We Talk with Booking Agents About Music Festivals

Over the years we've interviewed artists, venue owners, management, and more…but never the people who actually put artists on the road and on the stage. Today, Brad and Barry talk with Ali Hedrick and and John Bongiorno of Arrival Artists break down how booking works in a normal year and during a pandemic. This is a fascinating peek behind the curtain into what goes into the booking process, and we find out what we were wrong about in the past.Also, Brad teases a little bit of news coming that's going to make big waves in the festival world. Find out what that could mean for Bonnaroo in September and hear what John and Ali have to say about the likelihood of us returning to The Farm this year.______ CHAPTERS (00:00:00) Intro (00:04:00) Brad Teases a Piece of News (00:15:46) Interview with Ali and John (01:19:43) Outro______ CaveFest at The Caverns, Oct 10-11, 2026 | Get Tickets Here! 🎧 LISTEN LINKS Website: https://thewhatpodcast.com Spotify: https://thewhat.co/spotify Apple Podcasts: https://thewhat.co/applepodcasts YouTube Music: https://thewhat.co/youtubemusic Amazon Music: https://thewhat.co/amazonmusic 📱 SOCIAL LINKS Discord: https://discord.gg/zShHTeCYGn YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@thewhatpodcast X: https://x.com/thewhat_podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thewhatpodcast/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewhatpodcast/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thewhatpodcast The What Podcast theme: "Aquarius" by *repeat repeat, used with permission. Other music provided by Midist and used with permission. We love to hear from you! Send us an email at [email protected] or call (423) 667-7877 and leave us a voicemail. We might just feature it on the show.