Music festivals are big business, and nowhere are they bigger than in the United States. Of all the big events in the world, the top five moneymakers are all in America. In fact, the top five biggest festivals earned a combined $183 million in ticket sales last year, and that is saying nothing of additional funds brought in by sponsorships, merchandise sales, or food and alcohol sales.
There are now literally hundreds of music festivals in this country, and they take every kind of form imaginable. The biggest success stories are those that are able to attract hundreds of thousands of people with some of the most famous names in the music world. These five have done so for years now, and are always looking for new ways to revolutionize everything from ticketing to the customer experience, making these shows even more fun than they already are.
5. Stagecoach
Number five is a bit of a surprise, as it is the only country music-focused show anywhere near the top. You may expect such a successful country festival—it earned just over $18.5 million in ticket sales in 2015—to be somewhere in the south, or perhaps in Texas, wouldn’t you? Stagecoach is actually held at the same space in California as Coachella, so we can imagine that land being worth a pretty penny.
Taking place in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, Outside Lands is a feast for the ears and the eyes. Last year, a diverse lineup of headliners like Kanye West, Tom Petty, The Killers and Death Cab For Cutie all helped bring in $19 million.
3. Lollapalooza
Lollapalooza is one of the original music festivals, and its initial success likely lead to plenty of others starting up. The Chicago institution has been around in one form or another since 1991, and in the subsequent decades it has branched out to several international editions. 2014’s Grant Park showing raked in almost $29 million. While this list is just the top five, if it expanded by another five spaces, numbers six, eight, and nine on that list would be other Lollapaloozas around the world.
2. Austin City Limits
ACL takes place every October, and is one of several big festivals that the city sees every year, with the other, the more industry-facing South By Southwest (SXSW), being held for several weeks in March. Austin City Limits is much friendlier, offering tickets as cheap as $50, which is a good strategy—it did help organizer C3 Presents collect $38 million in ticket sales last year.
1. Coachella
Last year, the festival brought in an incredible $78 million. That’s an enormous figure, especially considering that they runner up, Texas’ Austin City Limits, only brought in just over $38 million. That’s certainly a respectable amount for a festival, but it is telling that the next rung up on the ladder is almost double what ACL brought in. Coachella remains the undisputed moneymaker when it comes to music festivals, and while there is still plenty of money to be made in the festival scene, that crown will likely remain where it is for some time.
