The Daily Swarm

The second in The Daily Swarm’s new series of Q&As with the curators of the world’s best music festivals.

Ashley Capps is head of Knoxville,TN-based AC Entertainment, an independent concert and events company that owns multiple venues. He created Knoxville’s exciting new Big Ears Festival and is the co-creator of the Bonnaroo Music & Art Festival, according to Billboard Magazine, the top-grossing music festival in the world. Ashley curates Bonnaroo alongside Jonathan Mayers of Superfly Productions. 2009 marks his 30th year booking bands. Arye Dworken sat down with him for the Daily Swarm.

Arye Dworken: What was your first job that launched you into your career-trajectory?
Ashley Capps: It’s funny. I never worked for anyone else in the music business. I just started doing what I did, and it’s really hard to tell when it all became official. I was a fan, an amateur musician, I studied music myself, I was a D.J. at a local radio station. I had this program that I would play all the music that I liked for a few hours. And since I was doing the radio thing, I started booking some shows when bands came into town. It all really took off from that.

What did your tastes initially lean towards?
I always had a pretty broad taste. I developed an early appreciation for rock and roll but then I developed an appreciation for jazz. I was a saxophone player myself. And so I started presenting some avant garde artists and some out-there jazz musicians. Those bands never really fell into a narrow niche.

How does someone who was so interested in niche music want to start a pretty mainstream music festival?
Well, I liked the Beatles and the Rolling Stones, too. And I’d like to think that we’ve done our best in presenting an eclectic selection of bands. I’m personally inclined to see a mainstream show at an arena and then head downtown to John Zorn’s space to see something there.

Tell me about how the first Bonnaroo experience came to be.
Phish, Dave Matthews, and Widespread Panic—I worked with a lot of the artists very early in their careers and I’ve watched their fan base continue to grow. Phish started to do their own festival and that gave me the indication that their fans were looking for a festival experience. I’m not old enough to remember Woodstock but that was something that appealed to me, the notion of getting a big crowd together to hear all kinds of stuff.

Bonnaroo has a tendency to host jam-centric bands. Why is that?
That seemed like a good starting point, a good launch—they had their audience. The term itself is pretty meaningless though—they draw on a wide range of inspirations for their music. You can take that jam band concept and explore so many worlds that have synergy with that world, whether its world music, jazz music, rhythm and blues…jam bands take from all of that.

Now your roster is getting broader with alternative bands. Are you worried about diluting your showcase? What kind of person are you looking to attract and has there been a change in the personality of your ticket buyers?
The festival draws music fans. I don’t think that that has changed over the years. They’re interested in discovering new bands, and we try to present them in keeping up with the trends in the music business. We’re really trying to stay true to the core values of the festival while keeping things new and exciting. Most of the people who come to Bonnaroo are active music listeners and they’ll have pretty broad tastes themselves. You check out any of their iPods and you’re likely to find music as varied as Miles Davis, Willie Nelson, Radiohead, Phish.

How do you figure out who’s appropriate and who’s not for the festival?
It’s a dialogue between all the partners. It’s a very un-scientific process. It’s very much a gut feeling. This is what feels right this year, and it may not feel right the following year. We wouldn’t have the same roster in 2009 as we had in 2002. That wouldn’t be right.

Who are you personally excited?
Oh, I don’t like singling people out but with that caveat, if I have to then Bruce Springsteen. I think it will be awesome to have him in that environment and in that space. And Phish for sure because I feel like it’s all coming back full-circle. Also, the Other tent celebrating African music for sure featuring Fela Kuti, Bela Fleck playing with Toumani Diabate, Amadou and Miriam, and many others. It’s the first time we’ve really, truly branched out. The bluegrass tent, as well will be great. And David Byrne is curatting an afternoon in one of the tents with St. Vincent, Dirty Projectors, and Santigold. But that’s just scratching the surface—the Decemberists, Andrew Bird…

Bonnaroo sounds like an overwhelming process. What’s the first stage and where do you start?
It starts with ideas. We’re already discussing next year’s festival. The conversation with Radiohead started three years before the festival. Same thing with Bruce Springsteen. There’s a real back-and-forth, the planning along is complex and involves so many factors.

Who would be a dream act for you?
Oh, I’m not telling. I’m still working on those. We’ve got a lot of those and it’s best to keep it a secret for now.

How many people do you employ at this point for the festival?
During the festival, during the peak, thousands. During the planning stages, there are about forty or fifty people that work on it year round. It’s not like they’re 100% working on the festival at all times, and they may be involved in other events during the same time.

How is the economy is affecting the festival this year?
We’re feeling lucky because our festival sales feel pretty strong. I do think that in a normal economy tickets would be gone but they’re not quite yet.

Has anything really gone wrong over the years?
There have been some unfortunate situations in which a couple of people have over-dosed and that was very sad and very difficult for us to deal with. But aside from people not looking out for themselves, the festival has been rather incident-free. I think that there’s a real special spirit thoughout the festival that is not unlike a community. You know, everyone is living together and connecting over music.

Have you ever said to yourself ‘this is probably the last year that I can do this?’
I am actually the most senior member of the partnership so it has crossed my mind, but I love doing this. I’m not ready for that yet. There’s something really wonderful about the team that comes together. I’m not ready to give up that up yet.

What is the one thing about Bonnaroo that keeps it growing every year in an age when most festivals are failing?
I think it is that everyone’s primary motivation is how do we create the best festival that we can imagine. It all starts with our commitment to…

But I’m assuming that all festival organizers want to make a great event…
Yeah, I don’t know how to speak to that. We put together a really strong business plan from the very beginning. And we’ve been working with people from the very beginning that have the most experience and we’ve tried to put the best team together that we could.

You bought the land on which Bonnaroo is hosted on?
Yeah, we bought it two-and-a-half years ago. We were committed to the location and we wanted to create an ultimate festival experience and impact the actual infrastructure of the sight.

What does Bonnaroo need to improve on?
A lot of things. We can’t do everything we want to do thus yet but I think owning the land will make it easier for us to make real improvements.

What’s been some of the highlights of the festival throughout the years?
There have been so many. Oh, gosh. It’s a special weekend in all of our lives. I know it sounds corny but it’s true. It’s impossible for me to list a couple of special moments. I’m hoping that you can come down this year. You won’t regret it.