Los Angeles Music Festival® Origin Story
Hard to believe it’s been 26 years ago since I rented rooms in this house on Paramount Drive and founded Los Angeles Music Festival®. It was spawned by the Global Internet Gathering (1996), the first international internet music festival. At the time I was a NYC entrepreneur and my company Vision Broadcasting had a foothold in the music space on the World Wide Web and a lease on a funky loft at the corner of 56th Street and 8th Avenue. At the time that word started circulating about The Gig, I had recently set up a showcase for a band at West Hollywood's Roxy Theater. Afterwards, the Viper Room hooked us up with a table and we finished the night at the Riot House.
It made an impression and followed a series of extraordinary experiences kicked off when a German promoter sent me to the 1984 Castle Donington Monsters of Rock featuring AC/DC, Van Halen, Ozzy Osborne, Accept, Gary Moore and Motley Crue. While there I interviewed Angus Young and Brian Johnson and Nikki Sixx and met Ozzy Osborne.
Anyway I sold Los Angeles Music Festival® sponsorships to Tower Records and United States Satellite Broadcasting and put up a website. Tower Records put up a Los Angeles Music Festival sign outside the famed Sunset Blvd store in West Hollywood it was on! It was an auspicious moment and everything seemed possible. That year and the next Los Angeles Music Festival® made a splash with shows at the Troubadour, Whisky A Go Go, Billboard Live, Viper Room, Coconut Teaszer, Dragonfly and Jack’s Sugar Shack. More live shows and entertainment websites followed, including a period streaming House Of Blues live concerts. Then in 2015, I started the internet radio station that is now the music pillar of the Los Angeles Music Festival® communications platform.
It’s been a long road inspired and sustained by music listening and discovery, idealism, advocacy, work and “ganas.” It's been fun. And I’ve been making worthy contributions as a journalist, civil servant, small business owner and family man all along the way. It's not about money although I’ve spent plenty. I'm seeking a moral victory with a public benefit.
Meanwhile Los Angeles Music Festival® is amassing a social media footprint that has surpassed many of LA’s leading non-profit music enterprises. @LAMusicFestival on Twitter has over 14K followers which is considerably more than LA’s own Department of Cultural Affairs, Grand Performances and The Broad Stage. LA County Department of Arts & Culture, Grand Park LA and The Music Center are in the crosshairs.
So what now? The Los Angeles Music Festival® opportunity transcends my personal interest and combines exquisite music, a compelling origin story and ethos with a mindfully curated presence in the global digital and social media ecosystems. We shall see.