Festival Industry Comes Together for FestForums in Santa Barbara
Matthew Modine and Sophie B. Hawkins Among Featured Speakers at Live Event Confab
The festival industry is huge these days — the number of emails I get about festivals every week from the music and food and wine sectors alone is mind-blowing — and FestForums focuses its attention on this trend during a three-day conference that’s being held in Santa Barbara February 12-14. Headquartered at the Mar Monte Hotel, conveniently right across the street from East Beach, this is a B2B live gathering for festival producers, organizers, and industry leaders to learn and network all in one place. With representatives from the major power players and household names taking part — think Sundance, Goldenvoice, Live Nation, Food Network New York Food & Wine Festival, and Burning Man, for example — the conference includes various panels, exhibitors, awards, concerts, and parties galore, all designed to cultivate networking in a relaxed, casual, uniquely Santa Barbara style.
There’s also a fair amount of star power at FestForums, with featured speakers including actor Matthew Modine, musician Sophie B. Hawkins, world champion surfer Shaun Tomson, and Festival Promoter of the Year winner John Giddings, who has run the British Isle of Wight Festival since its revival in 2002. Originally dubbed the “Woodstock of Europe,” in the ‘60s, with Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and The Doors, the festival was banned by an act of parliament for the last 32 years as it drew 600,000 music fans and brought the island to a standstill. Under Giddings, it has featured artists like David Bowie, REM, The Who, and the Rolling Stones — this year’s festival features Sting and Justin Timberlake, among others.
How is it that such a star-studded conference has gone mostly under-the-radar locally in its previous seven iterations? “FestForums annual event is one of the most exciting events we have each year in Santa Barbara,” wrote musician and board member Michael McDonald. “It recognizes and honors those who infuse our community with enthusiasm for artistic endeavor and cultural awareness. The conference shines a light on our diverse cultures and artistic achievements and in doing so succeeds in illuminating the vibrant fabric that is America.”
I sat down with conference owner and founder Laurie Kirby last week. An 18-year Santa Barbara resident, Kirby was an attorney on the East Coast for more than 20 years, where she established The Legends of the LPGA, (senior division of the LPGA) and represented professional athletes, newscasters, musicians, golf properties and nonprofits. But Kirby always had a fondness for the arts, and left the law to become executive director of the Newport Film Festival in Rhode Island and later the Ojai Film Festival, where she came to the conclusion, “Why would anyone ever want to leave California?”
Working in those capacities, “I started to see a pattern that these festivals had no networking, no unity, no uniformity, no education or educational ways to kind of get together, unlike in law, right? As a lawyer, continuing education was part of what we’re mandated to do. But in festivals, there was no place to go, and I could see some of the same pain points,” said Kirby.
She worked for another company that did conferences for festivals, and when they sold, she decided to create FestForums, approximately 10 years ago. “I had always wanted to do my own thing and run my own business. And this seemed like the perfect opportunity to create what I envisioned would be a networking best practices and festival conference.”
Kirby added, “There’s an entertainment component to it, with films and filmmakers and directors and musicians and chefs and so forth. So, it was all-encompassing as a festival and a conference — and still is.”
Since it was one of the first conferences of its kind, not everyone understood it right away. “So, some people really got it, and other ones did not. But ultimately, FOMO won out when I created something that was not only educational but was fun. And having it in Santa Barbara was, I think, what sealed the deal,” said Kirby.
“There are, to my knowledge, no other entertainment conferences in Santa Barbara. So, it became a very special place for people to go to. And also, the majority of festivals are California-based, although we draw from New Orleans, New York, Miami, Austin, and all over the world now,” she said.
In terms of the content, Kirby curates approximately 20 panels, with discussions geared toward both legacy festivals and newer festivals (the state of the industry, artist-curated festivals, brand partnerships, ticket platforms, risk management, social activism, sustainability, etc.). She expects about 500-600 attendees this year (“It’s hard to say with the fires in L.A.”), and the exhibit hall booths are sold out.
Asked what she’s most excited about for 2025, Kirby laughed, “The cocktail parties? Truly, everyone loves that, because after they’ve been listening all day, people like to decompress and meet each other, and it’s a really great opportunity for them to come together and discuss what they’ve learned and how they’re going to continue to collaborate.”
For more information, see festforums.com.
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