Live Music News / Industry Notes
Good Men Project Publishes Omar Afra Essay on Festival Economics
The essay uses Afra's experience with large-scale independent festivals to examine risk, cultural value, and the difference between impact and profit.
· Live Index Editorial Desk
Good Men Project has published an essay by Omar Afra, founder of Free Press Summer Fest and Day for Night, on what he learned from spending millions on festivals that did not turn a profit.
The piece is personal, but its implications are broader. Independent festivals often carry civic, artistic, and economic value that conventional event accounting does not capture. They can shape a city's identity, create durable cultural memory, and still leave organizers exposed to enormous downside risk.
For Live Index, the essay belongs inside the larger conversation about festival economics, ticket pricing, consolidation, promoter risk, fan costs, and the future of live music infrastructure.
Read the full article at Good Men Project.