With great risk comes great reward and this weekend two new festivals launched in NYC. It almost felt a little greedy. After all of the amazing festival music this summer was there any way to top it?
Both The Meadows and The Roots Picnic were epic undertakings and a huge congrats to Live Nation and Founders Entertainment because they pulled it off. I’ve never seen Bryant Park so well orchestrated. From the outside looking in, putting on a two day festival on the outskirts of Time Square, on a busy fall weekend sounds insane (and the perimeter of the park was certainly chaotic) but I can tell you that from the inside it was magical.
The city was shining and the crowd moved easily from stage to stage checking out the acts. The Roots did an amazing job of curating and Live Nation did an amazing job of producing it. It looks like it all paid off as crowds enjoyed a great mix of new talent and rare collaborations. Including the finale of David Byrne, Alicia Keys and Wu-Tang backed by The Roots.
While I was at The Picnic, my Nue business partner and brother Alex took in The Meadows near his happy place Citi Field. The Meadows was also very strong despite the unfortunate events. Personally, I’m proud of the fact that Kanye stopped his set early due to his family emergency. That’s family values right there. And in the end the issue got The Meadows even more press than a normal Kanye set.
But beyond that Founders Entertainment now have done the impossible and built two successful NYC festival franchises and have successfully wrapped up festival season. Especially this year, with no CMJ, there seems to be a bit of a void in the NYC fall music scene. My plan is to put my head down and go hard working on some new-Nue projects. Let’s see what we can create this week.
– @JesseKay
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