Interview with Marissa Luther
Marketing Director of PromoWest Productions
Bunbury Music Festival
Cincinnati, Ohio
June 1, 2, and 3, 2018

In anticipation of June’s super fun three-day, multi-staged Bunbury Music Festival, Adventure Music Life caught up with Marissa Luther, Marketing Director of PromoWest Productions, the owner and producer of the festival. Check out what to expect at Bunbury 2018 and learn some behind-the-scenes in this chat with Marissa!

Bunbury Music Festival. Artists clockwise from top left: Andrew McKellar of Civil Twilight, Brandon Boyd of Incubus, Jared Leto of Thirty Seconds to Mars, Ben Gibbard of Death Cab for Cutie, and Sameer Gadhia of Young the Giant.

The Bunbury Experience
Based on the amazing experience at Bunbury 2017, there were multiple, incredible items to note about the festival. Check out the full details and pictures in the Top Seven super fun things about the Bunbury Music Festival 2017 here, but a quick, recap list is as follows:

1. Music: Consisting of an interesting compilation of mellow rock, absolute rock, electronic, and rap. A true diversity in sound.
2. A Stunningly Beautiful Setting: The festival is set on the riverfront of Cincinnati’s Ohio River within two back-to-back parks: Sawyer Point Park and Yeatman’s Cove.
3. Location, Location, Location: Cincinnati has quite a bit to offer in terms of a fine selection of restaurants, bars, breweries, and suburbs in both Ohio and Kentucky.
4. A Mellow Vibe: Bee Here ● Bee You ● Bee Free was the theme to the Bunbury Music Festival 2017 and it managed to attract a crowd that melodiously worked together likes bees in a colony.
5. Excellent Amenities: Full of the essential comforts and conveniences, plus food vendors, a beer garden, a Miller Lite Truck, misting stations, water stations, and phone charging stations.
6. The Impressive Organization: With perfectly timed performances and an exceptional combination of musical acts, food and drink vendors, staff assistance, amenities, and setting, we all wondered, how was this festival put together so well? (Lots of time and planning!! See below.)
7. Keeping the Buzz Alive: Being thankful that Bunbury is an annual event!

Sound exciting? You bet it is! Make sure to get your tickets, and we’ll see ya there!

A Chat with Marissa Luther
To find out just how the Bunbury Music Festival seems (to attendees) to magically come about, Marissa Luther, Marketing Director of PromoWest Productions provided some inside scoop about the festival, plus a little bit about her role, music, and some career advice.

Marissa Luther making a presentation about Bunbury

How many people were in attendance last year and how many are you expecting this year?
There were about 46,000 people last year, and we’re expecting close to 60,000 this year.

How many years has Bunbury been in existence?
This is the seventh year for the festival, and this is the fourth year that PromoWest has been involved. We purchased the festival in late 2014. (It had another owner for the first three years.) We own the festival, but we’re also the promoter.

What is the best way to describe your role at PromoWest?
I do Marketing and PR as a very short description. But, I also handle everything from press releases to media buys, the marketing budget, ticket trades with outlying area groups, all of the PR surrounding the Press (article interviews, radio interviews, and onsite media activities), anything to do with the bands promotionally (meet and greets and artist interview coordination), and social media is under my umbrella, plus putting out any fires that might arise.

I’ve been with PromoWest for a little over 6 years, and I take care of the marketing for our Columbus venues (Newport Music Hall, EXPRESS LIVE!, A&R Music Bar, and The Basement), and then in 2014 we acquired Bunbury.

How did you come to be in this position and do you have advice for other people wanting to be in this line of work?
I started out in radio promotions as an intern at a local radio station in Columbus. I kind of worked my way up there, and when I left radio, I was a Promotions Director. During my time in radio, I worked with PromoWest because of the four venues in Columbus. We would do ticket giveaways and promotions, so I got to know all the people at PromoWest.

I then did arena show and special event marketing for a couple of years for the Schottenstein Center (home of OSU Basketball) and Nationwide Arena (home of Blue Jackets hockey) in Columbus. When PromoWest built a Pittsburgh venue, and the marketing director in Columbus moved to work at the new Pittsburgh venue, they reached out to me because I had worked at the radio station. I really wanted to promote shows that I was interested in going to. That was my biggest thing.

Regarding my advice, everyone that is sitting in my office right now was an intern; that’s how we started out. And, you just never really say no. Make yourself available for whatever needs to be done. People notice that. It’s very important.

Sameer Gadhia of Young the Giant, a 2018 Bunbury Music Festival artist

How does Bunbury come about? Are you planning for the festival all year long?
Yes. As soon as one festival ends, we’re rolling right into the next year. In the July/August timeframe, we’ll start talking about artists for 2019. In September/October, I’ll start to put my budget together, and we’ll start talking about when we want our lineup announcement to be. The first round of ad buys will be around that time, which is typically in January/February.

On my side and with the booking department, we’re working on Bunbury all year round. Production has a little bit of a different schedule. They can’t do much until all the bands are confirmed, so they probably work on the festival intensively for about four or five months out of the year.

Most people show up at Bunbury for three days and do not realize how much work goes into the festival!
We start building everything about ten days out. It’s like we’re building a little city. Even though the festival is only three days, it takes so long to build, and then tear it all down. Our production guys are onsite early, and then they’re tearing down for about three to four days after the festival.

Brandon Boyd of Incubus, a 2018 Bunbury Music Festival artist

What, in your opinion, makes the Bunbury Music Festival so special?
The location of the festival is beautiful, very easy to get around, and it’s a gorgeous setting when it’s not raining. 🙂 Also, the first three years of the festival were Indie. That was the identity. The first year that we took over the festival, our headliners were The Black Keys, Avett Brothers, and Snoop Dogg. We really wanted to bring more diversity to the lineups. Cincinnati is a very diverse city and we wanted to open the festival to everyone. That has been our goal.

And, we’re not huge, and we don’t want to be. We really like that small, boutique festival setting. The park where we’re at is never going to get bigger, so our capacity is always going to be what it is. We can keep the festival small and still have great sight lines for all the bands you want to see. You can still get back and forth fairly easily between the stages. Especially this year we’ve done a good job of being very diverse, which is what our first mission was, and also getting top talent for what we can do in that setting.

One thing I’m hearing in your career is that you’ve always been somehow part of the music scene. How important is music to you?
I have no talent to play it, so this is the next best thing! 🙂

Bunbury Lineup 2018

Who are some of your favorite artists?
Jack White is one of my top five! So, I’m very excited about this year’s fest. Plus, David Bowie, Pixies, and I’ve been really into Highly Suspect lately.

What was your first concert?
John Denver. 🙂 I was with my Grandma. My mom had just gotten married and was on her honeymoon. I was twelve, and it was the year before he died.

Actual Bee at the Bunbury Music Festival in 2017

Is there anything different this year that Bunbury attendees can expect?
We’re talking internally about how we can capitalize on the bee, our mascot, and what we can do to enhance the festival atmosphere a bit more. I can’t really speak to them yet, but they’re really cool and they’ll be a lot of fun!

Do you have any closing statements or additional information to share?
The goal is for everybody to be safe and have a really good time. We always want to deliver the best time possible. It is what you make of it. We hope everyone comes in with a good attitude, ready to have fun, have a few cocktails, and listen to some great music!

Check back soon for the Top Things about the Bunbury Music Festival 2018!

Austin Bisnow of Magic Giant, a 2018 Bunbury artist

Bunbury Music Festival 2017

Chris Kilmore of Incubus, a 2018 Bunbury artist

Davey Havok of AFI, an artist at Bunbury 2017

James Mercer of The Shins, an artist at Bunbury 2017

Jared Leto of Thirty Seconds to Mars, an artist at Bunbury 2017

Steven McKellar of Civil Twilight, an artist at Bunbury 2017

Marissa Luther having fun in the sun at Bunbury!