TFV Presents: Breakaway Interview
Breakaway Festival is coming to a city near you! Check out their events in Kansas City, Grand Rapids, Columbus, Charlotte, and Cali! Grab tickets HERE! Check out our exclusive interview with one of the promoters of the event, Zach Ruben!
1) When did you start throwing events?
Both Adam and I started when we were in college, myself at University of Wisconsin and Adam at U Mich.
2) What is your favorite thing about throwing events?
Bringing people together and creating new experiences
3) What is the inspiration behind a traveling festival?
To let fans from all over the country experience our event and bring these festival experiences to mid-market and underserved cities, similar to our home base of Columbus, OH
4) How do you pick your locations?
We traditionally look at mid-sized markets, typically B and C markets, that have young demographics, growing population, maybe are home to a large university or in the vicinity of one, are a home base for large companies that have a younger DNA and also doesn’t already have a similar festival in the space
5) What is the most challenging thing about throwing a festival?
Booking your entire teams travel
6) What is one of your favorite memories from planning a festival?
I always love looking back to certain surprising moments, good and bad. The best is when we book an artist we believe has a high trajectory and It pays off, like the year we booked Chance the Rapper for Breakaway Ohio in 2016 and did nearly 20k attendees. Or times when I am trying to source more stage decks or CO2 gas for production a day before the show.
7) How do you decide which artists to reach out to in order to book them?
We as a collective team like to think we have a good pulse on what’s hot. We employ a lot of young people in our organization and lean on them for suggestions and ideas based on what is currently “cool”. Back that up with a handful of other indicators and factors and we go to work on building these unique line ups.
Grab tickets HERE!