Broccoli Festival founders Brandon McEachern and Marcus Allen. Photo Credit: Live Nation
Live Nation has officially acquired a “significant equity stake” in Washington, D.C.’s Broccoli City Festival and added the annual event’s founders to its executive team.
Beverly Hills-based Live Nation just recently unveiled the buyout of 12-year-old Broccoli City Festival, and the deal was executed specifically via Live Nation Urban. Billed on its website as “a Black owned social enterprise rooted in a double bottom line strategy that focuses on people and progress,” Broccoli City has featured performances from acts including Lil Wayne, Cardi B, and Lil Baby.
While the involved parties haven’t publicly revealed the transaction’s precise financials, they have emphasized that Broccoli City’s founders, Marcus Allen and Brandon McEachern, have signed on with Live Nation Urban, as mentioned. Allen doubles as the CEO of a Web3 “rewards company” called WeChipN, for which McEachern is CMO.
Now, the two are poised “to scale the Broccoli City brand and catalyze the creation of new content and culture-centric live experiences and festivals,” according to Live Nation, which also took the opportunity to bill Broccoli City as “the largest event in the U.S. for black people under 30-years-old.”
In statements, the Broccoli City creators and Live Nation Urban president Shawn Gee made clear that the new roles of Allen and McEachern will extend far beyond the current festival.
“When we formed in 2018,” The Roots manager Gee said in part, “one of the first deals we did was the original co-promotion deal with the Broccoli City team. I promised the guys that the success of our partnership would lead to greater things, and it was important to me to keep my word. We are not simply investing in a festival; we are investing in these amazing founders. We believe this will be the first of many brands that we will build together with Marcus and Brandon as they have an insatiable entrepreneurial spirit.”
Meanwhile, Allen shed light upon his ambitious vision for the arrangement with Live Nation, which reported record attendance for Q2 2022 and touched a 52-week stock-price low of $73.35 late last month.
“We are going to focus on curating untapped niche markets, bigger partnerships, and international expansion,” indicated Allen. “Reimage the future of live cultural experiences. Our big picture goal is to create a 100-million-dollar community at the apex of live entertainment, social impact, and digital media.”
Live Nation’s Broccoli Festival buyout arrives following the Ticketmaster parent’s purchases of TERO Concerts and Entertainment and Music Management International, the latter of which was promptly rebranded into Live Nation Philippines.