Coalition of Festivals
We are a coalition of festival directors, producers, and department heads committed to integrating social safety and sustainability into our festivals – throughout our grounds, behind our stages, in our offices, and in our lives.
Future Festival Leaders
Current Festival Leaders
About Our Coalition
2025 Festival & Live Events Production & Project Management Training Program
Thank you for your interest; applications are now closed. Participants will be notified in August 2025. If you are interested in offering education or work-based learning opportunities, please contact a steering committee member!
In partnership with The FAM, BRIC Foundation, and Los Angeles County Department of Economic Opportunity, Coalition of Festivals expands its initiative to develop a career-ready workforce for the live industries with the launch of our Festival and Live Events Production and Project Management Training Program.
This program builds upon our 2023 Future Festival Leadership Trainings with additional education and work-based learning components that align with BRIC Foundation's AME-HRTP competencies, so participants can gain exposure to production and project management careers in festivals and live events, as well as earn a digital badge and certificate of completion to support future career pathways.
Thank you to core service training providers South Bay Workforce Investment Board, Entertainment Industry Foundation, Group Effort Initiative, as well as the Entertainment Equity Alliance, California Department of Education, and California Division of Apprenticeship Standards for enabling us to prepare Californians to join the live industries as well as supporting our live events and their host communities throughout California.
2024 Camp Flog Gnaw Community Day
In 2024, Coalition of Festivals and The Fam – an organization launched by 2023 future festival leader Aaron Raus – participated in speed mentoring table talks along with executives from AEG Presents, Goldenvoice, Converse, Taco Bell, and Amazon Music during Tyler, The Creator's Camp Flog Gnaw Community Day.
Hosted by AEG Presents and Goldenvoice, Community Day was a career exposure initiative for more than 65 high school students and young adults from the local community to learn about various careers in the live entertainment industry.
2022-2023 Future Festival Leadership Training Program
In 2022 and 2023 – with support for and from our founding impact partners Diversify The Stage, Well Dunn Foundation, shesaid.so, and Roc Nation School of Music, Sports and Entertainment at LIU Brooklyn – Coalition of Festivals launched the Future Festival Leadership Training Program to solve two major talent pipeline problems the live industry faces:
1. Demystify the live industry with training programs to prepare a career-ready workforce.
2. Diversifying festival management to include underrepresented individuals.
The first edition of the training program took place in 2022-2023 with 14 future festival leaders joining 28 current festival leaders for a series of #RealTalk sessions and 1-on-1 mentorship conversations.
2022-2023 Future Festival Leaders
Aaron Raus
Anita Obasi (shesaid.so)
Brenda Ceja (Well Dunn)
Chinaecherem Nwaubani (Well Dunn)
Christlie Jean-Baptiste (Roc Nation @ LIU)
Erin Furton
LaTisha Stephens (Diversify The Stage)
Marissa Solis (Diversify The Stage)
Tyler Butler (Well Dunn)
Patrize Richards (Roc Nation @ LIU)
Quella Gu (Diversify The Stage)
Temi Joseph (Well Dunn)
Vix Brand (shesaid.so)
2022-2023 #RealTalks with Current Festival Leaders
1. Festival Production & Budgeting
Kyle Casey (Gravity)
Katelyn Scott (Fox Pocket)
Jen Stiles (Founders)
2. Community Relations & Permitting
Erin Bilbo (Goldenvoice)
Jeff Cuellar (Sixthman)
Naraya Mercado (Founders)
3. Site Infrastructure, Design & Operations
Melanie Dorf (Goldenvoice)
Adam Galay (Noise Academy)
Kierrah Matthews (Goldenvoice)
4. Security, Safety & Access Control
Inez Lopez (Goldenvoice)
Sully Sullivan (Warped Tour)
Kyle Casey (Gravity)
5. Stage Production & Management
Jon Baden (AEG Presents)
Bryan Berge (Gravity)
Barcley Boyd (Gravity)
6. Talent Curation & Booking
Danny Bell (Goldenvoice)
Paul Peck (Fandiem)
Jonathan Azu (Culture Collective)
7. Talent Relations & Hospitality
Saira Anderson (Hulaween)
Talia Ortisi (Goldenvoice)
Lily Huerkamp (Coalition of Festivals)
8. Marketing & Communications
Megan Adams (Outside Lands)
Leesa Allmond (Superfly)
Kaaj Patel (Goldenvoice)
9. Sponsorships & Partnerships
Alex Machurov (Fandiem)
Prue Marek (Live Nation)
Katelyn Scott (Fox Pocket)
10. Sustainability, Impact & Wellbeing
Jocelyn Gan (A Greener Festival)
Sunny Sohrabian (LA28 Olympics)
Evan Tzeng (StayAltered)
2021 Current Festival Leadership Training Program
In 2021, over 20 leaders from 10 festivals joined together for a training program led by SHIFT. Each training was paired with closed-door discussion circles led by Coalition of Festivals.
1. Leveling up from Allyship
2. Challenging Implicit Bias & Microaggressions
3. Unpacking the Gender Binary
4. Building a Culture of Consent
The training program and discussion circles examined how implicit, explicit, and structural problems show up in society, in our festivals, and in our own lives.
2020-2021 Current Festival Leadership Conversations
Shut down by the global pandemic and in the wake of the murder of George Floyd, in May 2020, Evan, Jen, Jonathan, Katelyn, Kierrah, and Kyle began discussing the unique role of festivals in society and our unique responsibilities as festival leaders.
We deeply understood the cultural impact and influence of festivals. We acknowledged the privilege of organizing these transformational experiences. We also recognized the growing duty of addressing real-world ills and inequities within our own festivals.
We opened our discussion to include more leaders. All of us shared our hopes and concerns for how festivals returned. All of us also agreed on the urgent need for more community building, knowledge sharing, and critical training.
In 2021, over 20 leaders from 10 festivals joined forces to launch the Coalition of Festivals under two pillars:
1. Be The Change: Programs for current festival leaders.
2. Create Change: Programs for future festival leaders.
2020 Discussion Participants
Jonathan Azu (Culture Collective)
Jonathan Baden (AEG Presents)
Kyle Casey (Day N Vegas + Second Sky)
Laura Day (Burning Man)
Charlie Dolman (Burning Man)
Mary Beth Elam (Old Soul Production Services)
Steve Feener (Superfly)
Cole Froelich (Coachella + Stagecoach)
Inez Lopez (Coachella + Stagecoach)
Kierrah Matthews (CAA)
Brandon McEachern (Broccoli City)
Stephanie Mezzano (Firefly)
Veline Mojarro (SHIFT Consulting)
Michael Sampliner (Electric Forest)
Katelyn Scott (Buku + Hangout)
Jen Stiles (Governors Ball)
Bryant Tan, (Burning Man)
Evan Tzeng (Altered)
Katelyn Yount (Firefly)
Molly Zidow (Danny Wimmer Presents)
Special Thanks
Ken Weinstein (Big Hassle)
Law Offices of Stephen Goldstein
Jasmine Carpentier
Frances Yang
Tristan Hunt, Greg Marshall & Ben Turner (Association for Electronic Music)
Noelle Scaggs & Tadia Taylor (Diversify The Stage)
Kerry Black & Rick Farman (Superfly)
Nancy Tarr & Christopher Dunn (Well Dunn Foundation)
Janine Small
Tiffany Yu
Laura Carter
Debbie Speer (Pollstar)
Press Coverage
The Follow Through Starts NOW! The Industry Unites To Launch Coalition Of Festivals (Pollstar)
New Festivals Coalition Aims to Create a More Equitable Live Music Industry (Billboard)
Coalition of Festivals launches to promote an equitable and sustainable music festival industry (Hypebot)
The Coalition of Festivals Launches In North America (Celebrity Access)
Impact Partners
Coalition of Festivals is proud to be a founding partner of the Entertainment Equity Alliance, a coalition of mentorship, training, and employment pathway programs to promote diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility within the entertainment industry.
Industry Partners
Coalition of Festivals is promoter, production company, and festival agnostic. Industry partners aligned with and committed to the objectives of the Coalition include:
Steering Committee
Coalition of Festivals is a community-based organization with representation from a cross-section of the live industry as well as social safety and sustainability advocates within and adjacent to the live industry. 100% of contributions fund the Coalition's activities for future festival leaders, current festival leaders, and impact partners.
