INTERVIEW: In California, enjoy concerts from the comfort of your car
Photo: CBF Productions presents “Concerts in Your Cars” at the Ventura County Fairgrounds. Photo courtesy of CBF Productions / Provided by press rep with permission.
With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to disrupt the live-entertainment industry, individual promoters and producers have started to think outside the box. Leading the way in Southern California is CBF Productions, the company behind such beloved events as the Boots & Brews Country Music Festival and Tequila & Taco Music Festival.
Their new concept is called “Concerts in Your Cars,” which takes places in the Ventura County Fairgrounds parking lot in Ventura, California.
“It’s been quite the journey, but we’re really excited how it’s turning out,” said Vincenzo Giammanco, founder and CEO of CBF Productions. “My company has been around since 2009, and we normally produce 12 large-scale events a year that range anywhere from 15,000 to 30,000 people. … And March hit, and basically I came to the realization that potentially the whole year could be squashed and done.”
Giammanco and his team needed to pivot in order to keep offering entertainment to their many fans. As the CEO put it: they needed to do something. There were no alternatives.
“This is all we really know how to do, so we were kind of opening our mind up to this different idea,” he said. “And my wife and I were driving by the Ventura County Fairgrounds because we just aimlessly drove around during quarantine just to kill time, and there was this parking lot empty there. And I’m like, wow, why don’t we do concerts in your car, something like that. It was just a quick idea, and then one thing led to another, which led to another, and boom here we are. And so that’s how it really formed.”
That initial idea has changed in the ensuing months, but one thing has remained constant: this needs to be a great experience for the consumer. Giammanco wants fans to enjoy one concert so much that they come back again and again.
“You purchase your tickets online, and then you come through,” he said of the process of enjoying the show. “You go through security, and basically you come into the parking lot. What we did is we put the stage in the center of the fairgrounds, so we parked cars 360 degrees around the stage.”
This “stage-in-the-round” concept gives each and every patron a solid view of the stage. Traditionally an outdoor concert has one big stage to the left or right, and there’s a crowd of people emanating from the stage to the “nose-bleed” seats in the back. For “Concerts in Your Cars,” there are no nosebleeds.
“Then we have large LED screens above the stage, and so you’re able to see six to 10 cameras per show,” he said. “So you’re able to always get the best view of wherever the artist is performing. … Then the sound is broadcast over an FM transmitter into your car, and then we also have an app because we have a lot of older vehicles, some classic cars showing up. So they bring a boom box and do their blu-tooth with their app, so that’s kind of cool. And we also do a Zoom feature where we Zoom into people’s cars and put it up on the big screen, and [this] kind of makes everyone feel connected even though we’re socially distant. So it’s really a cool thing. You bring your own food and beverage. There are no food or beverage sales on the site. You’re able to come and picnic. It’s really great for families.”
Getting out of one’s car is OK, but masks are required — ditto for social distancing. Essentially all patrons need to stay by their car, which is their “seat” for the concert. There are restrooms scattered throughout the grounds, and they are cleaned every 15 minutes.
Then, of course, there’s the entertainment. On Aug. 15, the outdoor concert series welcomes Switchfoot, followed by an Aug. 21 event with Tracy Lawrence. David Spade and Rob Schneider bring the laughs for two shows on Aug. 28, and Fitz and the Tantrum finish out the weekend Aug. 29. Upcoming movie nights include showings of The Princess Bride, Frozen II, Edward Scissorhands, The Sandlot, The Lion King and Die Hard. There are also tribute shows, highlighting the music of Selena, Elton John, Paul McCartney and Andrew Lloyd Webber.
“Normally these bands wouldn’t even consider to come here,” Giammanco said. “They’d be busy on tour, and we couldn’t make it work. And so this pandemic has brought really quality entertainment to Ventura County, and we’re just really excited about it. … I don’t really think we’ve even scratched the surface of what this entertainment is going to be. It’s going to keep growing.”
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Concerts in Your Cars, from CBF Productions, is currently running at the Ventura County Fairgrounds in Ventura, California. Click here for more information and tickets.
