“Ashley’s love of music
is embedded in his DNA.
He creates festivals
that don’t begin with a
profit-loss focus but are
truly about the music.
That kind of purity puts
him in rare air.”
—CHARLIE WALKER,
PARTNER, C3 PRESENTS
My Billboard Moment
Capps photographed
by Mike Belleme
on Jan. 13 at the
Tennessee Theatre
in Knoxville, Tenn.
Ashley Capps
FOUNDER/CEO,
AC ENTERTAINMENT
(^)
In 2002, AC Entertainment co-
founded and produced the first
Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival alongside
Superfly. The sold-out event, which
featured headliners Widespread Panic
and Trey Anastasio at Great Stage Park
in Manchester, Tenn., earned the top
festival honor at Billboard’s first Live
Music Summit and Awards in 2004. (It
won again in 2006 and 2008.) Capps
recalls the triumph.
In 2002, industry consensus was that
launching a major rock festival in the
U.S. was a bad idea, following the Wood-
stock ’99 disaster. We were outsiders
operating under the radar as concert
promoters, fighting for respect. After
the first year, we were very proud: It was
unprecedented for a first-year festival
to sell out 70,000 tickets in less than
three weeks. We had worked our asses
off seven days a week for the preceding
three years to accomplish that.
To be nominated at Billboard’s Live
Music Awards was a tremendous
acknowledgment of our efforts, but the
top festival win gave us affirmation from
our peers, and it helped raise the event’s
awareness and profile. Historically, music
has always been a social glue — a shared
experience that brings people together
in communion and celebration. Our
commitment to Bonnaroo’s community is
what sets us apart; [the festival becomes]
the sixth- or seventh-largest city in the
state for four days. It’s fully immersive
and unlike any other festival in America.
—AS TOLD TO TAYLOR MIMS
THE LEGACY
AC Entertainment books and
presents over 1,200 concerts
and events annually.
In 2019, Bonnaroo sold out for the
first time since 2013, with 80,000
attendees across four days.
Live Nation acquired a majority
interest in AC in 2016, and will
wrap its purchase of Bonnaroo,
which began in 2015, this year.
160 BILLBOARD • JANUARY 25, 2020