KAABOO, the live event brand that shifted the music festival paradigm by offering a highly amenitized festival experience for adults, is now under new ownership. Virgin Fest Founder and CEO Jason Felts has fully acquired all of the festival brand assets through an affiliate of Virgin Fest, the music festival arm of the Virgin brand. Felts formerly served as a Partner and Chief Brand Officer at KAABOO. The KAABOO brand and signature, multi-sensory experience around live Music, Comedy, Art, and Culinary will remain and KAABOO will not be rebranded.
Founded by Bryan Gordon and Seth Wolkov, KAABOO began with its flagship property KAABOO Del Mar in 2015 and grew to international acclaim with the establishment of a fully sold out festival in the Caribbean (KAABOO Cayman) before then expanding to Dallas/Ft. Worth (KAABOO Texas). The timing of the 100% asset only acquisition of KAABOO coincides with the completion of KAABOO Del Mar’s fifth anniversary weekend, and the festival’s second sold out event. It was also announced this weekend that the Southern California festival would now be known as KAABOO San Diego and would be relocating to Petco Park next year. Going into 2020, KAABOO will soar into a new age of live entertainment, while not losing any of its signature focus on customer service and hospitality.
“I attended the first KAABOO Del Mar in 2015 with my parents,” shares Jason Felts, “given it was KAABOO’s inaugural year, the attendance was low, however it became very clear to me that the vision was truly unique. It also became clear that KAABOO shared a like-minded approach to Virgin with customer service, while delivering a unique, differentiated, multi-sensory festival product. That, of course, is a testament to the Founders’ initial vision supported by an extremely talented team of professionals who executed upon that vision.”
“It was on that basis that we first invested and supported this vision in 2016. We look forward to the future of the KAABOO brand and its festival experiences under our ownership,” Felts continues.
KAABOO continues to fill a ‘white space’ in the festival industry which caters to the underserved adult demographic. With a wide variety of general admission and multiple levels of VIP passes, KAABOO truly appeals to a wide range of adults who seek a different, cleaner, safer, less rowdy music festival experience. KAABOO’s core demographic enjoys a variety of music, is nostalgic, and enjoys a weekend escape of memory making that only KAABOO offers.
“We’re thrilled and delighted to have had this unique vision and grateful having spent the last six years of our lives only to be validated by this acquisition with such an experienced and progressive team,” says KAABOO Co-Founders Bryan Gordon and Seth Wolkov. “We’ve been delighted to entertain hundreds of thousands of live entertainment fans. We are appreciative of Richard and Virgin’s early support of our brand and confident that in Jason and his team’s capable hands, the journey that we started to offer adults a truly differentiated festival experience is sure to live on and grow for many years to come.”
Under new ownership, KAABOO brand fans can expect to continue to enjoy a hospitality-driven KAABOO experience that engages all five senses. The immersive multi-faceted events will maintain the same recipe of delivering world class MUSIC and HUMOR ME comedy lineups; an on-site Contemporary Art Fair in ARTWORK, plus a display of outdoor murals and installations; PALATE gourmet food and craft libation tastings; and a variety of personal indulgences.
KAABOO will explore new partnerships and continue to reimagine and grow the KAABOO live experience brand with cutting-edge offerings and activations.
The acquisition was brokered and negotiated on behalf of Virgin Fest by a team at Latham & Watkins LLP, led by partner Ken Deutsch.
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