Welcome, Welcome, Welcome back to the Bob Left Search podcast. My guest today is Julio Santo Domingo of the Okeechobe Festival. Julio, how did you get involved in this festival?
Well, it's kind of a long winded answer, but the short of it was that I was organizing some underground electronic music parties in New York from two thousand and eight to two thousand and sixteen, roughly when I started the festival, but you know, towards the years, around twenty eleven twenty twelve, I started talking to someone who was working at Bonnaroo and we were discussing about bringing my party, he is called Shake and Bake spelled s h e I k n b e I k uh to Bonnaroo
and making it the underground electronic music tent because from what I knew back then, Bonnaroo had a lot of jam bands and a lot of d M, which what what you know, what I call ed M, and it's more the commercial side of EDM, which is, you know, you're a Vichy's and and and Steve a Jokis of this world. But they didn't have any underground electronic music that carried the the the the Detroit, New York Chicago
UH Berlin School of thought. Really, so we were talking about doing something with shake and Bake at Bonnaroo, and eventually Bonnaroo got sold to Live Nation, and uh, this person that I was talking to, they they they they left the company and they said, well, you know, you know this is not I called them up when they said so when are we doing this? Is it still on?
And he said, well, I left the company. But I'm I'm I'm I'm in Florida and somebody wanted to show me this incredible property in Oki Chobe, and I think you should come down and check it out and maybe we can do something there. And I said, well, you know, I'm coming to Art Basil to DJ in December of twenty fourteen, so why don't I stop by on my way to Miami and h and check it out. And so I on my way to Miami, I stopped by bonnar Oki Chobe and and and fell in love with
it immediately. And you know, I had been toying with the idea, uh of of creating a music festival because I wanted to get out of the underground warehouse world of New York City. And UH and do something more UH in the in the in the sunlight, in the daylight, UH for everybody, for for for wider audiences. And so I had been toying with this idea already for some years.
I had already been uh.
I I did a music festival with a friend of mine who bought a lot of land in Jerry Coquara in Brazil. His name is pass Pascal Salvati. And uh at the time, there was nothing in Jerry Cocuara. Jerry Coquara is the UH wind kitesurfing capital of the world. So it's a very very windy area in the north of Brazil. It takes forever to get there. You need to fly all the way down to San Paolo to then fly back up north of the country because nothing
connects there. I think now it's more accessible, but at the time it was it was really you know, insane to go there.
And and so.
We we did this end of the World party in twenty twelve, where we obviously was you know, nothing to the scale of Oki Chobee. But we just sent out a newsletter and you know, had a bunch of speakers and some turntables and in staid whoever wants to come join us. I think twenty people showed up and we had our own little party at the end of the world in Jerry Kokuara. And so I had from these days, I'd been toying, you know, with the idea of doing
my own music festival. And eventually, when I came to Oki Chobee in December of twenty fourteen, I said, well, this is the spot. Let's let's see what it takes to put it together. And and and that was the beginning of the journey.
You know.
The company got formed in May twenty fifteen, Soundslinger, and then the festival was in March twenty sixteen. So it all happened very quickly.
Okay, the festival has not happened every year. In addition, there have been certain partners that came and went, let's talk about the first year twenty sixteen, how many people actually showed up and did you make money or lose money?
So in twenty sixteen we had twenty seven thousand people showing up. We lost a ton of money. The problem was, you know, we I mean, we were very inexperienced when it comes to running music festivals. But the safety and organization was spot on because we had some great people involved. But at the same time, you know, we priced the ticket extremely low, which was very attractive to a lot of a lot of a festival go but unfortunately, you know, our costs.
Were way above.
What the tickets cost and we needed to reinvest a bunch of money in December of twenty fifteen to make it happen, or the festival was not going to happen. So you know, we almost basically called it quits right there, and then before the first year started.
Whose money is it?
So it's a lot of.
Different investors you know that we reached out to and several people that came through and have been supporting me over the years.
Okay, you're gonna put on the first festival. How much money do you think you.
Need for the first festival? I mean, listen, we raised, as you know, single digit seven figure number, you know, and we needed a little bit more than that, I think. So it's a lot.
Okay, Well, you book Mumford and sons, who were very hot. Then you book Kendrick Lamar who did the booking, and usually for festivals, people want more than their usual rate.
Yeah, so so so Momford and Sons.
Were are are are are our highest uh uh are our most costly, our costliest bookings of the first year. And Kendrick Lamar actually was at a very good price. You know, I'm not going to go into details, but he was booked just before he was nominated for his Grammys, so he still wasn't, uh, you know, on the level that that he became, but he was already pretty cool and pretty famous. And you know, the bookings were were
made by by Ben who's who's the booker now? But I had suggested, you know, I booked basically Aquach and Jungle fifty one back then, and I had suggested I think one or two artists for the main stage. Was one of them was Kendrick Lamar and the other one was Robert Plant essentially, and so this.
Was everything else was Ben And.
Well, usually when you're an unknown quantity and you go to buy talent, they require the money up front and usually more money. Right you know, they're anxious about players they've never dealt with before. Right.
Well, the thing is that Ben was already known in the industry for booking a lot of jam bands at several different locations and managing also some of the bands that were playing for us. I had been doing events for ten years with all the underground artists, so that was not a problem. And then of course everybody else. You know. One of my partners was Steve Sebisma, who came from Sunshine Productions or was it Sunshine Promotions or Productions.
He was one of the biggest concert promoter in the Midwest. He was also I think one of the first businesses that sold to Live Nation, which at the time was called SFX. So he came from China where he was doing he had retired, you know, sold his business and came from from China and was doing a music festival there in some parking lot, Okay. So we weren't completely novces and unknown in the industry, you know, with all the different players involved.
Thanks for filling that in Okay, you did the first festival. You lost money, but forgetting the money, what did you learn the first here doing it?
Well?
I learned that it's it's not for the faint of heart, and a lot of things can go wrong, and you need to be extremely organized to succeed in this world. And not only be organized, but you need to have luck and to have a viable product and make sure that people can afford to come to your festival.
Okay, a little bit more granular. Tell me some of the things, some of the emergencies, some of the things you did not foresee the first year.
Well, I think operationally there weren't many emergencies, so to say it was it was more purely financial and needing you know, band aids to pay for things, to make sure that vendors got paid and an artist got paid and everybody got paid so we could keep the lights on. That was really always the main thing, because I think from an operational point of view, we've always been quite on top of it.
Okay, you sold twenty seven thousand tickets. How many did you need to sell the break even.
That first year? Probably around forty thousand.
The twenty seven thousand people who did come, how did they find out about it?
Well?
I think that at the time, your options in Florida were, you know, for something that is multi genre on a massive scale in a beautiful property. I mean the closest thing was Suwani, but that's not you know, so big like Okichobe, and it's more one type of music. So your other option was Ultra, which is in Miami and Bonnarou which is in Tennessee. So I think, you know, we were at a right time, at the right place where there was a need for what we were offering.
And that's how I think most you know, success stories, quote unquote happen is just a matter of having luck on your side and doing things at the right moment.
How did you literally market it, especially in this era of the internet. Did you take ads? What'd you do?
So we essentially the first video that we ever released where we didn't have any thing to show for, We didn't have any crowds, we didn't have anything beyond our lineup poster we actually.
Created.
One of my partners is one of my best friends, this guy Nicos, who was a filmmaker.
He's a filmmaker and he was involved in a lot of the.
Artistic creation of the festival, you know, with the be here Now stages, the naming of the stages, and and and creating all of our of our videos.
Back then, he had.
Uh created a point of view video where he was waking up in the middle of the jungle with a GoPro attached to his forehead and walking through the land and discovering the land.
And I think when everybody.
Saw the land, they they it turned on the light with people and they saw how beautiful this place was. Because I think one of our strongest selling points for the festival is how beautiful the land is. We keep on hearing it from everyone from from the cruise working here, to artists to our festival attendees. You know, they they all love the land and it's beautiful and magical and and always uh you know, reminds them of of of somewhere of an enchanted land like this, So you know,
that was a big part of it. The second part of it, I think having artists like Robert Plant and Kendrick Lamar and uh and and other you know, artists that are very big within their respective genres. Uh, you know, created a a a marketing buzz where Also back then, you know, the algorithm to share posts on Instagram and Facebook was way different, uh than what it is now. You know, you didn't have to spend as much with ads.
Everything was kind of more open and and and less people were doing what we're doing, so there was less competition.
And also.
Another aspect of of of of how we had a lot of people come to our festival was that we partnered with UH a friend of Nikos called Kevin Kochan who sadly passed away some years ago, but he was the head of the Symbiosis festival in California and also the organizer of the Eclipse festivals that took place at the Gorge and in Patagonia and UH and other places
around the world. So you know, they had a faithful following of of of many many festival goers who went to alternative festivals as well as UH UH you know Kevin's UH partner Tyler Hanson from a culture house, who was doing a lot of of our of our activities, you know, our our actors and and other performers, uh walking around the festival.
Okay, you have a first run. Is there any thought that we're going to pack up the ten or you always think you're going to do it again in twenty seventeen.
Well, that's a really good question. We were even though the losses were substantial, we had you know, we're also pleasantly surprised that we managed to sell twenty seven tickets twenty seven thousand tickets for a first year festival. So I think there was a proof of concept which was enticing to the investors, you know, to reinvest when they saw, you know, that we were able to bring that many people to this land, which is not close to anything to any urban centers. I mean, Palm Beach is the
closest thing. We're right in between Palm Beach, Orlando, Miami and Tampa, but still not in anyone's suburb essentially.
Okay, so you do it in twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, twenty eighteen. In those times, were you ever in the black? Did you ever make money? Or did you lose money? Each year?
We we lost money every single year, but we kept going. We kept getting put down and getting up again, and uh and and and doing whatever it takes through a lot of a lot of a lot of begging, a lot of of of of of of of convincing and uh and a lot of of of of benefactors who who saw the potential of this of this business, you know, to one day.
Okay, So the first year was twenty seven thousand, How many people came the next two years?
The next year was by far our biggest attendees, and and we had thirty two thousand people coming in twenty seventeen and then in twenty eighteen, I think it dipped down, dip dipped down again to roughly twenty six twenty five thousand. I don't have the numbers, and you know in my head so clearly, but it's you.
You're amazing with the numbers. So you don't need to apologize. You didn't have the festival in twenty nineteen. What was the thinking there?
The thinking there was that we took a beating the first three years, and you know, we we didn't have any more money, and we we didn't have any other options than the then partnering up with another another another, you know, big fish who came and so we basically sold you know, fifty one percent of our business and created a new a new company where where the new partners you know, owned fifty one percent and we owned forty nine percent basically.
Okay, and that partner was Insomniac, right, correct, So you make a deal with Insomniac, then you have a vestal in twenty twenty, just before you know, shut down. How did that work out?
Well, well, you know that was crazy because the rest of the world as we were building the festival. You know, I have family in Europe, I grew up in Europe, and and and my family was like, get out of you know, get out of there. Everything shutting down. And you know, in Europe they were going crazy. They were like shutting down cities and and and and and I was like, guys, relaxed. You know, we're here, not nothing shut down. I'm not going to go to Europe and
get stuck there. And I have this festival to put to put on. So eventually what happened was that, you know, clearly it had an effect on on on on people traveling from out of state. I think one of the bands dropped out of the pow Wow, which is our collaborative collaborative show between many different artists and groups of artists who come together for once in a lifetime performance.
So I forgot who it was that dropped out. Anyway, someone dropped out, and we you know, because of COVID and and so you know, still people came, but they came locally from Florida.
Well, how many people came in twenty twenty.
We had, I want to believe around twenty three or twenty four thousand, I'm not quite sure.
Still still quite a lot, you know.
Okay, what did Insomniac bring other than money.
I think they brought a lot of incredible, dedicated people who do this across fifty five shows per year.
So it's it's a much.
Wider address book than I had of people working in the industry. And of course you know, scaling and and lower prices for artists that goes without saying, you know, it's on their live nations. So a lot of a lot of of of of of muscle there to be able to to get lower prices from vendors, and uh and and and and and also quality people working in their in their company that that are incredible that I'm still friends with to this day. You know, it's like it's a family.
At the end of the day.
You're spending a lot of time with these people, you know, building this thing. So they brought a lot of a lot of experience, uh with them, you know, and and of course I always have, you know, a lot of respect for you know, anyone working in this industry because it's unforgiving and it's not you know, people tend to to to to want to you know, uh uh complain a lot online about you know, certain companies and certain people,
but at the end of the day. It's it's not easy putting on a music festival, and it's it's it's it's like building a city, and it's it's extremely challenging, extremely taxing, and and and long hours and making sure that every detail is taken care of so that people can have a good time. And uh and and and and enjoy themselves.
Okay, you and your team were in control once Insomniac got involved. In addition to the relationships in the act, in terms of production, did they take care of all that?
So they took care of of of most of of all the production, you know, the the nuts and bolts if you want. Of course, you know, I was in the room within a lot of the conversations, but I didn't have the control for sure, of of of of of where wherever they wanted to go with it. For instance, Uh, you know, they changed the logo of our first three years and uh and I was not involved in that process, and and and and and and was quite shocked to to to to see it because it was done without
with without my my opinion or anything. And so you know, uh, I had more. Uh. The thing that I controlled during our partnership was mostly the County relations and the bookings of Jungle fifty one, which was an extension of my New York City Parties series of events that I used to do in New York.
So you know that for me was when we made a deal.
I said, you know, you guys, do what you have to do, but you know I'm going to control Jungle fifty one.
Okay, COVID happened, you come back relatively early in twenty twenty two, what happened in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three.
So we obviously had to take twenty twenty one off because it takes us, you know, let's say a year to plan a festival. You know, you're working on it all all year round. You have to start the bookings earlier. So we when we stopped the festival in twenty twenty, I remember getting into my car and driving back up to New York and stopping by the cheese and meat shop to buy I think five hundred dollars worth of
cheese and meat to have something at home. I had no idea how how long we were going to stay stuck in this, and you know, nobody knew anything. So I got a bunch of you know, disinfecting wipes, that Walmart in Florida, which still had stuff compared to New York, which everyone had bought everything out of out of everywhere and arrived home and almost like a ghost town kind
of thing. And so from that point on, you know, everyone got laid off from every single business on the planet or put on furlough, and so we couldn't possibly produce twenty twenty one. So it took us a year to kind of collect ourselves and say, okay, well things are kind of you know, getting back to normal.
Here.
People were partying like there.
Was no tomorrow in Tulu, Mexico, and Florida was you know, as if nothing had happened. But you know, we could still not responsibly. The whole industry was decimated, on the live event industry with everyone being sent home, and you know, you often speak about this because I read your newsletter where there were you know, generational information from Rhodies and all that experience that was passed down throughout these years
that was just lost. And and the new people who came in, you know, had no more mentors, and and all the people who kind of took a break who were doing this day in day out and never were able to step out of the hamster wheel, so to say, you know, they they all kind of stopped and took a you know, a slower pace of life and realized that they didn't want to go back to this, to to this crazy lifestyle. And so it's it's it was impossible to put on twenty twenty one. But you know,
came March or April of twenty twenty one. We came back to the table with Insomniac and and and and decided to strike a long well the first year twenty twenty was kind of an experience show year, right, So then we you know, the negotiations stopped after this, and we came back to the table the whole year to figure out how to move forward and continue this for twenty twenty two. And we we we decided to essentially do a longer term agreement to do you know, a
series of events from twenty twenty two onwards. And so we did twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three together.
And how is attendance in twenty twenty two and twenty twenty three.
In twenty twenty two we had around twenty five thousand and in twenty twenty six. We sorry, twenty twenty three, we had around twenty six thousand from what I remember.
Okay, so until today in twenty four, twenty five, you're dark. In addition to being dark, you part ways with Insomniac. Tell me about all that?
Well, I, I, I don't really want to go into details, nor can I you know, legally do that, but essentially, you know, we just wanted to regain you know, I wanted to to to regain my creative control and uh and and and it brought me to to to to to where I am now where where sound Singer is again create controlling the event and uh and and and and and looking ahead of us too to produce this this music festival.
So why was there not at an event in twenty twenty four?
There was no event in twenty twenty four because after we separated, I needed to raise funds again, uh and build up a team of of of people since I don't didn't have a team anymore. So all of that took a tremendous amount of effort to put everything together and you know, get people to reinvest into the festival.
Okay, did you part ways with Insomniac? Because no, money was being made or creative differences.
I can't actually go into detail of that. I'm sorry.
Okay, it's done with Insomniac. The last show plays in twenty twenty three. At that time, were you always planning to come back or were you planning to sit on the sidelines and all of a sudden decided let's do it again.
I wake up every day without no matter what happens in my life, with the ambition to come back to Sunshine Grove and put on the festival.
So it's always.
My my my resondet, you know, my.
Drives me is to put on this show.
Okay, the festival's never made any money. What is your pitch to the new investors.
Well, it's it's it's that you know, we are a a.
A pivotal.
Music festival in the southeast of the US. We we mean a lot to so many people here, so there's an incredible opportunity to UH to develop something not only on the music festival.
Side, and.
Also in the development of the of the property, to create a a three hundred and and sixty five days a year.
Situation. So I think that.
For a lot of people, it's it's it's they see the bigger picture. And also we all know, you know that Coachella took you know, ten years or so to to make money, and and and after that they made a lot of money. Right, So it's it's it's a matter of of of of sticking through with it, and it's the people who are able to stick through with it the most who succeed at the end.
So it's not about you know, someone said success.
Is is falling down seven times and getting up eight times, right, So that's what it's it's all about.
You know. Okay, we're a week out. How many tickets have you sold?
We sold a lot of tickets. I'm not gonna go into details, but we've sold out of a lot of different areas and we of course always would like to sell more tickets because we can always make more space if we want. And we we're just excited to be coming back and to uh and and to to putting on the show. You know, we're where everything is coming together. The stages are almost uh all of them up already. The fence lines, all the fencing is is already laid
out across. A lot of containers have been dropped, a lot of comfort stations, all the poor the partties. So we're we're pretty much you know there, what's what's happening now between now and uh and and and the day we open doors. It's all the scenic all the the art, all the the decoration that goes around the property.
Okay, you keep talking about this property, and you talked about long term things using the property. Who owned the property?
The property is owned by by myself, you know, through a company that basically at the beginning it was kind of divided in one hundred and fifty plots or something like that, and when we formed the business in twenty fifteen, a quarter of it of the property was bought straight up. The second part was rented from the original owner, which was the house in the center, for seven years, with
the obligation to buy it after seven years. And the third part was you know, bought with mortgages from private individuals that was like, you know, let's call it thirty to forty plots. And then the remainder of the thirty to forty plots that we didn't own, we used to rent them year after year when we did the festival, and we eventually bought them one by one until recently maybe a few years ago when the last plot was bought and the whole property was consolidated into one big plot.
Okay, before you had the festival, there were there events in this same area.
There were no events in the same area other than something called Mudfest, which is basically a bunch of off road lifted trucks sliding around in the mud. And it was a pretty rustic kind of festival. That was the only experience from the county for any type of festival in the region.
Okay, there's a city called Okechobee. How far is your site from air? Quote civilization and what does civilization say about it? Some communities are open to having a festival, other ones are a thorn in your side.
Well, you know, Oki Chobe center of Okichobe is is, you know, twenty five minutes away from where we are located. And just to to give you a little bit of the of the color, you know, when you when you get to the center, there's a there's an army tank and an army helicopter and an army machine gun on display. So that's a a CVS and a and a Walgreens.
So that's what the center of town looks like. The beginning, I think that well, to take a step back, Okichobe has around one hundred and twenty thousand cows and thirty thousand people.
So it's a very rural.
County where the Cattleman's Association hold a lot of power here and and you know, extremely hard working people who you know, all give their everything to to to their land and their animals and and the whole industry that that they operate. So at the beginning, we were welcomed with some skepticism. You know, of course, uh some people
didn't want us around. But I think that after our first year and and you know, them realizing that we were mostly a peaceful organization, uh with with kids who just come here wanting to have a good time and not getting into fights or anything like that, basically they they we we won the people over little by little.
Okay, what is so special about this land?
I think what is mostly special about it is that it's it's pretty much untouched other than having a very large log cabin in the center and a system of roads that connect the whole property.
From one area to another.
But more importantly that it has this incredible vegetation which makes you feel like you're somewhere in the tropics with palm trees and jungle and underbrush that is very atypical of the rest of the country. And lots of wild animal here, so you know, everything from deer to armadillos, skunks, raccoons.
We of course have alligators that we remove before the festival, but you know, in Florida, if you remove alligators, you know, a few weeks later they come back, so you know, they're generally harmless if you stay out of their ways. But we definitely remove these. But this is what makes this land special. It's the the the topography of the trees and grass and everything else that we have here.
So if I'm at this festival forgetting the alligators, I will see wild animals.
It's very, very possible that you will see wild animals from sandal cranes who come right very close up to people. They're kind of used to us, they're not afraid of us to you know, many other types of birds, blue hair blue herons, which is the largest I think it's the largest bird in North America, as well as lots of armadillos, lots of uh, you know, raccoons and skunks. Yeah, the high chance you might see some animals.
Absolutely, okay, sell me, not me. The average person in America, they're walking down the street, they don't know something and they run into you and you say, oh, I have this festival. There's you know, there's a number of festivals out there. What is your pitch about what makes your festival so great?
Well, we're one of the few truly camping festivals in our region. We are the weather is excellent, it's not too hot, not too cold. It's it's not humid and muggy like other places. It's it's really blue skies at that time of the year. March in Florida. We're close to you know, close enough to Miami and Orlando.
We are.
We have incredible music. We have one hundred and twenty artists for four days, so the the bank for your buck, as they say, is highly worth it. We have an incredible amount of food offerings from you know, anything from hot dogs and French fries to you know, an Argentine Argentinian parilia.
Which is like an Argentine word for barbecue.
We have so many different activities, you know, from yoga and meditations to uh frick frock black jack, which is you know, a really fun place where you can go in and play casino with with you know, you could put your pair of shoes or or something like that,
because obviously we're not doing it with money. But there's there's a lot of of different things to do and walk around and being outdoors with your best friends and uh, and and and seeing some incredible talent on six different stages on an eight hundred acre pro which I always tell people that's the size of Central Park in New York and it's clean.
Okay, you have VIP packages. What percentage of your audience buys VIP and what are the varying VIP packages look like?
I would say the percentage is around ten percent of the audience we have mainly you know, within VIP you can either stay in a glamping tent or in a preset RV, or you can even go one step up than that you stay in a rockstar type of bus, you know, which is that's like the top of the top of the VIP.
Okay, you have rooms in the electronic music world, how does Cage the Elephant become the headliner?
Well, it's very simple.
You know, it doesn't matter what I like, it's uh, it's you know, we we have to cater to a very wide audience, and that's what we're trying to do. And that's what you know Ben Baruk and Dave nit Niedbowski from Grand Rising Curations uh do very well. Is
that they book all of the other stuff. You know, I can focus on the on the techno and house music DJs and and and some other odd artists here here and there, and they can take care of everything that is, you know, the cage, the elephants, the t panes, uh.
The grizz the Grizzes of this World.
And uh uh and and more, you know, LCD sound System, et cetera, et cetera.
Well, you've been doing this for a while. To what degree is a festival success dependent on the line up?
The festival success is I think I would say maybe, you know, it's something that we haven't been able to actually determine. I'd love to be able to know the answer to that, but my guess is that it's you know, sixty percent lineup forty percent location. I'd like it to be more location than lineup. But I think that people have a lot of very high expectations from the lineup because we started in twenty sixteen, very very big.
So it's very.
Difficult for us to backtrack from that and say, Okay, you know what, we're not going to be booking any headliners, you know, but what's the headliner anyway?
Nowadays? Right?
You know, you know very well that we're not living in a in a monoculture anymore, and that one headliner means something to someone and nothing to a lot of people. So how do you how do you even pick the headliner? Right, it's a it's it's it's still a mystery to me.
Okay. Coachella famously has certain restrictions, you know, in terms of worry the act can play, how close, how frequently you're a festival, unlike you're like very early in the season. So when you book talent, do you put any restrictions on? Are you worried about the fact that your one act may play twenty festivals? Are these considerations?
Look, we we book first of all, Coachella is a month after us. They're in April. I think they're also very very far from from where we are, So for me, it doesn't make sense their restrictions. You know, we've had several artists in the past who had signed contracts with US, and they decided last minute because Coachella wanted to book them to kind of you know, rip the contract apart and uh and and and go with Coachella. And you know, of course we can legally attack them, but we're not
going to do that, because what's the point. You know, you're you're you're doing business with all these agencies, and you know it's fine. You just find a replacement and you move on, you know, you know, with with with with what we're doing here in in Florida. We try to put a a a a five hundred mile kind of radius clause which covers most of the state of Florida.
And you know, some artists, especially in my world, they always ask me, they say, okay, but can we play you know, the Winter Music Conference in Miami, which is you know, the weekend after US which is now called Myami Music Week by the way. And you know, I always tell them, you know, sure, but you can't announce it until after our festival, you know, so they have to keep it as a special guest and then they can start promoting it once with.
I think that's a fair approach.
Okay, you are in Florida, One of the advantages of Coachella is the weather. It could be hot, it can be cold, but it ain't gonna rain. These New York festivals, you know, they'll have it down poor. What is the situation in Florida? Been doing this for a while? Can it rain and ruin a whole day?
So we're we're at the end of the dry season. The rainy season is typically from April to November and dry from December to March. So we're at the end of that, and it has been extremely dry for the last two three months. You know, it actually froze. Everything froze a few months ago. I think it was in January or early February, and I was here and I was wearing you know, I didn't plan for this, and I just brought a hoodie and a light jacket, so I was it was supposedly colder in Florida than it
was in Alaska on those days. I don't know if you remember that, I do, but in any case, that was kind of unusual. And and since then it's been extremely dry with danger of fires, you know, wildfire's happening, and so it's in the past few weeks since I've been here on site. It's been raining a little bit here and there, which has been most welcomed, and it has only in the past six years that we've done.
The past six events that we've done, it only rained once on Thursday, opening day and that was just a tiny bit of rain. It didn't affect much, you know, so we've been very lucky. But it could you know, you could have a thunderstorm, freak weather's climate happening, you know, like you can you know what happened at in Tomorrowland in Georgia where they had to cancel, and Bonnaroo and all these other festivals. So we've been extremely lucky up to now.
How do you establish pricing.
Well, we we we back out, that's a very good question. We we basically back out of our costs and we priced it based on how much everything costs us. You know, we can't price the tickets lower than what it cost us to put on the show. And of course, you know, people keep on putting their prices up, so we have to put our prices up. It's not that we want to have our tickets priced at what they're we we
actually would like to make it affordable to everyone. But the nature of the beast makes it that we can't uh price the tickets any lower because if now we go out of business.
Are you concerned about your prices relative to other festivals?
We're actually uh very well priced. We're compared to to all the similar festivals. We're we're right on par with what everyone else is pricing. What I'm concerned about is more this uh economy that we're having in America, which is you know, propped up by the AI bubble.
Uh.
You know, people are really uh.
Suffering out there. There's there's there's a real problem of disposable income. And and you know, festivals I think are are are are are what goes goes out the window the fastest because people are saving up to you know, see if they can afford to go to the supermarket to buy food. So, you know, we feel it, we see it, we hear it in the comments. It's it's it's a really a good a good gauge of what's going on around the country. It's a it's a it's
a real shame that we got to this point. But without any finger pointing, you know, this is where we are.
What percentage of people sleep overnight on the site.
Everybody.
Everybody, Okay, close.
To ninety eight percent. I mean other than people who come in for the day. We sell day passes, you know, so you know I would say I would say ten percent maybe come for the day.
Let's just assume. You know, it's like at Bontaroo. There are people who stay at hotels and drive in. Is that even an option? Or the hotels are too far away.
The hotels are kind of too far away. They're the closest tell is the Hampton's Inn in Okechobe Town. That's twenty five minutes, third thirty minutes. It's it's really you know, if you're coming to this camping festival, you you really want to experience the event by staying on site, which is which is not recommended to stay in a hotel, but you can do that and get a day ticket.
Or some people who live in Port Saint Lucie or Orlando or Miami, you know, they can come in for the day, but then they have to drive back for two hours or whatever. So you know, it's much nicer to just slip into your tent or your RV at the end of the day and waking up on site.
What percentage of people are intents, what percentage of people are in RVs and what percentage of people are glamping in structures that you construct.
I think I would say eighty ten eighty, and then nine, like ten percent in in bell tense, and then maybe another ten percent in r vs.
Roughly, Okay, you're in Florida. Festivals are known for illegal drug use, and Florida is not a state that is friendly to that. How do you approach that issue?
Well, you know, thankfully that's in the hands of the law enforcements I have. I'm pretty hands off when it comes to the stuff. The law is the law, and you know, you get nicked, you can get you get kicked, So that's what happens.
Well, to what degree is our presence from law enforcement on the site?
You know, we we have dogs you know, at the at the gate and there present. You know, we have some undercover walking around.
You know. We we just.
Do whatever we're old you know by the county. We stay out of it, and we're we're focused on producing the event. And and and really when it comes down to to, uh, you know, keeping the law, it's up to the Sheriff's department and and and and the sheriff's departments organizations.
So, Julio, who are you? Where do you come from?
Well, that's always a.
Complicated answer, but basically I grew up in Geneva, Switzerland. My mother is Brazilian. She comes from a Brazilian Jewish family from San Paulo, which had originally emigrated from Moldova in the early twentieth century, so before World War One
even we emigrated from Moldova and Ukraine. And then in the fifties there was a military dictatorship in Brazil and my grandfather and grandmother took my mother and my aunt to Geneva and that's where my mom moved to when she was ten years old, and that's why when I was born, I was basically born in Phoenix, Arizona. My
parents met in New York City. They my mom used to live in New York in the seventies and and met my father there and eventually they moved to Phoenix for a couple of years when my dad went to have an MBA at Thunderbird University in Phoenix, and shortly after he graduated. He graduated in May and I was born in May of eighty five, and I immediately moved out of America and moved to Geneva and then didn't come back to the US until university, where I went
to college in Boston. So essentially, my mother is Brazilian, but you know, spent her childhood in Switzerland. And my father was born from a Brazilian mother and a Colombian father, and he was his parents divorced when he was very young and moved to Paris when he was like six seven years old. And so I grew up speaking French to my parents.
And are your parents still together?
My parents separated in maybe nineteen ninety eight, and my father passed away in two thousand and nine, and he had lung cancer and he was a heavy smoker. And it was even though they separated, you know, in ninety eight, they always stayed very close and very good friends. And so I had the chance to spend and vacations, you know, Easter vacation and summer vacations with both my parents.
And what did your father do for a living?
My father basically started in the eighties a a something called the funds of funds. Was one of the first funds of funds. It was called Alpha Asset Management, and
he did that in Geneva. But he his passion was always music, and he always wanted to get into the music industry, but you know, he he basically wanted to provide also for his family, so he he went into he he went into the finance world and and had you know, analyzed what was working at the time and created this company with his partner who now lives in Los Angeles, a guy called Nicholas Bergruen, who who does a lot of interesting things. He has a think tank
called the Burgrun Institute. And you know, eventually my dad left his business to Nicholas and and was was sort of disinterested by this whole world and started collecting UH frantically books about all sorts of UH, high and low art and UH and mind travel and and you know, all sorts of substances and and when my father passed away, we essentially made a donation loan of the collection to Harvard University, which was kind of.
A a A A.
A a full circle moment from when they kicked out Ramdas and Timothy Leary for for for for.
Giving L s.
D to their UH students, where they accepted this collection, which had the original research papers from Albert Hoffman uh as part of the collection back into their libraries. And it was kind of a meakupa from Harvard that said, you know what, where there's actually something worth studying in these books? Uh and and and and that's what this
beautiful collection uh where it resides nowadays. My father, my my my father was was was was a bookworm and an intellectual and he he really enjoyed reading more than anything.
And he he.
Read thousands and thousands of books and and books was his whole life.
Do you have brothers and sisters? I have one sister, so who inherited all the money?
Well, I mean, uh listen, uh there was all the money.
Was uh uh uh.
Uh split amongst amongst the whole family. And uh and uh we we we all had our part. And you know, I put my what I had into my music festival, you know. And and and here we are.
You know, Okay, if you grew up in Switzerland, what is that like compared to America?
Switzerland is is is a social democracy. It's very similar to Norway and some Scandinavian countries where it's it's someone once said, it's the only true democracy in the planet where any little issue that is raised, you can vote on it. So if you're Swiss, you can vote on pretty much anything, and you can, you know, propose anything to be voted on, and and people can vote online and very easily, and so everything is always decided by the people as as they go along.
Okay, So if you snap your fingers, do you want to live in Switzerland or the U? So what are the advantages and disadvantages of both?
I think that the US has a lot more of an open market. I think that if you have a good idea and a good product, you can make it much bigger.
In the US.
There's a lot more entrepreneurs here, the sheer numbers of people, right, It's a much bigger country. In Switzerland and Europe in general, I think that there's a lot less opportunity to develop new ideas and new businesses. You know, they don't call it the old world for nothing, because people are stuck in their little clans and their little private clubs, and you know, nobody wants to move the needle too much
in Europe compared to America. America, people come here, you know, and they take risks and they either succeed or they crash. But at least they have an opportunity to take a risk more than in other places.
So where did you go to college?
I went to college in Boston University.
And did you graduate?
I graduated undergrad and then I went to a school of Audio Engineering in New York City, and that's where I learned the ropes of you know, how to record a band and work myself around the studio.
Okay, so you're forty one now, or you'll be forty one this year. You go to college, you go to the audio school. What happened after that? What was you know? You got the festival? Now you talked about the underground parties? How did that arc happen?
So I left college in two thousand and seven and I moved to New York and I took some classes at the Secondary school School of Secondary Education. I took some like, you know, economics and kind of I think it was a microeconomic class. I forgot what it was. I took a few classes at the NYU Secondary School of Continuing Education for that year, and then I realized that while I was taking these classes that I really had a burning calling to dj because I had been
DJing before that. I had a radio show back in Switzerland where we had a reggae a weekly reggae show, and that was how I started djaing. So, you know, I had been going to parties in New York and I was so dissatisfied with the level of music that was being showcased by other DJs that I always told myself, listen, I can do a better job than what I'm listening. I know I can do a better job. And I started, you know, putting these little events in two thousand and
eight where I would create a Facebook event. Back in the days, it wasn't so popular to do a Facebook event, but now you know, it quickly became overcrowded in the in the on Facebook, but at the time, people would still receive the invites, and so people started coming to my events and it's I started. I continued doing them week after week and growing them very organically, and people were having a great time, and eventually I started booking
other DJs. So I went from being the promoter and the resident DJ and playing six hours from ten pm to four am, you know, every single Thursday, to then started booking other DJs, creating a collective of artists and eventually booking DJs from overseas and growing my brand like that until I decided to bring Circo Loco from Ibiza, which is probably the most famous dance music brand that comes from Ibiza, and they do now, I think a
Halloween party in New York with ten thousand people. But at the beginning I was the first one to bring him to the US and that was really special in two thousand and eight because it was still pretty raw and authentic and it wasn't the level of production that things are now.
So it was it was.
It was as the owner of Circoloco had told me, He said, it reminds it reminds me of our early days. And for me that was a badge of honor, because you know, everything is so overproduced these days that you know, you like it when things are authentic and a little bit more grimy and a little bit raw.
Well, you're plugged in. What's the status of both electronic music and the parties which you labeled is underground? What the great does that still exist? You know, in the nineties that was all that was everything, then everything came above ground. What's the status the world today?
Well, I think that today there's nothing underground anymore, right, because everyone has so much access to everywhere, to everything at the same time, so you really can uh find out about a secret party happening somewhere. The only way to really create a secret party would be to not use the internet and uh and and and leave a business card somewhere, you know, in a in a store
and tell you to call a number. And no one really wants to do that because no one wants to risk, you know, producing a party.
And and and and and and losing money.
You know, it costs so much money to rent a space, It costs so much money to rent gear. Uh, it's
just not what it used to be and anymore. But you know, people are always complaining about everything becoming uh so generic and everything you know, it's it's it's kind of like when people in the fifties complain about rock and roll, right and uh and and and then there's always if you want the older people are always complaining about how things used to be, and there's always budding new movements that are happening that you're either in the know or you're not right.
You're either hip or you're not.
So I think that if you want to look for cool music, out there. And when it comes to electronic music, there's so much music out there that you just have to stay there for hours and hours and hours and digitally create dig into the files of these you know, companies like a beatport or band camp or Kobo's, any of these these these amazing downloadable websites. If you if you want to find great music, you just have to put in the hours and the effort.
And that's what it's.
That's the way it's always been, you know, it's it's you have to be your own curator, and you have to have flair and know how and and have taste also because you know, there's a lot of DJs out there and people think it's easy, but you know, the actual mechanics of DJ is the easy part. But the hard part is actually having taste in music and finding good music. Right, that's not a given talent to everyone.
So to people who say there's no good music out there and I can't find everything sounds bland and repetitive. I mean, you put in the hours, you'll find out some pearls out there and you'll be so happy when you find one.
It's like the Holy Girl, right.
Okay, Other than the investors. What's the organizational structure of Oki Chobe Festival.
So I've been working for more than ten years with a wonderful person called Alissa, Alissa Richardson. So she's kind of, you know, the executive producer of the event. She sits at the top. I'm on the brand creative side. And then you have our marketing team, which is you know, Grace and Alex who run that and uh and then Grace also takes care of media.
We have a PR.
We have then some junior people who work for us, and then that's that's pretty much our our internal team, you know, other than our social media manager and our email SEO person, you know, these are all of our internal people. And then we have on the ground we have a team of three incredible gardeners who take care of the property. We have JD who's our local Okchobian who's the head of our of our of our of our land here and uh and and and also helps
out with the county relations. And then we have a lot of you know, uh contract contracted people who who are with us for just the event, you know, and they they basically work I think up up to ten months ahead of the event, and they're available whenever we
need them, and they they're also working other events. And that's pretty much a lot of the side ups UH and UH and and our health and safety department and and then there's all the vendors, you know, all the all the different vendors that we employ from from the.
Porter parties, the the catering, the power, so many different things. Right.
I don't know if you've ever played SimCity on your computer, but when people ask me, how is it building a festival, I say, well, it's it's kind of like playing SimCity.
You're just going to make sure the city.
Works and uh and that all the all the all the areas are covered and powered and and you know, plugged, and and that every system supports each other.
Okay, how many people around the year round payroll?
I think it's a round maybe less than ten.
Okay, does the buck stop with you? Are you ultimately in control?
I am ultimately in control with when it comes to the first three festivals and this coming festival.
Okay, so this is a corporation, you have a title. I mean, how do you do it?
I'm just a founder of Soundslinger. I can't I think it's boring to give yourself a title, right, It's just everyone can find me if they want.
I agree with you totally.
I started the festival. I mean.
It's just as founder for lack of a better title. You know, I'm the officially, I'm a chairman of the board, but I mean we don't have board meetings, you know.
Right, Okay, are you open to having another partner?
I'm completely open to having another partner. I think that it needs like any marriage, it needs to be uh uh the correct marriage.
Uh.
It needs to be somewhere where the partners respect each other and and and and and and and know you know which lane they're supposed to swim in and uh and and and give each other space and more important to give it give each other support for to achieve success, you know. So I I think that, uh, I'm completely open to having uh a new partner who who sees the who sees and wants to share the vision, because I can't do this you know alone, for sure.
It's it's it's it's a lot of weight.
And responsibility and and and the more the more people involved, the merrier, as long as we're all pulling in the right direction, the same direction.
For sure.
Let's say hypothetically, at the end of the day the numbers are the same as it's been in previous festivals, so you get let's just call twenty odd thousand people come, they pay, they have a good time, but you lose money. Will there be a festival in twenty twenty seven.
I think if we lose money, it's it's an unanswered question mark. My goal, my ambition is for it to keep going always. But of course when we lose money, we have to go back to the drawing board and get people involved again. You know, we would like nothing more than being able to put this year after year and for it to be a long and never ending story. But for it all comes down to to being able to at least break even and to continue to finding the support out there to make this happen.
Okay, and you know the festival has not played yet, what number of the ten ds would work for you, satisfy you that you know you're not losing money and you can go forward.
I think if we have thirty thousand, people will be very very happy. We got to a point where where we're able to, you know, keep our costs under control. You know, we've turned over every single stone on the property where we know where all the levers are. You know, we have a very very well oiled machine. Our accounting is in I would I would like to say that organizationally, we're the best that we've ever been. We have a stellar team working together, and we have extremely tight control
over our finances and our costs are very manageable. So if we can get to thirty thousand, people will have done our mission.
You know.
Okay, once again, assuming everybody's on site, assuming I'm not watching the music, what are the other activities, what am I going to be doing?
Well?
You can go and eat at a number of places. You can go and play some games from volleyball to.
Other things.
You can walk around and look at all of the incredible art that we have on the property. This year, we have a new sculpture from a young Colombian artist who's a half Columbian half American. I think he's actually from based in Brooklyn. His name is Asikas Monzon Aguire and he created a massive of uh sculpture made in a very shimmery mother of pearl type uh uh tint that is purple and that will be uh you know,
permanently installed installed at the Jungle fifty one stage. The longer goal for the property is to have it as a as an art park, something close to what you know Storm King is in New York or in yo Ching in Brazil, as well as as as having a a resort where people can come and and stay.
On the property.
You know, I'm not talking about a club med type thing, but something tasteful that blends into the scene, to to the scenic, to the nature, and and keeps the natures undisturbed as possible. So you know, I've since I've acquired all of the land a few years ago, I've been able to work finally with a team of architects and and we're we're just about finished designing the phase one of the master plan and we're ready to go shop around.
Do you personally own the land?
I personally own the land. Yes.
Okay, Well, you're a very sharp and passionate guy, Hulio. You're very impressive. You know, festivals, there's a lot of moving parts. As you mentioned earlier, you don't really know whether it's all going to work to the place, but I you know, you've definitely got something unique, and I wish you all the luck.
Well, thank you.
I know you know I once heard a quote from David Bowie where where he said, you know when you're when you're when your feet are are not quite touching the ground and you're and you're unsure of where to step, that's when the magic happens. So I feel like that's where we're we're at when we're producing this this festival, where we're looking for that magic and and and trying to figure it out, figure it out as it comes.
But you know, again we were we have ten years of experience, so we know where everywhere where where, where all the levers are and uh and uh and and we work with an incredible team and you know the rest is uh is.
Is yet to be told.
Well, it sounds great, And thanks for taking this time to explain the festival in yourself to my audience.
Thank you so much, Bob and I I hope that you're able to come. You know, let me know if you if you're if you decide to come along, and we'll make sure that you're very comfortable.
Well, as I say, I can't come in a week, but next year look for me.
Well I'm going to tell you one one little extra, uh wonderful piece of experience that we've created for fans this year. And we there's an old horse tables on the property which had a disgusting, little crummy apartment. Uh that reminded me of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre house, you know,
with like cockroaches and whatever. So you know, we cleaned that whole place up completely and turned it into this you know, cowboy luxurious Cowboy ranch experience, which we are giving away to the lucky winner of our contest that is on social media.
So wait, wait, wait a second. If you win, you get the horse structure.
If you win the competition, you get to stay in the apartment which has two bedrooms, and then there's space for six RVs in the garden area which is surrounded by bambo and closed by bamboo, and you get a golf cart driver who will basically drive you to each stage.
Sounds great, Julio, until next time. This is Bob Left six
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