A few weeks ago, my wife mentioned that the assistant site director at the music school we own together was heading to California for “another EDM festival.”
Another one. I nodded and moved on. Later, curiosity got the better of me, and I looked it up.
The festival was Head Trip, a one-time-only event Goldenvoice — the company behind Coachella — staged October 10–11 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio. Calvin Harris. Skrillex. Swedish House Mafia. Okay, I know those names. Then I kept reading. FISHER b2b Chris Lake. Dom Dolla b2b Kettama. Seth Troxler b2b Ben Sterling. DJ Harvey. Floating Points’ Sunflower Sound System.
By the bottom of the lineup, I was struggling with who’s who. Yet every one of those artists means something real to a lot of people. I just hadn’t wandered into their world.
Here’s a dad of two in suburban Kansas City who works in music every day, and a festival this size still caught me flat-footed. I need an EDM sherpa to help me navigate this landscape.
We All Live in Bubbles
I’ll go first: I’m guilty of this. When you know your corner of the business well, it’s easy to assume your view covers more ground than it does.
Work, family, and the routines that hold a week together don’t leave much time for exploring. My teenage daughter and 12-year-old son are my best windows into what’s happening. They hand me things I’d never find on my own. But even with those windows and a genuine willingness to learn, I’ve got blind spots.
That’s worth remembering the next time something feels small or fringe. We should be careful about discounting something simply because it hasn’t reached us.
Big Audiences, Different Rooms
Technology lets music communities grow without regard to geography. A scene can form across thousands of miles and a dozen time zones. Every genre has its own stars, its own tastemakers, and its own paths to discovery.
That means something can sit at the center of millions of people’s musical lives while barely registering in my professional circles. Head Trip is the example. My shaky grasp of the lineup sat right alongside a festival that took over the same polo fields Coachella uses, with a stage that became one of the most talked-about productions of the year.
So here’s the question I keep asking myself: How much of what we believe about the music business comes from the small slice we see every day?
Pack a Bag
Exploring another music scene is a lot like traveling to another country. You can wander around and guess, or you can find someone who knows the territory — your sherpa — and let them show you what matters.
Take Head Trip. Instead of spreading acts across multiple stages, Goldenvoice put everything on one massive stage built by Romain Pissenem’s High Scream, the production company whose résumé includes the closing ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics. No schedule conflicts. Every fan shared the same moment. Then Apple Music livestreamed main stage sets both days, its first festival partnership at that scale, so fans who couldn’t make the trip still got the show.
Radio people, promoters, and artists can learn from that. A shared experience is powerful, and extending access doesn’t cheapen it.
Now think about NPR’s Tiny Desk. It started in 2008 at Bob Boilen’s actual desk, after he and Stephen Thompson couldn’t hear Laura Gibson over a noisy SXSW bar. An office. A few feet of floor space. No light show. And it became one of the most recognizable performance formats in music.
The lesson for an artist or a station? You don’t need a desert and a laser rig to create something people recognize instantly. You need a clear idea and the discipline to repeat it.
The point isn’t to copy EDM or NPR. It’s to understand why these approaches work and adapt the useful parts for your own audience.
Stay Curious
“Another EDM festival.” Behind those three words was an entire world I’d barely glimpsed.
You don’t need to recognize every artist or follow every scene. Nobody can. But make room to investigate something unfamiliar before deciding whether it matters.
My not knowing about it tells you something about my bubble. It tells you very little about how big the world outside it has become.
Barrett Media produces daily content on the music, news, and sports media industries. Sign up for our newsletters to stay updated and get the latest information right in your inbox.
