Ashley Capps and the Bonnaroo Festival

In a time when business empires Live Nation and AEG seem to have a monopoly on the touring industry, it appears the space left for the independent concert promoter has become increasingly small. While both Live Nation and AEG are more than capable of providing astounding musical experiences for fans and artists alike, they offer little diversity. Because they are mainly working with artists capable of selling out arenas, amphitheaters, and stadiums, the opportunity for midlevel artists with talent and heart to rise to stardom is dwindling, and as a result, the general public’s exposure to new art is following in step. It is a business like any other these days, experiencing massive mergers such as Live Nation’s 2006 acquisition of the then third largest entertainment company in the country, House of Blues Entertainment. But as a result of this lowest common denominator mentality, a drive for creating historical significance by providing musical experiences capable of transcending social trends has taken to the back burner, leaving young musical entrepreneurs such as myself with a taste of “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” syndrome. It is refreshing, then, to hear the success story of an independent promoter who, with an honest approach, creative perspective, and impressive work ethic, has brought to life a vision which has already gone down in Rolling Stone as “One of the 50 Moments that Changed the History of Rock and Roll.”
A man who claims he “didn’t mean to go into the music business,” Ashley Capps of AC Entertainment has, among other endeavors, built from the ground up, a festival that the NY Times referred to in 2004 as already having “revolutionized the modern rock festival,” and Rolling Stone called “the American rock festival to end all festivals.” Bonnaroo, since its inception in 2002, has featured artists from Neil Young and Crazyhorse, to James Brown, to the Roots, to Ralph Stanley, and literally everywhere in between. In its first year, it sold out on the Internet alone to a capacity of 70,000, with no paid advertising, and has since grown to epic proportions. For four days a year, Bonnaroo becomes a cultural Mecca, a creative arena where fans come out for a few of their favorite artists and are blindsided by performances of artists who will soon become their favorites. Bonnaroo is famous for providing an opportunity for massive exposure, and has acted as a launch pad to stardom for such acts as Norah Jones and Robert Randolph and the Family Band. Aside from eleven music stages including a New York style jazz tent, Bonnaroo provides a wide array of cultural experiences including artist workshops, yoga classes, a comedy tent featuring A list comedians, a micro brew festival, music sharing technology, and a cinema tent. Year after year, tens of thousands of fans bear four days of heat and dirt, just to be a part of the magic of Bonnaroo, and this year I was fortunate enough to sit down with the man responsible for it all.
Ashley Capps got his start as a promoter in 1979 while he was still a student at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. After graduating with a degree in Philosophy and Religious studies, Capps began to promote jazz and blues shows in Knoxville’s prominent theatres, while simultaneously working as a radio host and producer at the regional NPR affiliate. “I sort of started it as a hobby,” Capps says. “I got into the music business because I loved music, and I enjoyed playing music. Although I wasn’t a great musician myself, from a very early age I loved sharing music with people. In many ways I didn’t even mean to go into the music business. I was pursuing other academic pursuits and then it just got into my blood and I couldn’t let go.”
Capps’ work as a promoter of jazz and blues contributed widely to the cultural upbringing of Knoxville, a city that had not previously been known for its booming music scene. It was a unique and admirable position Capps put himself in. While most entrepreneurs in the music industry were moving to New York or Los Angeles, trying to break into an already hypercompetitive scene, Capps saw the opportunity to create demand in a place where there was none, and to bring a musical awareness to the people of Knoxville. “As a businessman, one of the advantages of being in Knoxville was just that it was an under surfed market. There weren’t a lot of opportunities there for the big concert promoters. Unless they were bringing in someone like Aerosmith, no one really cared. It wasn’t worth their time, but for someone getting started, like me, there was huge opportunity. Many people were like, ‘Why would you fool around doing this?’ but it seemed obvious to me.”
In 1987, after nearly a decade of promoting, Capps took a huge risk when he started a club with business partner Peter Calandruccio called Ella Guru’s, in what is now the Old City district of Knoxville. The intimate club seated a maximum of 250 people, but the sound and setting of Ella’s have been described as phenomenal by those who witnessed artists such as John Lee Hooker, Townes Van Zandt, John Hiatt, Taj Majal and Bela Fleck grace the stage. Capps had established himself as a man of great musical taste who brought those “you had to be there” experiences to life. “I have a natural affinity, in spite of Bonnaroo, for smaller shows,” Capps said. “I really like intimate theatre settings. I have a real appreciation for that kind of environment, so it’s always been worth it to me to explore some of these areas that other people felt weren’t worth it financially. I think artists are really discovering that there is a tremendous amount of power in those special performances.” This affinity for intimate settings continued to show through last month when Capps put on a nine-show residency with The Smashing Pumpkins at a 1,000 capacity club in Asheville, North Carolina. “Just being able to see that band for a two week run in one place in a city like Asheville is special, no matter how you cut it, and it really creates an excitement about somebody’s work that can’t be beat.”
Despite the success of over 600 shows at Ella’s, the roller coaster-like nature of the business forced the club’s owners to close it down in 1990 and file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This would become a major turning point in Capps’ career, as he has put so much into Ella Guru’s. The decision to get out of the club business and to work solely on booking and promotion led to his 1991 creation, AC Entertainment, named for Capps’ initials. Along with business partner Troy Sellers, Capps ran the first office out of his own house. Capps mainly handled booking, while Sellers dealt more with production. Never having worked for anyone else in the business, both partners figured out the nuts and bolts of promotion as they went along. “I think learning the business and having somebody who can really help guide you, can provide a lot of short cuts that you may not otherwise have,” Capps said. “One of the downsides of too much training, and being in too much of a rigid framework, is that it can inhibit creativity. When you’re in a system, people want you to adhere to the system and creativity by its nature is often about breaking out of that system and creating a new one.”
It was this mentality that led AC Entertainment to become one of the most successful independent promotions companies in operation today. AC has promoted shows throughout the southeastern United States since its inception, working with bands from Dave Matthews to Bob Dylan. Outdoor events have been a mainstay in AC’s range of productions, starting with the Hot Summer Nights Concert Series, which brought nearly 5,000 people to Knoxville’s World’s Fair Park until 2001 when the park closed for renovations. In 2000, AC Entertainment produced its first three day festival, Mountain Oasis, in North Carolina, the forerunner of later festivals to come. Mountain Oasis sold out its capacity the first year, and were forced to turn people away. Two years later, AC Entertainment joined forces with Superfly Productions to create what would become the now legendary Bonnaroo.
Capps attributes much of the success of Bonnaroo to a tendency toward long-term thinking amongst him and his partners. “We set out from the very beginning with most of our conversations basically within a framework of how to create the best possible festival experience for people,” Capps says. “We certainly wanted to make money; we wanted to be successful, but we wanted people to go ‘Wow,’ and that continues to be one of our primary motivating principals if not the only one. So we spent a lot of money on things that other festivals don’t bother with, because we wanted to surprise people and intrigue them and make them laugh and help them to have a good time. That is an example of a long-term vision, whereas there were always notorious festivals that were charging ten dollars for a bottle of water five years ago, where people felt mistreated and abused. It’s hard to build a good relationship with fans if you’re making them feel like you don’t respect them.”
Bonnaroo is certainly an experience that makes people go “Wow”, and after six years of astounding success, AC Entertainment could potentially rest on the notion that they’d found the key formula and had no reason to build upon it. However, rest they do not. Bonnaroo continues to be refined and refurbished year after year. “We are always brainstorming.” Capps says he is already in discussions with a potential headliner for 2009.
In its first years, Bonnaroo mainly featured acts which fit into the niche jam-band market, but has expanded to encompass all musical genres, from hip hop to indie, and rock, to jazz and bluegrass. Capps attributes this evolution to the fan loyalty within the jam-band market. He says it had to start there due to the willingness of jam fans to camp, travel, and spend four days bearing the elements. “People talk a lot about the magic of Bonnaroo,” Capps says, “and in spite of the cause, it’s such a challenging environment in some ways, you know, coming out here and living for three of four days as a fan. As much fun as it is, there are hurdles to doing that, that I think cause a certain bond which makes Bonnaroo so special.” After its initial success, exposure to other music markets left fans outside the jam-band realm wishing to be part of this magic, and Capps was allowed a certain amount of creative freedom to bring in the eclectic artists Bonnaroo features today. It has truly come full circle back to Capps’ initial drive to share powerful music, which he has such an ear for, with people who otherwise would not be exposed to it. Apart from growing musically, Bonnaroo has become a notable Mecca for artists of all kinds. Upon entering “Centeroo,” Bonnaroo’s 100-acre stage area, audiences are struck by towering sculptures, films, vendors of homemade jewelry and clothing, etc., all bringing a sense of cultural awareness to the community. Capps noted this is an ongoing endeavor in the development of the festival.
Upon speaking with Capps, I sensed a certain amount of ongoing social responsibility in his work. He cited safety as far and way his number one concern in putting on a festival of this proportion. It may be this honest approach, coupled with years of hard work, that has carried him thus far. “There were definitely people,” he says, “who whether they sensed my intentions or whatever, were willing to give me a chance.” Capps took that chance and ran with it. He has brought to the southeastern United States a cultural boom which Live Nation and AEG would not be capable of bringing, and in doing so has proven the survival of the independent promoter to not only be possible, but also essential to the continued progression of the touring industry.