Gone Bad
This year’s inaugural BottleRock Festival was supposed to help turn Napa Valley into a music destination and build on the area’s growing concert music scene. The May 9-12 music marathon got mixed reviews, with fans praising its powerful booking slate with artists that included Kings of Leon, The Black Keys, Zac Brown Band, Jackson Browne, Jane’s Addiction and the Avett Brothers.
But there were complaints about the festival being disorganized with long lines for bathrooms and concessions at the Napa Valley Expo where the event was being held, and many of those remarks were dismissed as first year hiccups. But when vendors started to complain about not getting paid, organizers BR Festivals or WillPower Entertainment went public and told creditors they were in a $2-$2.5 million hole.
Lawsuits have been filed against BottleRock from vendors Landmark Event staffing services, Bauer’s Intelligent Transportation, United Site Services and Up & Under Pub and Grill, who allege that BottleRock owes approximately $190,000 for catering services.
A bailout in the form of a buy-in by concert promoter Live Nation is said to be in the works, explained Anderson. The Napa Valley Expo CEO said he met with the executives with the company on Aug. 2.
“They spent about an-hour-and-a-half here” for a “meet-and-greet to look at the facility and get the lay of the land.”
“They’re trying to do their due diligence,” Anderson said. “They’re taking a look at what is owed to creditors and if everything pencils out, they’ll move forward.”
A Live Nation official said they couldn’t comment on an ongoing negotiation.
Side Gigs and Consulting
Of course, not all festivals are flops and a number of Northern California wine professionals are finding new opportunities curating wine experiences at Bay Area festivals.
At the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, Sommelier Peter Eastlake has worked with promoters Another Planet Entertainment and A.C. Entertainment to develop Wine Lands.
With three dozen winemakers on the floor of a massive tent, decorated with grapevine-inspired chandeliers hanging from the ceiling and sipping vouchers sold for cash, Wine Lands was designed to feel like a high-end wine festival.
“A lot of people wouldn’t take the time to create an environment like this for only three days,” says Peter Eastlake, who was awarded the Food & Wine magazine Sommelier of the Year prize in 2013. “We’re giving people a great setting, great music, and great food. We also wanted to add an art project element, and we’ve succeeded. As soon as people walk into the tent, they pull out their phones to take pictures.”
Fifteen ticket stations keep the lines short for $1 wine tickets, which can be exchanged for $2 to $3 tastes or $8 to $20 full pours of California-grown wines. Most winemakers are on hand to talk about the wine with visitors, while an outdoor courtyard with picnic tables gives guests a comfortable place to sit and sip more than 120 wines. Winemakers in 2013 include Long Meadow Ranch Winery & Farmstead, serving organic Napa Valley kegged wine, and premium wine partner J. Lohr Vineyards & Wines. For the first time in 2013, Winelands will feature draft pours of Momokawa Saké, a premium organic saké brewed in Forest Grove, Ore.
“What’s really cool about a music festival is the discovery of new bands, and we want to reinforce that experience at Wine Lands,” Eastlake said. “I don’t know if there is anywhere else you can find fifty wines for eight dollars a glass.”
Interviewed for this story: Peter Eastlake, (510) 665-8600; Rich Sherman, (949) 362-3366; Joe Anderson, (707) 253-4900; Claire Parr, (707) 662-4329; Studebaker, (408) 741-2822; Jimi Biron, (503) 225-0047