In this bonus episode, I’m chatting about the upcoming Bamboozle and Adjacent festivals hitting NJ this spring.
Show Notes and Transcript
Hey everyone welcome to the Eat Sleep Breathe Music podcast. I am your host Jeanette Kimszal. For those of you just joining us, this is the podcast where I talk about different musicians and how their music affects me and then play I track of theirs for you to listen to.
However, today I am doing something a little different. It’s a bonus episode of sorts.
What prompted this whole thing? I bought some concert tickets yesterday. I wanted to see Fall Out Boy. I saw they had a presale.
And of course, there are no ticket prices until after the presale happens I was able to get the presale code and I was online.
I don’t know what it is. I like Fall Out Boy. I saw them at the HellaMega Festival. I was like, “you know I don’t know how often they are going to be on tour.
I like their new song. I like their old stuff. I don’t know what it is. There is just something I love about them. Good memories. Good music.
And they played a really good show the last time I saw them. The first time I saw them they were like meh. And this time it was a really great show.
And this time they are playing at this venue PNC. It’s an amphitheater. The cool thing about PNC is that there are lawn seats.
So even if you want to go to the concert and not pay a bunch you can get the lawn seats. You can bring a blanket you could…they rent chairs now.
They used to let you bring in your own chairs but I guess maybe it got out of hand so now they are renting chairs. It’s also another way to make money.
So yeah, I don’t love the venue. But it’s better than having to go to Madison Square Garden. Because…I don’t know why I’m so not into going to big areas anymore.
So I was excited and I was like “let me see what is going on with the ticket prices and how crazy they are.”
But they were so expensive. The 400 section, or maybe it was the 300 section. The 300-section was going for like $167. That’s including all the Ticketmaster fees.
And then I kept clicking things and everything started disappearing (laughing). And I’m like “this is it’s just insane” (laughing).
It wasn’t as bad as that Taylor Swift debacle where you were in a que of 2,000 people and never getting anywhere.
But it was still…you would click on something and it would be gone. You would click on something and it would be gone.
And I don’t know why but I have this thing where you want to get as close as possible because it’s just better. But it was expensive. So it’s one of those things where it’s like “how much do I like this artist?”
Or how badly I want to go and is it worth the price?
Now they have these premium tickets. Not VIP. All the seats in the 100 section are now considered official platinum tickets by Ticketmaster and it says they are premium tickets at concerts made available by artists and event organizers.
It’s great they want to do this but at the same time, it seems like everything is just so expensive. And it’s probably because everything is so expensive now.
And people want to get paid. And they should get paid for their time and energy and artistry. And it takes a lot of people to put together these shows and they have to pay the crew. And they have to pay for gas and traveling expenses.
So you know of course when everything is expensive tours are getting more expensive. It’s understandable and it’s very frustrating because there is Ticketmast which owns everything. They are a monopoly.
I was looking today to see what the ticket prices were because I was wondering if they were already all sold out or already doing re-seller tickets because you know that is what happens.
People buy all the tickets and then resell them. And it’s so weird because I see here there is a 300 section going for $195 and it says it’s an official platinum seat but that’s not any near the front of the venue so I don’t understand that at all.
They do have something that if you want to get a 4-pack of lawn seats those aren’t bad they are only $35. That’s the nice thing this venue has an alternative you don’t want to pay expensive prices.
I guess it’s something the band…looking at this website, it seems it’s the band that kind of helps to coordinate these.
It’s just so frustrating because Ticketmaster is the only thing out there. These artists…they can’t do anything. You either have to work them. The venues have to work with them. They own everything.
I remember one year. I think it was NIN who had a concert and they didn’t want to deal with Ticketmaster. So they had people line up at Radio City and I know because my husband went. He got there super early. It was so 90’s.
I remember that was the thing. You could go to a record store you would go before it opened. You would get in line then you would get a wristband and would find out if you can get good tickets based on the wristband (laughing).
I don’t know if that would work nowadays. We are just used to being able to get things online. And it’s nice to be able to get things without leaving home.
I don’t know. I wonder if the monopoly of Ticketmaster will ever be broken up. That’s just my rant for this week (laughing).
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With it being January and a new year there are a lot of shows, a lot of concerts, and festivals that already..their lineups have been announced.
There is so much going on. I see Stone Pony has been promoting stuff for their summer stage. They had a couple of things announced. They’ve got YUNBLD coming. They have Frank Turner and the Interrupters, They have Young the Giant.
That’s actually pretty cool because we had featured them as a Rocking Under the Radar artist back in 2010
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And it’s gonna be an expensive summer. It’s gonna be an expensive time (laughing).
I’ve just been trying to figure out what to do. Because there are also the festivals. How expensive is going to be? Sometimes you have to pick and choose.
We are lucky to be in NJ. I feel lucky to be close to Asbury and there are three festivals that are happening in NJ. And those festivals are expensive.
Well, the Sea Here Now Festival hasn’t been announced yet. Their lineup is gonna be announced next week. I think. February 7th so It’s just a lot going on and a lot of things
And speaking of the festivals happening in NJ. There are two that are happening like two weeks apart from each other in Atlantic City.
One is the Adjacent Festival and which is on May 27th and which is Memorial Day weekend. And then the other is Bamboozle. That is two weeks later before Adjacent Festival from May 5th to May 7th.
Both of them are in Atlantic City. Bamboozle is being held at Bader field and Adjacent is going to be on the beach. Which I wonder if it will be similar to the warped tour the 25th Anniversary did back in 2019.
That was a fun show. There is something so special about being at a concert on the beach. Before that, the first time I had seen a concert on the beach was back in 2012 when Bamboozle was held on the beach in Asbury.
I don’t remember ever seeing any other concerts in Asbury on the beach cause they would do the Warped Tour there but it was always in the parking lot.
It was never on the beach. I remember people swimming in the ocean at the Warped Tour but I don’t remember. I don’t remember the bands ever playing on the beach before Sea Hear Now or Bamboozle.
There is just something so relaxing about listening to music while you’re sitting on the sand. So I wonder if the Adjacent Festival will be similar to the setup of the Warped Tour set up or … I mean I’m sure it will be different because it is a different festival but I mean in the same vicinity as where the warped tour was.
And as I said Bamboozle will be in Bader Field. This is an old airport that now houses different festivals throughout the year.
It’s kind of a shame it can’t come back to Asbury. It seemed like a success. It could have even been what inspired the idea for Sea Hear Now. That has been successful going for the last few years and it’s getting bigger.
It’s surprising that people are coming from other states. To see this festival. Last year we met some people from Maryland and were like “woah! this thing is getting big and people are coming just to do this festival?”
It’s so neat to have something like that in our area. It’s a fun, fun thing to have to do in the summer. Or the end of the summer. It’s neat that it’s growing.
So it is kind of a bummer that Bamboozle can’t be in Asbury this year. And I didn’t know at the time there is a specific reason why that is…why that is the case.
And after researching and looking up the festival information I found out that there was a break between the creator John D’Esposito and LiveNation and House of Blues.
They had creative differences that happened at the end of the festival in 2012. Then D’Esposito announced he was no longer a part of the festival.
I don’t remember hearing any of this but I was in school at the time and for like 2 years I was all about nutrition and I didn’t have anything else outside of just going to school (laughing).
So what happened was that Live Nation had gotten most of the stake in the festival but we didn’t hear anything about Bamboozle for years. LiveNation didn’t do anything with it. They just shelved the festival and actually let the trademark expire.
There was an article on APP dot com. The article had quoted D’Esposito was quoted saying he was begging Live Nation to do this thing and he’s like “c’mon.” And he called his lawyer and they told him Live Nation had abandoned the trademark.
Then he had to pay $885 to have the festival again because Live Nation had let it expire.
So once D’Espito had the festival in his hands he started planning the rebirth of Bamboozle. That was also when we started getting these teaser promotions and you saw all the articles in the music outlets talking about the rebirth of bamboozle and how the rebirth of Bamboozle and how Bamboozle coming back in two years.
And it was all this nostalgia and everyone was so excited to see Bamboozle but it was still two years away.
So we went on with our lives and waited patiently for updates on the festival.
Then on Tuesday, October 25th, 2022 we get news of this new festival, The Adjacent Festival happening in New Jersey. And it may not seem like a big deal, but new festivals are popping up all the time.
However, the interesting and quite coincidental thing about this particular festival is that it is in Atlantic City and 2 weeks after Bamboozle.
And it was also a Ticketmaster show which I thought was interesting and I was curious who was putting this event on I went to their website and I couldn’t find anything. There was nothing. It was surprising to me that there was no information on what company was putting this together.
I was also interested because you could get press access. Or inquire about getting press access. Cause sometimes with new festivals it’s a little bit easier to get press access to the show.
Because I remember one time I got access to a newer festival The Catalpa festival in New York happened because it was a newer show.
I was like maybe this would be something fun to try and cover. But I got no information. I don’t even think there was a contact on their website. And I haven’t looked back since because I figured it was a big shot in the dark to get press access to the show.
I just thought the whole thing was very…very strange and I wonder if this whole thing is an FU to Bamboozle.
Are they doing this out of spite? Or is it a coincidence? Because it is a Ticketmaster show and it just seems…kinda…weird.
And it sucks because the lineup is so good (laughing). You look at the bands and it’s a lot of stuff that was like at Bamboozle.
The lineup gets you pumped and then you look at the prices and you go “oh?”
Do I want to spend $400 on a two-day festival? Or $800 in my case because I would be going with my husband. And you know that doesn’t even include food and lodging.
I mean we live close enough that we could drive down there each day. But then we have to pay for parking.
And that’s money too. And it’s just all these fees add up. And it’s just two days.
And I’m trying to remember what we paid for the Warped Tour in 2019. And I feel like we had paid $400 for two tickets and I remember thinking that was really expensive.
And I didn’t know if we should go and I remember saying to my husband I’m like this is a lot of money maybe we shouldn’t go to this.
And that was when we were still going to a lot of concerts because it was before Covid.
And you know we wound up going because the lineup was great and there were a ton of bands that we wanted to see and that wasn’t playing in a while.
And we saw a ton of bands and we were really happy that we went.
So now I’m having like this FOMO for this Adjacent Festival thinking how often are these bands gonna play?
Blink 182 and Paramore are on tour right now but how often are they gonna be on tour? Are they gonna be playing together forever? Probably not.
And it’s just terrible this feeling of missing out (laughing) and wanting to go to these shows.
But I don’t know. It’s kind of ridiculous how expensive these things are getting. I”m just curious who the demographic is for these prices. Because I talked to all my friends everyone seems to be outraged at these prices.
I have friends who are huge fans of these musicians and they can’t just justify paying $400 for a ticket.
And Bamboozle their prices aren’t really much better. The one thing at least you can say about Bamboozle is it is a 3-day festival. It’s not just two days.
The money you get out of it is an extra day. So you can $700 for two people and you’ll get three days of music.
So I mean you know, in that respect it is better. That’s the thing I don’t understand now. They are coming out as just two-day festivals.
It’s nice because yes, you don’t have to take off work. You don’t have to take an extra day off. I remember we went to Lollapolozza and we had to take time off not only because we had to fly there but because you know the festival was three days.
It started on a Friday and we had to take off. So it is nice there is that weekend festival you don’t have to take work off for.
Although if you are flying in and are staying there you will have to take off work anyway.
So you’re getting a little bit more for your money with Bamboozle.
Though depending on your taste in music and the bands you like you may not want to go to Bamboozle at all. You may not feel like any…I…I like…I thought the lineup wasn’t bad. I know a lot of people were pissed off because they haven’t announced all the headliners.
There is still a lot of stuff greyed out and a lot of people are pissed off. Because they felt the lineup was not meeting their expectations of the bands that they thought were going to play.
But there are still a lot of good artists on that lineup. Somehow I missed all of the information about Bamboozle in the initial lineup announcements.
I can’t really remember Bamboozle. I remember the Adjacent Festival announcement thinking it was a really great show and that it was really expensive.
And I can’t believe that was just November because it seems so much longer ago.
I don’t remember hearing about Bamboozle or anything in November but I don’t go on social media a lot so I am a little out of the loop with things.
I think I randomly had the radio station on in the car one day and they had an announcement for Bamboozle and I was like “oh this lineup sounds good too.”
And I know everyone has their own preference when it comes to music but hey you never there could be some artist announcements you could really be psyched over.
Just going back to the Adjacent Festival if Bamboozle had intended to some of the artists that are playing Adjacent Festival and they weren’t able to…I mean that’s a real bummer.
And it seems like there is a little bit of a…not like a feud going on. But if you look at the…I decided to go on social media to see all this stuff. I just to see if there was more information about Bamboozle’s lineup (laughing).
And I was scrolling back and there’s a little bit of a passive-aggressive…a little Bamboozle vs. Adjacent festival. And people have even been making memes.
And it’s hard to compare the two because they are different festivals. Adjacent Festival is brand new and we don’t really know what it’s doing. Bamboozle has this whole history and legacy.
And it’s a mish-mosh and it’s always been a mish-mosh. It’s kind of cool because you can find new artists that maybe you didn’t listen to.
And that’s the best thing about music festivals in general. There are so many new artists you can find.
I remember a lot of people weren’t really into the lineup last year at Sea Here Now. People were complaining about it or saying it doesn’t make any sense.
But it was a good show. And I found a lot of new bands. We saw Idles and we saw Wet Leg. And they both put on a good show and now we found new music to listen to.
So I wouldn’t disregard bamboozle yet. I’m interested to see who is in those greyed-out names on the lineup. I’m interested to see who is headlining the show.
At this point, I don’t know what to do. I wish these shows were later in the summer because then you could plan them around other things.
That’s the problem there are so many concerts that haven’t been announced yet. We gotta figure out what we are doing pretty soon though because it’s already February.
I’d love to know what your thoughts are about this whole thing. Do you think that it was just a coincidence or something that was just intended to be and it was kind of like a manipulative tactic?
Are you going to Adjacent Festival or Bamboozle? Are there any other shows you are psyched about seeing this year?
You can tell me in a comment on the podcast webpage. You can also leave an audio comment at the link in the episode summary. Or if you want to email me you can send me an email at Jeanette@EatSleepBreatheMusic.com
For more information about the Adjcent and Bamboozle festivals, you can check out their official websites.
That’s www.bamboozlefestival.com and www.adjacentfestival.com.
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