[Dixielandjazz] George Wein Sells Most of his Jazz Festival Business

[Steve Barbone]

Interesting take on the BUSINESS of Jazz Festivals. Note that the New
Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival will not be affected by this sale as Mr.
Wein is a partner there, not the sole owner.

Interesting concept of "destination" festivals as well as festival
sponsorships of Mondavi Wines, Corona Beer, and Kool Cigarettes. Yessir,
"Cigarettes, and Whiskey and Wild, Wild Women", The very basic ,ingredients
of jazz.

Maybe "Playboy", or "Girls Gone Wild" will get more involved?  As long as it
ain't "Bum Fights" or "The View". :-) VBG

Cheers,
Steve Barbone


George Wein Sells Company That Produces Music Festivals

NY TIMES - By BEN RATLIFF - January 25, 2007

George Wein, the producer of music festivals including the JVC-sponsored
jazz festivals in New York and Paris and the Newport festivals of jazz and
folk music, announced yesterday that he had sold his company, Festival
Productions Inc. 

The buyer is the Festival Network LLC, a newly formed New York-based
entertainment production company. The transaction has been described by both
parties as a merger, and Mr. Wein declined to say how much money changed
hands, other than that it was ³in the millions.²

The sale means that Mr. Wein, 81, will have a more diminished role in the
jazz-festival business, in which he has been a pioneering force since the
first Newport Jazz Festival in 1954 and in which he has continued to be the
most powerful figure.

His own staff members will remain on a three-year contract, he said, and
little will be changed for now in the booking of the festivals. ³We¹re going
to go on exactly as we¹ve been going,² Mr. Wein said.

Festival Productions Inc., with Mr. Wein as chairman, will become a division
of the Festival Network, headed by Chris Shields, a 36-year-old entrepreneur
who was previously founder and president of Shoreline Media, a
music-festival production company.

Originally from Boston ‹ as is Mr. Wein ‹ Mr. Shields has a résumé in
concert production that includes a stint in business development with Mr.
Wein¹s company in 1996-97; producer of 1998¹s Nectarfest in Nantucket and
Martha¹s Vineyard; a job with Knitmedia as director of New York¹s Bell
Atlantic Jazz Festival in 2000; and a hand in developing musical events
during the Olympic Games in Athens in 2004 and Turin, Italy, in 2006.

In an interview Mr. Wein said others had wanted to buy his company before,
including Black Entertainment Television, which very nearly struck a deal
with him in 1998. ³But nobody seemed concerned with the legacy of Newport,²
he said. Mr. Shields, he stressed, wants to preserve the Newport name. ³He¹s
from New England,² he said, ³and it means a lot to him.²

Mr. Shields has formed the Festival Network with Richard Sands, the chairman
and chief executive of Constellation Brands, the largest wine conglomerate
in the world, whose brands include Mondavi wine and Corona beer. Mr. Sands
will be an investor and strategic adviser to the company, and Joseph
Stanislaw, former president and chief executive of Cambridge Energy Research
Associates, will be the company¹s chairman.

The focus of Festival Networks, Mr. Shields said in an interview, is
³destination² music festivals. ³It¹s core to the business,² Mr. Shields
said. ³It doesn¹t mean that large cities can¹t be destinations as well;
we¹re not talking about small, affluent destinations alone. But when you
think about Monte Carlo, Jackson Hole, Nantucket, Newport, there¹s brand in
the names already.² The Festival Network, he added, will now own the name
and brand of the Newport Jazz Festival.

Mr. Shields promised ³subtle increases in quality of sound and physical
aesthetic² for all the festivals affected by the merger. But the arrangement
comes down to new corporate sponsorships for 13 to 15 festivals under Mr.
Wein¹s aegis. (The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and the Essence
Music Festival are run by a separate company, Festival Productions ‹ New
Orleans, in which Mr. Wein is a partner, and will not be affected by the
merger.) 

He said Mr. Sands, of Constellation Brands, had been especially attracted to
the idea of using a single music-festival sponsor like Mondavi or Corona in
many different markets. This is something Mr. Wein has done before with JVC,
Kool and other sponsors. But the Festival Network will widen the circle.

Asked his new title within the larger business, Mr. Wein said ³Boss,² and
laughed. ³I¹ve never reported to anybody except myself,² he added. ³Now I do
have responsibilities to report, but in my mind I¹ll always be the boss.²