There was a time when Irvine had a chance to become Southern California’s premier outdoor concert destination. Instead, it appears the city decided that what Orange County really needed wasn’t blockbuster tours, sold-out amphitheater nights and internationally recognized artists.
No. What Irvine apparently wanted was a civics lesson in how to turn a premier venue into the municipal equivalent of elevator music. Case-in-point, the July 4 celebration with music by the Pacific Symphony Orchestra and Air Supply – that adult contemporary duo that had a string of soft rock hits from 1980 to 1985. I was a part-time DJ at a commercial radio station then and relish the day I last played “I’m All Out of Love” on the air.
The undisputed leader in live music/concert tours and venues is Live Nation. The best tours and best acts use Live Nation and Tickmaster. There was an agreement with Live Nation and the City of Irvine for live music venues at The Great Park where the contract wildly favored Live Nation. And Irvine was featured in an April New York Times story about Live Nation being a bully and changing terms of an agreement that already favored them placing more costs on the city.
From the story: “In the months after the vote, a temporary amphitheater, Great Park Live, was established while Irvine plans for another permanent outdoor theater. Officials project that the proposed new 10,000-seat amphitheater, with an estimated price tag of $200 million, will have more seating, draw larger acts and contribute more revenue to the city.
Landscaping work for the new theater, called theAmp, has already begun, and construction is to start in 2028.
So far, no operator has been selected.”
More on this in a bit.
Then came the announcement of the Daisy Chain Fields Festival, hosted by Olivia Rodrigo and a stellar list of talent in Irvine on August 29. Good luck getting tickets.
The inaugural Daisy Chain Fields festival features an all-women and female-fronted lineup across two stages that isn’t the Lilith Faire.
Main lineup
- Olivia Rodrigo
- Bikini Kill
- Chappell Roan
- Die Spitz
- Doechii
- Eli
- Garbage
- KATSEYE
- Mitski
- Not For Radio
- Quiet Light
- Rachel Chinouriri
- Santigold
- The Breeders
Special guests
- Karen O
- Sarah McLachlan
- Stevie Nicks (yes, that Stevie Nicks whose library of songs from the 1980s doesn’t suck)
The festival is expected to feature 14 performances across two stages, with all net proceeds benefiting nonprofit organizations that support women and girls. Excellent.
And this announcement proves all along that Irvine could draw a Class A tour for outdoor music at the Great Park without the 800 lb gorilla called Live Nation.
Except that’s not the case.
The Daisy Chain Fields festival is made possible with assistance from Live Nation, the very company Irvine politicians spent years criticizing, lecturing and ultimately pushing away.
The festival can thank Live Nation subsidiary company C3 for the intervention.
C3 Presents is effectively part of Live Nation.
Here’s the ownership structure:
- Live Nation Entertainment acquired a controlling 51% interest in C3 Presents in December 2014.
- The remaining 49% has continued to be owned by the company’s three founders:
- Charles Attal
- Charlie Jones
- Charlie Walker
Today, C3 operates as a Live Nation subsidiary while retaining its own management team and brand.
C3 is one of the most influential concert and festival promoters in North America. It produces or co-produces major events including:
- Lollapalooza
- Austin City Limits Music Festival
- Bonnaroo
- Governors Ball
- Shaky Knees
- Oceans Calling
- Railbird
- Sea.Hear.Now
- Innings Festival
- Ohana Fest.
This relationship is relevant if you’re looking at venue operators or sports facilities because C3 frequently books and operates Live Nation-controlled venues, including Austin’s Moody Center, and serves as Live Nation’s festival division for many large-scale events.
For years, members of the Irvine City Council treated Live Nation as if it were the villain in a Marvel movie. Every negotiation became a morality play. Every discussion was wrapped in lofty rhetoric about “community values,” “local control,” and whatever the political buzzword of the month happened to be. And I’ll fully admit, Live Nation could have done a much better job working on a better contract between them and the city. Those members of the city council with actual business experience should have been more involved. Letting academics and non-profit members get deep into business negotiations didn’t help Irvine – especially if Class A entertainment bookings were the goal.
The rejected agreement called for a $130 million venue, with Live Nation contributing $30 million and exclusive booking rights, drawing on their vast experience that includes absorbing all the risks. When a show cancels for any reason (weather, sick artist, pandemics, bands breaking up, you name it), the promoter eats the cost not Irvine’s taxpayers.
Now under the city’s new plan they’re paying $50,000 per month for a consultant to reimagine a new permanent venue. Early estimates put the cost at $200 million and counting. That’s an expensive imagination.
The implication was always the same: Irvine didn’t need the world’s largest and most successful concert promoter. City officials knew better.
Apparently, booking concerts is easy.
Just ask anyone who’s never booked one.
And while the contract with Live Nation and Irvine was way more favorable to the company than the city, what were taxpayers left with?
The Great Park Amphitheater reportedly continues to require millions in annual public subsidies — $6 million a year — while taxpayers wait for the entertainment renaissance they were promised. What we get is the Pacific Symphony gets free access to perform – no rent is collected. And there’s a bunch of halfway decent cover bands playing the venue – often the same ones that show up for free concerts at a nearby park sponsored by your HOA.
Instead of unveiling a calendar packed with today’s biggest touring acts, Irvine residents get announcements that feel like someone dusted off a stack of cassette tapes from the Reagan administration (I kept all my vinyl but none of my cassettes).
This is supposed to be the payoff after rejecting one of the most experienced concert promoters on Earth? There’s no question Live Nation knows how big and powerful they are, but if you’re looking for tier one entertainment to stop in Irvine, they are still the best option.
Daisy Chain is receiving assistance from Live Nation to help make this event happen.
So after years of suggesting Live Nation wasn’t the right partner for Irvine, the city now finds itself benefiting from Live Nation’s expertise anyway. It’s almost as if booking concerts is harder than giving speeches at City Council meetings. Who knew? Certainly not Kathleen Treseder, or her then bestie Tammy Kim, or the writers of posts at Irvine Watchdog who I might usually agree with on many issues. Not this one.
The entertainment business is brutally competitive. Artists have choices. Promoters have relationships built over decades. Tour routing is an art form. Major acts don’t simply wake up and think, “Let’s play Irvine because the council really likes transparency.”
No. They go where experienced promoters can guarantee attendance, logistics, marketing and profitability. Those relationships matter. That’s why companies like Live Nation dominate the industry. Not because they’re lucky. Because they know what they’re doing. But Treseder was quoted by the NY Times about what a monopoly Live Nation is. Will she tell Olivia Rodrigo “you can’t play here?” I hope she’s smarter than that.
Irvine has been taught an expensive lesson.
Reports indicate the Great Park Amphitheater continues operating with a substantial annual deficit measured in the millions of dollars. Every year those losses continue is another reminder that good intentions don’t necessarily translate into successful entertainment management. And this is on top of the bloated budgets council members have for staff (where some make close to $180K a year in total compensation), and overstaffed city initiatives that are costing way too much money.
Los Angeles books virtually every major world tour. The Honda Center attracts arena acts. The Kia Forum remains one of the industry’s premier venues. Even smaller venues throughout Orange County routinely attract nationally recognized performers, especially during the Orange County Fair.
And while Air Supply’s songs have endured for decades, I bet getting good seats wasn’t that tough or expensive. Perhaps city leaders envisioned creating a uniquely Irvine entertainment experience. Well, mission accomplished. I’d like more events like Daisy Chain Fields. And unlike Air Supply, Stevie Nicks (Bruce Springsteen, U2, the Rolling Stones, the Eagles and others) are acts from the 1970s and 1980s that people would still pay top dollar to see.
Where else could you find a publicly subsidized amphitheater, annual operating losses, years of political controversy and then celebrate success by relying on help from the very company you spent years criticizing? That’s almost performance art.
Programming evolves. Relationships develop. Fair enough. But expectations were also set sky high. Residents were told Irvine didn’t need the industry’s biggest promoter. Residents were assured there was a better path. Residents were promised something different. What we have now isn’t close to Irvine Meadows. Remember Wango Tango?
Maybe Irvine really does aspire to become America’s premier destination for tribute shows and symphonic recreations, and sing-alongs to sons that are pushing 45 years old. If that’s the vision, congratulations. Mission accomplished.
But if the goal was to build a world-class entertainment destination capable of competing with the region’s biggest venues, the results so far suggest otherwise. At some point, reality has to matter more than political talking points. The live entertainment business rewards experience, relationships and execution—not campaign slogans.
Live Nation didn’t become the world’s leading concert promoter by accident. It earned that position by consistently delivering artists audiences actually want to see.
I’m certain the Daisy Chain Fields Festival will be an enormous success. And then I hope the city and LiveNation can sit down to renegotiate a new deal that’s better for the city and good for the partner.
Lastly, if those think this piece comes out of nowhere, I don’t know a single person at Live Nation. I know only one person involved with Live Nation and Irvine’s business dealings and have not Spoken to that person for several years. My wife is an entertainment business reporter with Reuters, a global international news wire service (listen to her on KPCC/LAist every Thursday at 6:44 am, 1:44 pm and 5:44 pm). She’s been covering the entertainment business for decades (including Disney, Paramount, and Netflix…and others).
We talked about getting tickets for Daisy Chain and she was aware of Live Nation’s involvement. I just followed the facts along the way for this post. She is not writing about the event.
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