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 “in the millions.”
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. “We’re going to go on exactly as we’ve been going,” 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. Wein’s company in 1996-97; producer of 1998’s Nectarfest in Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard; a job with Knitmedia as director of New York’s 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. “But nobody seemed concerned with the legacy of Newport,” he said. Mr. Shields, he stressed, wants to preserve the Newport name. “He’s from New England,” he said, “and it means a lot to him.”
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 company’s chairman.
The focus of Festival Networks, Mr. Shields said in an interview, is “destination” music festivals. “It’s core to the business,” Mr. Shields said. “It doesn’t mean that large cities can’t be destinations as well; we’re not talking about small, affluent destinations alone. But when you think about Monte Carlo, Jackson Hole, Nantucket, Newport, there’s brand in the names already.” The Festival Network, he added, will now own the name and brand of the Newport Jazz Festival.
Mr. Shields promised “subtle increases in quality of sound and physical aesthetic” for all the festivals affected by the merger. But the arrangement comes down to new corporate sponsorships for 13 to 15 festivals under Mr. Wein’s 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 “Boss,” and laughed. “I’ve never reported to anybody except myself,” he added. “Now I do have responsibilities to report, but in my mind I’ll always be the boss.”
No comments:
Post a Comment