Mexican fans are something really special.

They're very passionate people.

They're really into the music.

They have a very solid relationship with the artist.

The food scene is great.

The art culture, the art scene, the architecture.

There's a ton of stuff happening.

Is it true that Mexico City is the, quote,

streaming capital of the world?

But yes, heavy streaming in Mexico.

And now we're also the third live music market in the world.

You guys are utilizing that to get smaller ticket prices.

I mean, you're saying it out loud, right?

Welcome back to the What Podcast.

This is going to be an unusual, but very exciting episode for us.

I'm super excited for this one.

I'm Barry, of course.

That's Russ.

That's Brian.

With us today is Ricardo Gomez.

Tell me again your title, please, Ricardo.

My official title is events promoter at Ocesa.

I'm one of the promoters of the International Events

Division, which basically just reduces to artists

that speak English or sing in English.

There's a lot of other divisions that take care of the local stuff,

the Latin stuff, and special events that do theater

and other types of shows.

But for concerts in English, let's say,

I am one of the promoters in that division.

And we are going to speak specifically

about the Corona Capital Festival in Mexico City next month, the 14th

through the 16th.

Is that right?

14, 15, 16?

Correct.

Pretty amazing lineup.

Thank you.

Let me just go ahead and give some quick highlights

of that for people while we're talking about it.

Foo Fighters, Chapel Rowan, Linkin Park are your headliners.

Brian, Russ, lots of acts on here that would appeal to all three of us,

for sure, from Vampire Weekend, Alabama Shakes, Queens of the Stone Age,

Fornant Long, Alternative Rock, and Rock X.

We always gravitate to on this show, anyway.

Weezer, Monsters and Men.

Yeah, pretty cool.

Pretty great lineup.

Thank you, guys.

Glad you like it.

Obviously, there's a lot of questions that I have.

But let's just start with a couple of the obvious ones.

And I'll try not to insult either of us with my naivete sometimes.

But how is a festival in Mexico City the same as what we might see

in the United States, and how is it different?

I mean, we like to, I don't want to say steal ideas from other festivals,

but we sort of like, we really...

That's fine.

Yeah, I mean, what we like to do every year,

we send people out to festivals all over the world, actually.

And we pick up some of the ideas that they have that inspire us

and help us create just like a better festival experience overall for the audience.

We really like to be in service of the experience of the people

who pay a ticket and attend the festival.

Obviously, every time the festival takes place,

I see a bunch of people from the team and myself just taking notes.

And we take notes of things that could improve for the next years.

And there's always room for improvement.

And we have been doing this festival for 15 years now.

So we've been doing the tweaks that we feel appropriate to get this festival

and the experience of the audience to a different level.

The curation is very similar to festivals like Lollapalooza or ACL.

I think that's sort of a constant that we're always paying attention

to what festivals in the US are doing in terms of their curation and their lineup

and see what they're booking.

So we make sure we're paying attention to the right artists

that really have something to say that could really resonate with the Mexican audience.

So we get inspired from festivals all over the world that do things like that.

And to answer the other part of your question, how is it different?

I would say that Mexican fans are something really special.

They're very passionate people.

They're really into the music.

They have a very solid relationship with the artist emotionally.

So it's palpable, just like the energy and the passion that they have

when an artist comes on stage and they start singing their favorite songs.

I was just promoting the last couple of nights, we had the Lumineers here in Mexico City.

And Wesley, one of the members of the band,

who are finishing their tour here in Mexico City after doing some stadiums in the US,

he was like, just like this night was so special.

These were probably the best fans of the whole tour.

So I feel that a lot of artists really notice that.

And every time they come to Mexico, there's this reciprocity between the fans

and the artists that create a very special atmosphere and a very special set

for, I'd say, 90% of the bands who come and can experience that.

Well, Ricardo, speaking to the Mexican fan, the music going festival fan,

when I was looking to try to get to one of these Oasis concerts across the world,

I was evaluating spots that I might want to go to.

And I actually didn't really want as much to go to the United States shows.

They're from the UK, so those dates are going to be a little bit more special.

But I saw Mexico City and read up on it a little bit, and I thought,

and I wondered, maybe you can't answer this, but is it some kind of soccer connection

of fandom and the excitement that America just doesn't quite get?

It just feels like those international audiences,

it's not better, right, wrong, good or bad.

It's just they seem to be a different kind of breed.

And maybe it's just the passion you just mentioned.

I think so. Yeah.

And it's a very interesting correlation.

And it could be a really good metaphor for like to try to explain that passion.

Because the hooligan thing with the soccer, you know, everybody.

Yeah, you also see that in sports.

The Poznan stuff where everybody bounces and all those kinds of things.

It's very emotional, you know, it's people get very emotional.

And concerts are a lot more harmonious in the sense that it's not one team

fighting the other because that can get violent and aggressive in music.

It feels like a huge community and a huge like a moment to be together

with people you don't even know.

And it's like a very magical thing.

And I think it does speak to the passion of,

you know, Latin audiences in general, I think.

Talk about the the curation of the lineup.

Well, let me go back.

What sort of well, first of all,

which other festivals are you looking at specifically?

You mentioned ACL and and what was it? Coachella.

Yeah, that same question, like once you studied over the years,

is that what you're getting at, Barry?

Yeah, yeah. You Glastonbury.

I mean, you go all around the world or there are specific

places that you're you're more focused on to steal, to steal from,

to steal ideas like we steal podcast ideas when we watch other podcasts.

We don't discriminate, really.

If there's festivals happening in India that that we feel

could be interesting to go and check out, we do.

Me personally, I haven't been like I go to the US.

I sometimes go to festivals in Europe or or South America.

I think the farthest person from the team has been to festivals outside is

India, precisely.

There's a like there is a very cool festival in Japan called Fuji Rock

that I'm always, you know,

I would I would love to go.

I've never been, but I'm always, you know,

on the lookout for what they're doing in terms of their curation

and even the artwork that they have, which is like exquisite.

I would love to be able to go there.

I'm sure there's a lot to learn from from Japanese people

and the festival culture there.

But, you know, we're.

I think it's it's just a lack of time.

If we could, we would go all over the world, you know, to go and experience

what other countries are doing and other promoters are doing.

But I'd say mostly the US and South America that, you know,

the festival scene in these countries have been has been exploding

for the last few years.

So there's a lot they're doing.

Columbia is doing great stuff, too.

Like there's a festival in Bogota called Estereo Picnic, which is beautiful.

Like they they take care of like the like the smallest detail.

You can see how how much effort and creativity and dedication

is put into putting like that festival together.

What are some of the things that you we laugh and say still,

but I know it's borrow.

But copy mimic is that everything from like security and crowd control

to social media and you mentioned artwork.

That's that's kind of one of those things that most people who go

to festivals regularly like we do, that is a big part of it.

That vibe that you can create, not just on site, but throughout the year

with social media and website, everything.

Yeah, I think I think how people are consuming, like people who don't go

to festivals, they're still consuming those festivals in some way through socials.

Right. So I've been noticing a lot of innovation on how festivals are doing

their their self coverage of the festival on their socials and how

how that's really capturing really special moments with fans.

How, you know, for example, I was I was looking at earlier this year

at the Lollapalooza coverage and I saw how, you know, there were there was

like this like community manager of the festival was at the entrance

of the festival on day one and just like fans were running towards the main stage,

just like to to to be able to get a good spot there and like literally not move

for the whole day. And they were running and the social community,

like the community manager was asking them, like, who are you here to see?

And everybody was like screaming the name of the artist they were going to see.

And I thought that was like like a super special moment that sometimes goes unnoticed.

And if people are like really putting the focus and the lens on that,

again, the love and the passion of the fans who are attending,

which is what makes festivals so special, you know, we forget about

that core and that very primal feeling,

which basically is the one that drives our business,

which is fans like providing a platform for fans to connect with their artists.

And I think looking at that through that lens and through that

a creative way of capturing that and putting putting that on social

so that everyone in the world can see how special that is, is super cool.

And I really love that. And, you know, there's other things that sometimes

I wouldn't go to a festival.

One of my favorite festivals, for example, is Outite Lands.

I think it's it's a magical venue.

San Francisco. Yeah, in San Francisco at the Golden Gate Park.

Beautiful festival.

It's like there's there's never going to be a festival that could

recreate that just because of the how beautiful their site is.

But I don't go there and saying like,

I'm going to I'm going to see how many security guards they have at the barricade.

I don't go with that with like an agenda there.

I just go there with an open mind and see, you know, what's cool.

That could maybe like

I don't see like the specific thing that they're doing,

but I see like the the core of what they're doing and try to replicate it

and try to bring it to a festival like Corona

and see how we could adapt some of those ideas to the Mexican audience

and how how would that translate.

And sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

But we're constantly, you know, trying to get get the festival to

to a place where, you know, everybody has a great time

and everybody has an amazing experience.

And, you know, from and it's complicated

because you have an audience that's very wide and you have like people in their teams.

And then with the lineups that we have, we have people

50 years or older.

We had Paul McCartney last year.

So you had, you know, a very wide spectrum of of of people attending the festival.

And you have to find ways to keep the festival interesting and attractive

to to fans with such a wide gap of age difference, you know.

Simple nuts and bolts question, because I haven't even seen like an aerial.

How's the layout of the festival?

A couple of main stages and then some smaller stages as well in a city center.

Is that roughly it or how is that logistically?

The site is the same site that is used for the Formula One race.

So it's a very that's right.

It's a racetrack.

Yeah, it's a large sports complex with a stadium on one side.

And then we build the festival complex on on the opposite side.

We do have two main stages that basically alternate.

Then we have one like electronic tent and two smaller stages.

And and that's basically it.

But there's, you know.

Like the way the the festival business model works best in Mexico

is by having a lot of sponsors contributing that helps subsidize the ticket prices.

Otherwise, ticket prices would be

really, really high.

So a way we we try to incorporate the sponsorships

in the in the layout and and and.

Find a way to just like they contribute somehow to the experience.

We're just not putting a random photo of activation.

We try to we try to have them contribute to the experience, for example.

You know, a silent disco.

So Pepsi will come in and do and have like a party with two competing

DJs when everyone's wearing headphones and will choose which DJ they're dancing to.

Which makes it makes a great experience and super fun.

Other other sponsors, for example, are giving people the chance

to get a tattoo on their arm with the set times so that they always have them handy.

It's like small stuff like that that really, you know,

contributes to the fans having a good experience.

Well, I saw you quoted somewhere.

Sorry, I didn't write it down talking about how you just mentioned

that that your pricing is at a at a far lower level than many of the big US

festivals, and it sounds like you guys Americans have this weird thing

about if there's a sponsorship on something, it pisses them off for some reason.

And those sponsorships pay for what you're doing.

So it sounds like you're you're leaning into that to to subsidize as a word.

I think you just use the ticket pricing and maybe that is just an odd American thing.

And and the culture in Mexico doesn't mind that.

But you guys are utilizing that to get smaller ticket prices.

I mean, you're saying it out loud, right?

Yeah, I mean, it's it's.

It's basically a way we can, you know, protect that the ticket price.

But at the same time,

we've been doing this for so long that people are already like they already know

what they're going to.

And we work very, very hard for the festival not to feel like a supermarket,

you know, and like bombarding brands that you it's it's it's made in a way

or at least we try to make it in a way where it feels organic in some ways.

And again, that the brands and the sponsors are contributing to

you know, how fans contributing that fans have a great time at the festival.

Well, the explosion of pricing right now, people act like they care about things.

But what they really care about is an affordable ticket price.

Yeah. So however you can do that, I commend you for doing it.

And you need to lean into Corona, lean into Corona.

You know, I like that a lot.

Thank you for clearing that up. Of course.

The the diversity of the lineup

and the fact you mentioned you have young you have teenagers

and, you know, people my age and older.

You have we call them sort of legacy acts.

I think you're maybe a little older.

I mean,

how did that evolve with the festival or has it always been that way?

Because we hear a lot.

It works sometimes, but then you can get complaints of it's too diverse.

You know, it's I want it focused.

I want it just EDM or I want it just this or that.

It's challenging.

I think it's a it's a great challenge because I think the core audience

of this specific festival really likes like guitar based music.

They like rock, alternative rock,

and they're always expecting that and they're expecting

the big names in this specific genre.

And sometimes when we've tried to open up a little bit,

we do feel some resistance.

But I feel we have to do it.

Otherwise, we're never going to be able to make that shift in generation.

And, you know, bring over a younger, younger audiences and fans.

So I think that diversity

is like our way to just like try to slowly find the new artists,

the new names in music, just to like

be exposed to our core audience,

which in maybe 10 years is going to be so like completely different.

But it's tricky because

we don't want to do that.

We like we don't want to do that and alienate our our core audience.

We really want to

first give give them what they want to hear and also throw in

and like stuff that is fresher, newer, maybe a different sound.

And it's it's also like a great challenge

for, you know, these people who have always said,

like, they're very open minded and very like pro

art and pro, you know, just like new sounds and new

new propositions from from a cultural standpoint.

But it's it's not always a success.

It's not always like we put this artist and it

you know, it was a platform that it that Corona promised to be.

And also we have we've in the past,

like agents which we deal with all the time, also try to push some ideas.

Sometimes we give sometimes we like we're a little bit more

you know, stubborn in the sense that we know what works at the festival

and we know what doesn't.

But we've learned that the hard way by experimenting

and then try to put the things there that in the end didn't work at all, you know.

So it's never never like a perfect lineup.

But there's always we're always pushing the bar a little bit

to see what works and what doesn't.

And if something works, then we will probably build on that for the following years.

Well, your country is clearly a destination for countless people

in interest because of all the weather and your locations and your beautiful

history and everything.

And and and so much these days, the my morning jackets, widespread panics, fish,

a lot of they do destination weekends.

Yeah.

In different areas throughout the entire country, Mexico City,

I think Jason Isbell had one not long ago or coming up.

But but I'm I'm guessing, correct me if I'm wrong, that that is an idea,

a destination for Americans to travel to more specifically.

It feels like to me, is this festival designed for equal parts,

locals and as a destination travel plan for people over a year or what do you

what is your demographic pie chart, I guess from locals to people who travel there?

I'd say it's 90 percent Mexican.

Really? Yeah, 10 percent or maybe 15 percent in a very generous year.

So you have a very big appetite in Mexico City and the sprawling areas

outside of Mexico City for for festivals.

They crave it.

Yeah, yeah. I think like nationally it's it's really high.

There's people coming from all over the country, but mostly they're coming from Mexico.

We do have some fans coming from the US, some fans coming from Canada

and like probably the white majority are coming from South America,

places like Guatemala, Costa Rica, Colombia.

And a lot of fans coming from from from those countries.

But we like maybe a there's an opportunity there and there's there's

you know, there's a.

Yeah, like an opportunity for fans like to market to fans in the US

that really like this kind of music and to come to the festival and, you know,

present this as a destination festival, which I think

makes a lot of sense because of the boom that Mexico City is having.

Yeah, not only in the music scene, but also like the food scene is great.

The art culture, the art scene, the architecture, there's a there's

you know, there's a ton of stuff happening all year long that makes it very attractive

for for people from the US and Europe as well.

So, yeah, yeah, I think there's there's a chance to grow in that sense.

Do you are you guys concerned at all with your lineup that it looks like anybody else's lineup?

Does that even enter your because of what you just said?

It sounds like it's a, you know, Mexico City specific.

And we've got a problem with copying a lot of festival, like

seeking a copy and stealing America right now is just flip

flip flopping one artist to the next from one festival to the next.

And it's been it's been a little bit of an issue with with regular festival goers.

But do you concern yourself with what other festivals are doing?

And, you know, like in the year that you're trying to book, I mean, yeah, yeah.

I mean, not really, like we're not trying to.

We're not trying to differentiate ourselves from

like in the lineup sense from maybe a festival that's happening in Japan or in Europe.

If if we have the same names as they do,

many times it has to do with the fact that there's not a lot of artists,

you know, touring that, you know, that makes sense for this city in this specific time frame.

We know that, you know, we're probably not going to be

selling people in Japan a ticket for our festival.

So as long as it works for Mexico City and it's it's

it resonates in some way with the Mexican audience.

I think that's the sweet spot for us.

We don't really try to like we don't try to be like just globally

have the best lineup because we know names are limited,

headliners are limited and many festivals every year will end up with very similar names.

And you're not really competing with other festivals.

Exactly. Like here, you know, it's like I can go see this lineup in at Bonnaroo

or New York or San Francisco.

But with you guys, it's.

Well, there's been there's been maybe it's not always right.

But my perception of the last 10 years is that the international festivals in Latin

America and even like in Spain, there was one called Mad Cool Festival.

And there's these other they seem to get the biggest and best names

and very independent booking.

And I know a lot of these are across the world from each other.

And it's like, why can't we do that here in America?

And I guess it's just because we're just swapping the same bands around.

But your lineups from from 2010, 11 on are really impressive.

So you've gotten the best of the best no matter what America was doing.

So that's not really a question.

That's just a congratulations on the work you guys have done.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you.

But it also luck takes a big part, you know.

It's it's it's tough.

It's it's not always an easy process, you know, it's not like everybody wants to play Corona.

We do have to go out and shop for especially headliners.

And it's not always that easy to come about.

But there's also another another factor that comes in, which is.

So many of these names

are now able to like the top lines of festivals.

They can come to Mexico City and do their own stadium shows and, you know,

make more money than to playing a festival.

Yeah, we got that problem here, too.

So, yeah, exactly. So it's it's.

There's there's there's only a few names that can really,

you know, come and do these festivals.

And sometimes it's not even a matter of if the festival wants them.

It's it's a matter of what artist is available and what big artists can come

and are willing to like play a festival because last time

they already did like the stadium show.

Maybe it did well, maybe it didn't do as well.

But now this time with a new cycle, a new record, a new show and production,

they want to try it out at a festival.

So the stars have to align for that to happen.

And we've been very lucky in the last few years.

Is it trying to book a festival in Mexico City?

Is it does that make it easier or harder?

I'm thinking things like you just said, like timing.

Yeah, logistics routing.

I mean, are you finding that some of these tours are

they end because it's in November and it works out timing wise that way or?

Yes. Yeah, yes.

It's it has worked out.

And. In the beginning of the festival

history, we were in the festival took place in October

and we routed with ACL very nicely.

But then we had the worst storm and rain

festival has ever had in this country.

So we pushed the festival to to November,

which is like safer in terms of like weather and the drier month.

But the first couple of years when we did that,

the artists and agencies didn't plan on that.

So it was very, very tough to get those names because a lot of a lot of the tours

were ending on October and they couldn't extend

like, you know, another month and come to Corona in November.

So it's one it's it's very tough to position that like a new festival in that way.

So you have to be very, very mindful of

the timing of just like the cycle, the cycle,

like the touring cycle of most bands throughout the year.

But now with, you know, it's been like 10 years that we've been doing it in November.

Artists know the festival is taking place in November.

So if an artist has a target to come to Mexico City for Corona in November,

they will already be like routing their tours beforehand

to to make that stop here in Mexico City.

So in terms of routing, I think we've we're past that challenge.

But now the real challenge is the economics, because now it's getting more

more expensive for artists to fly to Mexico City, because, you know,

when they're touring the US, they do it on a bus.

They have a routing that makes sense.

They're

prorating all their costs among, you know, the whole tour, the whole like,

I don't know, 20, 50 cities, whatever.

But for Mexico City, they have to fly in

and some of these artists carry a lot of production with them.

So it's just super expensive for them to to travel that way.

And like.

Now I've been getting into conversations

with artists where they confirm at a certain amount.

And then months later, like a couple of weeks before the festival,

they come back knocking on my door and saying, hey, guess what?

We didn't budget accordingly.

And now it's going to be like this much more expensive for

these artists to bring the show.

So could you give me more money?

And I'm like, those conversations are really tough.

Or we just had a number one hit.

So now, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Hand it over. Hand it over.

You know how it goes. You know how it goes.

A simple question, Ricardo.

I'm not asking about tickets sold.

I'm just asking about capacity.

What kind of amount of people are you trying to put in or can you put into this venue?

It's a very big venue

where multiple festivals take place.

Corona is usually capped at like 85,000.

But we have other festivals that have like take place in this same site.

And they can sell up to 110,000 tickets per day.

So I think that's the limit.

But for Corona, we like to keep

people, you know, like the services we provide to people at like certain

standards and that people don't make huge lines for restrooms, for a drink,

for food or whatever.

So we try to cap that to 85, which is still substantial.

You know? Oh, yeah.

You do other things besides this particular event.

What you you mentioned that costs, what other challenges or changes have you

seen over the years in the industry?

Good question.

I feel.

Like lately, I like I have friends who are artists and they they struggle a lot

with mental health and with like, you know, a life balance, really.

Sometimes I think there's they're exposed

in a way in which they weren't exposed before social media.

And now they can read whatever people are saying about them.

And I think that really

you know, plays against their, you know, their self-confidence and their self-love.

And it sort of like like many artists, because they're humans, obviously,

they have self doubts about, you know, what they're

what they're trying to say because they're exposed to a lot of hate,

racism, whatever you can.

I mean, just like the speech that they're exposed to on social media

can be can be dangerous to them.

And that thing and also like

what was happening with Spotify, for example, which I'm

I don't want to say I

I don't want to say Spotify is perfect, right?

But at least I think Spotify has got has been a great platform

to get artists that wouldn't have otherwise been heard by

thousands or millions of people without a label.

And that's obviously helped not only the recorded music industry,

but the live music industry as well.

And sometimes I feel there's a lot of nuances to whatever the contracts

the major labels have with Spotify.

But I do see like people making a living from Spotify.

There's a lot of critique on on, you know, that business model.

But it's like if we try to get our

minds around

solutions like the recorded music industry was going down the drain before

Spotify came to the picture, you know, people were using peer to peer

downloading and there was a lot of piracy.

Nobody was paying for music.

And this way, I think

is is helping a lot of artists and the industry overall.

The music industry has grown substantially because of that.

So I don't think we should be pointing the finger at Spotify.

We should be like rethinking our relationship with what the new business

model is like, you know, so I think that challenge comes is coming from

from ourselves and our mindset.

But

I don't know if that answered your question.

But yeah, well, it got me somewhere else here real quick because I did jot this

down earlier and I only know talent buying and promotion of festivals from a

peripheral view. I mean, I'm just I'm around it.

I kind of have a basic idea.

But the the the idea is where your music is selling, if it's selling in or being

listened to or streamed, I mean, you start there and as as to who you want to bring.

Is it true that Mexico City is the quote streaming capital of the world?

Now, I don't know who I think it was

Grammys dot com. I saw this.

Maybe they're not the streaming capital of the world because that's a pretty broad

statement, but is there more streaming coming out of your city

than the rest of the world? Is that true or even close to it?

I don't I don't have the exact data on that.

But what is it really high?

Yeah, I can tell you that many artists come come.

Like looking for for opportunities to come

to Mexico and a lot of them are saying Mexico is our top streaming market.

And it's it's like.

It's very common to have Mexico City on your top streaming markets.

You know, I was shocked when I saw that.

I don't know why I just I just was.

Yeah. And it's not only Spotify.

It's like also YouTube, like there's a lot of music consumption on YouTube.

So, I mean, I think that's that's a great

indication of, you know,

just like people being hungry for music and for culture in general.

But.

You know, it's interesting to have those

conversations because because streaming doesn't always translate to ticket sales.

Streaming can be, you know, editorial placements in a big streaming market.

So that will drive your streaming from Mexico City really, really high.

But it doesn't mean that people are

actively looking for your name and looking for your music.

It's just like more of a casual listener.

But but if you cross the data from from

Spotify and from your other socials and YouTube and radio and, you know, all those

when when when something really feels like it's happening, you will notice.

And it's not only streaming that will be the indicator of that.

But yes, heavy streaming in Mexico.

And now we're also the third live music market in the world.

So you talked about Spotify being sorry, very real quickly, the Spotify being,

you know, maybe it's better to take a reevaluation of of of its purpose and how

it it helps the industry when people want to say that it doesn't.

Well, I'd say Live Nation is that exact

same kind of discussion point, and we do that on this show a lot.

And I don't we don't need to do that now.

But Live Nation is 51 percent as of a few years ago of your organization,

OCSA, sorry, I didn't I don't know how to say that exactly.

Is that true? And if so, any anything that notable that better,

worse or things just kept moving along with more capital?

Money, money. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, we we've been close partners with Live Nation since before the merger.

And and now they do have a controlling stake in OCC.

That's that's what it is.

Yeah.

And but it's it only like the only change that I've seen from my standpoint and from

what I do on a day to day basis is that it has opened up

wide number of channel communication channels.

So before it was like this sort of like.

A very narrow.

There was a gatekeeper that could like would send shows to Mexico from the global

tours from that live nation put together, and now there's like a like a highway of

communication and emails, we talk to promoters in Canada,

we talk to promoters in Los Angeles, we talk to promoters in South America,

because now with

with the acquisition, everything sort of like opened up.

And I think that has translated to us having

record years in terms of show counts and ticket sales in the last three consecutive years.

Would you want does the festival want to maybe attract more people from outside of

Mexico City or is it you're OK with the way it is?

Absolutely.

Like we would love to have people from all over the world come and experience the

festival, not only the festival, but also the city.

I think the city has a ton of things to offer and and and leaving that and have

the festival be an excuse to come to Mexico City.

It's like a dream to us.

We see that happening in like the Formula One.

You know, that weekend, a lot of people from all over the world come to Mexico and

it feels like the city, like the city, the streets.

You feel so special to be able to host a show of that.

I mean, an event of that level.

And we would love to have Corona also be like a very

international magnet of people that that want to come.

We probably could have started, should have started this or I should have

from my notes here.

You're a Berkeley College of Music guy, is that right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Is there is there business,

music administration there or did you where you wanted to be a rock star?

It didn't work out.

So you got into festivals like like so many stories we've heard over a million

times that it kind of is one of mine, too.

It's a funny story.

It's a funny story. I I'm a drummer.

I used to play the drums when I was younger.

That's why I went to Berkeley.

I fell in love with music when I was very, very young.

And I remember before going to college, I used to have like a cover band.

And I was the one who was sort of like

managing the band and putting together rehearsals and promoting shows and

taking care of everything for like everything that needed to happen

for us to be with the slacker bass player didn't want to do.

Exactly, exactly.

So so I remember like telling myself after every show that I used to play with that

band when I was like a kid, that I would never do that again,

because it was a nightmare for me just to be playing rehearsing,

but also taking care of, you know,

merch selling or settling with the venue or whatever.

But I always loved it and always came back and did it again because I loved it.

So when I went to Berkeley, I studied two majors, like two.

Yeah, two majors.

One was music production and the other one was a music business.

OK, so they do have programs like that then.

Yeah, they do. They do.

And after right after I came back to to Mexico City after I graduated,

I landed a job at Ocesa.

I was obviously like, you know, the assistant of the assistant.

But I worked my way up and I'm still here now 14 years later.

I guess one thing real quick.

You said that, Ricardo, you take care of the English speaking of music,

of department, for lack of a better way of putting it.

I read and I thought the wording was weird that since 2013,

local and Spanish speaking performers for this festival were banned.

That seemed like a weird word, band.

But is there any kind of what is the philosophy on that?

Sorry, can you tell me where did that word come from?

I'm so sorry. I was jotting down on my note.

Maybe I got some garbage from Reddit.

No, I mean, I apologize.

It might have came up, but no, no, that's definitely not the right way to describe it.

I didn't think so.

That's why I wanted to ask more than anything,

because it seems like that wouldn't be the best approach.

But what do I know? I'm not in Mexico City.

You do have Spanish, potentially music.

No, if it works out.

Yeah, OK. Exactly.

And that's basically the reason we sort of like

decided to stick to the international lane was because there's so many other

festivals that take place in Mexico City and that have a wide,

like a very wide offering in terms of of genre.

And we sort of like we have to

create an identity for each festival and

there's going to be a festival that has a Latin rock core and DNA.

And there's going to be a festival that has

an Latin urban and local reggaeton sort of like DNA to it.

And then there's also another like regional Mexican festival.

So each one has its niche.

They're big niches, but every every festival like is speaking and trying to say

something and try to be a platform for a very specific type of artist.

And for us, Corona is that platform for international artists.

Sure. And I apologize for getting that terminology wrong.

But at the same time, I read that I also

read about the Mexico City being the streaming of the world.

I'm like, this is crazy.

All this stuff doesn't make sense to me.

I'll ask Ricardo about it.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

No, it's all good.

It's all good. No worries.

All right, Ricardo, man.

Thank you so much for your time.

You guys still want to push some tickets here.

You're on your way to more a month out, right?

So where do you want people?

I mean, the websites and all those things that we'll throw up on the screen to.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you. We're one month out for like a very special weekend in Mexico City with

the Foo Fighters, Queens of the Stone Age, Chapel Rome,

Chapel, my girl, Chapel, Chapel fan

and Linkin Park and Depthones.

So it's going to be very, very special.

Tickets are still available at Ticketmaster.com.MX

and hopefully some of your listeners can

be motivated to come down here and leave the festival.

I know I want to get to Mexico City.

Always welcome.

Yeah, I keep looking at the lineup.

It's interesting.

You've got like TV on the radios at the bottom.

They will have been headliners on some others and Grizzly Bear.

I mean, it's really interesting.

The billing element of festivals has gotten very, very complicated.

So we decided we're going to have just one policy, which is mainstage headliner

in line one, then the rest of the headliners on the second and third line.

And then

we know that's alphabetical order.

Yeah, same size font.

I saw that at first and I kind of caught

on to that because I saw Jelly Roll. Yeah.

I was like, Jelly Roll is at the top of where we're from in the southeast.

Jelly Roll is the top thing going.

So, yeah, I mean, just congratulations, too, on such a well put together,

curated musical festival really is good.

Thank you, guys. I really appreciate it.

All right.

So that was a lot of fun.

A couple of quick things.

First of all, I wanted to say it's the first time in a couple of weeks that we

aren't talking about bluegrass. Yeah, especially you and me.

Some combination of the three of us.

I don't want anybody to say we don't talk about bluegrass on this show.

And there and we joke about that.

But yeah, they were all all three great events that we know they were most

local closer to us, a couple of them.

But yeah, they've got a they got a good thing going down there in Mexico City

that I had heard of.

I knew there was a Corona something, you know, in Mexico City.

But I didn't I didn't know what it was.

Yeah. Wasn't that interesting, though?

I was really curious as to how things were similar and how they were dissimilar.

And not not as you might expect, not that dissimilar, except for the

advertising,

your your catch about the Mexico City being such a great streaming.

Yeah.

I was shocked streaming

Capital of the World.

Capital of the World.

It's got some of the most streaming in the world is in Mexico City and maybe

maybe the entire country for that matter.

But, yeah, I was shocked a little bit because, well, after I was trying to just

figure out as I read a couple of these things was that it's not really a

destination. They're not trying to get Americans there.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, I thought that they would take every single and I when I say local,

I mean, I did mean the whole country.

And I didn't I didn't clarify that well enough, not just Mexico City.

I was pretty surprised to know how many people in that culture really,

really are excited about that kind of stuff.

And they don't need rich people from America.

Now, they want rich people from America.

They come on down. But they take it.

Yeah.

Yeah, that was interesting.

But that was really cool.

Interesting to the changes in the industry, I was that he went right to the mental

health.

That's something we noted on here.

Yeah. You know, a lot of our musical guests that we've had

are either writing about or they've had their own mental struggles or someone in

the band. So, you know, and he said something, too,

that we didn't I just kind of hit clicked in and we just continue to move along is

that the amount of I'll just say the word abuse, but just negativity anyway,

that these bands and band members get sent their way through socials.

Yeah, like that is deterioration of mental.

You know, I got to do this. I got to work so hard.

I got to travel. I got to do everything.

And I'm getting told I'm the biggest bleep in the world every day.

Like I had never really thought of it from that angle.

I thought of it more of a I'm having trouble in my personal life.

Like I'm more conditioned to I know what that's like.

Not on their scale, but yeah, you know,

get beat up online all day long and can really ruin your day.

Nobody likes that. We get a little of that here.

You know, I try to ignore it, but nobody wants to, you know,

as I've always said, nobody wants to be told their kid has big ears.

You know, it kind of can get to you after a while.

So that was interesting.

So anyway, it was a fascinating conversation.

I'm really glad we we did it and put it on the put it on the list.

Another place I'd like to go.

I want to I am so obsessed with Mayan ruins and all of the ancient areas

of the entire country, I want to go bad before we get out of here, though.

I got to say, there's one thing from KFest.

I mean, we've we've spent plenty of time on that.

It was a great time. Everybody knows that.

But a first happened this weekend.

I got or the past KFest weekend,

I got to a festival the exact same time.

Taco did we got there the exact same time.

So that's a first in itself.

And then the the other first is I stayed longer than Taco did.

He left before I did by about two hours.

Wow.

We need to make a note.

Look at that.

The guy who never stays always is late.

That's funny.

The first for everything.

Boy, you guys had good weather, didn't you?

Whew.

You're the best, the best weather.

Yeah, beautiful.

Cold, cold, cold at night.

But fires and and proper packing didn't matter.

It was it was a man.

It was great time. Good stuff.

OK, that's for sure.

All right.

As far as the future, don't know what what it holds.

We've got a lot of things happening in our personal lives, I guess.

Russ will be moving in the next several weeks.

He's got a lot of plates up in the air.

I don't know. It's already begun.

Yeah. And I think we feel like all these damn holidays will be here any second now.

And we probably could use a break before we get back into the next season.

And we're working on what that lineup release is going to look like.

I don't think they're going to tell us

anything right now, but we are certainly at least sending that email.

Hey, yeah, anything, anything.

A heads up.

Yeah, nothing. Nothing yet.

Nothing yet. But.

All right. Well, good.

Thanks, guys, for listening.

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