Southern California promoter Synergy Global Entertainment (SGE) announced Wednesday that the company will shut down following the successful two-day hip-hop event Real Street Fest in Anaheim over the weekend.
Despite the overall success of Real Street Fest, which was the biggest outdoor festival of its kind to be produced at Honda Center, Billboard reported that SGE’s shut down was linked to a number of big losses in 2019 in the festival market which made the company “no longer financially viable.” The losses included the low-selling Disrupt Festival Tour headlined by The Used, Thrice, Circa Survive and Sum 41 and July’s Mad Decent Block Party Festival, headlined by Billie Eilish, G-Eazy, Major Lazer and Miguel in Foxborough, Massachusetts which was forced to cancel due to “circumstances beyond our control,” the promoter said in a statement at the time.
Even Real Street Fest – featuring performances from recently embattled hip-hop star A$AP Rocky, Cardi B, Migos and Big Sean– was no longer an SGE event. According to Billboard, weeks before the festival, Reese had to tell his partners at the Honda Center and REAL 92.3 FM/ iHeartRadio that he could no longer financially back the event and ultimately withdrew as a partner, although he still played a role in helping produce the event.
Most of the staff for the company will be picked up by L.A.-based event producer Danny Wimmer Presents (DWP), the promoter behind the Aftershock Festival in Sacramento, Epicenter in North Carolina and others. SGE’s website is no longer active.
The Laguna-Hills-based promotions company, created by John Reese in 2005, made a name for itself by throwing large scale events in Orange County like Sabroso Craft Beer, Taco and Music Festival, Back to the Beach Festival, the Musink Tattoo Convention & Music Festival and many more.
The events largely spanned throughout OC and San Bernardino County and catered to fans of niche, genre-based festivals.
Behemoth L.A.-based promoter Live Nation also tapped SGE to become a partner on the Ohana Festival, which is now in its fourth year and takes place annually at Doheny State Beach Sep. 27-29.
The Ohana Festival will proceed as planned, a Live Nation spokesperson said Wednesday, following news of the SGE shut down.
The other two-day fest SGE has on its calendar is On The Water Festival, Oct. 12-13 has also been cancelled. The event, co-curated with the band Slightly Stoopid, was slated to include sets from The Dirty Heads, 311, The Interrupters, The Expendables and others.
Reese and SGE did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
BottleRock 2019: Neil Young Breaks Curfew, Pharrell Speaks Out Against Anti-Abortion Laws (Photos)
Imagine Dragons, Neil Young, Mumford & Sons, Santana, Pharrell Williams, Logic, Lord Huron and Flora Cash were among the musicians taking the stage at the 2019 BottleRock Napa Valley festival over Memorial Day weekend. Not even unseasonably cool weather and the threat of rain could dampen the spirits of the 40,000 fans at gathered at the Napa Valley Expo grounds.
Courtesy BottleRock Napa Valley
Imagine Dragons set the tone for the weekend on Friday night by delivering an important message in between performances of hits like "Believer" and "Radioactive." Lead singer Dan Reynolds took time between songs to talk about the normalization of depression and anxiety, encouraging anyone who suffers from them to speak with a therapist, telling the crowd that he has been seeing one since middle school.
Courtesy BottleRock Napa Valley
Along with performing fun, bouncy tracks like "Happy" on the Firefox stage on Saturday night, Pharrell Williams also had something important he wanted to share -- this time about the importance of women's rights in the wake of recent anti-abortion laws. Williams gave a shout out to all of the women-- mothers, sisters, daughters, wives and aunts -- before closing out with a goose-bump inducing performance of "Freedom."
Courtesy BottleRock Napa Valley
Saturday night headliner Neil Young has been singing protest songs since 1970's "Ohio" about the Kent State massacre and no one was gonna shut him up now -- not even BottleRock's strict 10 p.m. curfew. The 73-year-old rocker kept on playing 1989's “Rockin’ in the Free World" even after festival organizers cut off the sound system, encouraging the crowd to sing along with his backing band, Promise of the Real. Young and his entourage then hugged it out on stage before making the exit of the weekend.
Courtesy BottleRock Napa Valley
Woodstock alum and guitar legend Carlos Santana came armed with messages harking back to the Summer of Love, telling the Sunday night crowd to "feel your light and do something positive with it." His wife, Cindy Blackman Santana, then delivered an epic drum solo -- but it was the little kid dancing on stage with maracas in a Stephen Curry jersey who really stole the show.
Courtesy BottleRock Napa Valley
While some acts took a serious stance, Sunday headliners Mumford & Sons told the crowd that they "came to have a f---ing party with you." It seemed only fitting that the band took to the stage as the clouds cleared and a rainbow lit up the festival grounds. The British folk rockers ripped through renditions of favorites like "Little Lion Man" and "I Will Wait" with boundless energy, before closing out covering The Beatles’ "With a Little Help From My Friends."
Courtesy BottleRock Napa Valley
BottleRock is famed for its culinary events almost as much as the musical acts, along with bizarre stunts that blend the two. Sunday evening saw rocker Alice Cooper join forces with celebrity chef Andrew Zimmern in an attempt to break a word record for the most rubber chickens tossed in the air at the same time. The strange stint harked back to the infamous 1969 show when Cooper threw a live chicken into the audience, who promptly shredded it and threw the pieces back on stage. "It had wings, it had feathers, it should fly," Cooper said behind his reasoning, adding that he soon realized "chickens don’t fly so much as they plummet." The attempt to get into the Guinness Book of World Records also fell flat, as they failed to break the previous record.
Courtesy BottleRock Napa Valley
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Imagine Dragons and Santana deliver important messages, while Mumford & Sons just came to ”have a f–ing party with you“ at Napa Valley’s annual music and culinary festival
Imagine Dragons, Neil Young, Mumford & Sons, Santana, Pharrell Williams, Logic, Lord Huron and Flora Cash were among the musicians taking the stage at the 2019 BottleRock Napa Valley festival over Memorial Day weekend. Not even unseasonably cool weather and the threat of rain could dampen the spirits of the 40,000 fans at gathered at the Napa Valley Expo grounds.