What if you took the VIP experience of a music festival and turned it into the entire event? That’s the question Festy founder Michael Allenby asked himself last fall, when circumstances made hosting even a small-scale outdoor festival seem impossible.
Fortunately, the word “impossible” isn’t part of Allenby’s vocabulary. Which is why he relocated the Festy from Nelson County to Earlysville, and the grounds-with-a-view at Chisholm Vineyards. He announced that concertgoers could buy tickets in pods of two to six for any of 14 live music shows, and experience them from private boxes, roped off and six feet apart. Contactless food and drink orders were available, as were fancy restroom trailers instead of cramped port-a-potties.
The response? “It was AWESOME!” said one attendee on Instagram. “Very luxurious. Food/drinks were delivered to us super fast, and we could sing our hearts out without disturbing anyone else.”
The entire endeavor was such a smash that not only did it return to Chisholm Vineyards in the spring, but Allenby expanded the Festy to Charleston, South Carolina, and Asheville, North Carolina, scheduling a total of 150 shows running through November. (This season’s crowdsourced local lineup has included Eddie From Ohio, Rising Appalachia, and Aoife O’Donovan.)
“There is no better time to innovate in the live music business than right now,” Allenby says. “I have always fantasized about starting from scratch.”