The Broccoli City Music Festival Trapital

Today I’m joined by Brandon McEachern and Marcus Allen, the co-founders of Broccoli City. The music festival makes its return to Washington D.C. on May 7-8 with a stacked lineup that includes Gunna, Summer Walker, Wale, and plenty more stars from the world of hip-hop and R&B. The black-owned promotion had not one, but two events canceled in the past two years. During the forced downtime, festival co-founders Marcus Allen and Brandon McEachern made a conscious decision to not just return for 2022, but come back better than ever. 

Specifically, the two wanted to leverage the Broccoli City platform to create black change. Since starting in 2013, the festival has always catered to black people first and foremost. But in 2022, it’s aiming to give its fans better resources well beyond the music grounds. The duo is accomplishing that in the form of an expo that’ll feature job/internship opportunities, health/wellness tools, financial support for small businesses, and forums on criminal justice issues, amongst other things. The expo is one component of what the festival organizers are calling BLK Change Weekend. 

The world and the music festival industry have transformed plenty since Broccoli City’s last show in 2019. However, Brandon and Marcus are not just changing with the times — they’re creating it with new initiatives too. Here’s what we covered in this episode of the Trapital podcast: 

[0:00] Broccoli City Returns For 2022
[3:10] The Optics Of Bringing Back Broccoli City After Two Years Of Cancellation 
[6:34] Artists Charging More For One-Off Festival Than Tour Event 
[12:25] Managing Egos When Creating Festival Flyers 
[14:31] Changing Nature Of Agents With Talents
[19:05] Broccoli City’s Biggest Advantage Over Other Festivals
[23:15] Measuring Success For The Festival
[25:25] Anticipating Whether An Event Will Succeed Or Won’t 
[27:15] How Loyal Are Customers To Certain Festivals? 
[29:01] Ongoing Challenges Of Being Black Execs In Music Festival Scene
[31:15] Influence Of The Live Nation Partnership 
[34:47] Lining Up The Festival With BLK Change Weekend
[41:39] What’s In Store For The 2022 Event?

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Host: Dan Runcie, @RuncieDan, trapital.co

Guests: Marcus Allen, Brandon McEachern
 
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Transcription
Marcus Allen 00:00
Ain't no better feeling to know coming into the event is going down like that, feeling that morning. Those mornings be like the best mornings because you really, there's two times it's the day you drop in in the morning of the festival that is just there's nothing like those two days coming into that time, and those are moments that you really appreciate and you cherish and we've had mornings that have felt good like that. And we may have some mornings and then feel bad because we always walked into the festival that morning, knowing it was about to be a win.

Dan Runcie 00:40
Hey, welcome to the Trapital Podcast. I'm your host and the founder of Trapital, Dan Runcie. This podcast is your place to gain insights from executives in music, media, entertainment, and more who are taking hip hop culture to the next level. Today's episode is with Brandon McKay Hearn and Marcus Allen. They're the founders of Broccoli City. It's a two-day music festival that's based in DC that has headliners, Annie Lenox, Summer Walker, they have Lil Durk, Gunna, and great lineup of some of the biggest names