Subtronics has played to massive festival crowds, but when it comes to producing his own events, he isn’t necessarily rushing to build the next mega-festival.As artists like Excision, John Summit and more are building their own festival brands, he appears content to take the longer road, gaining experience before scaling his productions.
In an interview with Hit Parader, the dubstep superstar discussed the work behind his growing slate of curated events and why he’s choosing to expand cautiously.His clearest example is Cyclops Cove, which returns this December to Sunset Cove Amphitheater in Boca Raton, Florida.
The festival takes place every other year, a cadence he attributed partly to the complexities of booking artists around competing regional events and radius restrictions.Subtronics said his team intentionally keeps Cyclops Cove at a “manageable medium size” rather than taking on more than it can reliably execute.
That translates, he explained, into a more comfortable experience for attendees without overwhelming restroom lines or the logistical pitfalls that come with larger events.“It’s not something that is this tremendously ambitious undertaking of logistics and 1000 moving parts and investing all our life savings,” Subtronics said.
“It’s a comfortable size that we know with our experience we can execute well.It’s a nice enough size where it’s comfortable for all the patrons; it’s not crazy lines and insane bathroom situations.
It’s easy to manage, so it’s nice and it’s almost got a laid-back energy and vibe going on, I really love it.” The challenges have, however, become apparent elsewhere in his growing portfolio of events.GRIZTRONICS at the Gorge, his collaborative festival with GRiZ, was marred by entry delays stemming from venue operations in May.
Subtronics acknowledged the event’s “bumps in the road” but said the experience provided valuable lessons for future productions.He contrasted ...