Interview: BBE Talk FOMO 2020

The New Zealand festival scene has grown over the last few years thanks to the increase of touring artists. One of the more recent festivals that punters are gravitating to is FOMO.

What started as a one-day festival in 2016 in Australia, has grown to multiple dates with the inclusion of New Zealand. Jess and Anand Krishnaswamy aka BBE have created a festival with no clashes, a lineup that includes a mixture of hip-hop, pop and electronica, and much more.

In 2020, BBE have booked the likes of Lizzo, Brockhampton, A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie and more.

Prior to FOMO’s second festival in New Zealand (January 15th), I caught up with the team and spoke about booking Nicki Minaj, expanding to other parts of New Zealand, what fans can expect from FOMO in NZ, and more.

Hey guys, I appreciate you taking time out of your busy schedule to talk with me. Firstly, I’d like to thank you for bringing Nicki Minaj to New Zealand for FOMO 19. Looking back on the year and the number of acts that have toured, I highly rate Nicki’s performance as one of the best of 2019. How were you able to secure someone of that status to headline FOMO? Nicki isn’t exactly known for her festival shows.

We got lucky with Nicki, she has a great Agent who believed in the unique offering of FOMO and the rest is history. Certainly a massive career highlight!

Before you even launched FOMO in New Zealand, you had side-shows with SZA and Post Malone. Both shows sold out very fast. Now, you have Lizzo a part of the 2020 class. Your team have an eye for picking talent prior to them blowing up. How do you discover these acts?

It’s really just a relentless passion for music and for finding acts with potential. The music itself guides everything we do, without great songs, a great album, no real growth is possible.. So if we love the music and time it right, the sky's the limit!

How early on do you start booking acts and planning for the following year?

The FOMO booking process is a year-round job, we’re looking at 2021 acts now before the 2020 tour is even over. 

You see other festivals or shows having to cancel due to permits and visas not being granted in time. How early on in the process do you start securing these?

Another year-round job, but the visa process starts about 6 months out from the tour commencing.

One thing I highly rate about FOMO is that there is one stage and no clashes. Do you consider this as one of the reasons why FOMO has been successful?

What customers want is always changing, but when FOMO started 5 years ago people were tired of the mega festival and ready for a simple, more curated experience. If the audience are open-minded about allowing us to program very different genres all together on the one stage, then they’ll almost certainly be rewarded with a different and great experience! 

How important was it to partner with another promoter in NZ for FOMO?

Fuzen are our family, we couldn’t have had any of our success in NZ without them - best operators, best people. 

Many organisers in Australia are pushing for pill testing at their festivals. Would this be something that you would want to implement at FOMO?

If it becomes a legal/viable option for us we would implement this along with any/all harm minimisation strategies to keep our punters safe. 

Have you thought about expanding the festival to other parts of New Zealand?

Once we nail Auckland and give everyone the best possible experience then why not! We’d love the excuse to travel to other parts of NZ.

Working in an industry that never sleeps, are you able to relax so you don’t burn out?

We live and breathe what we do and have burnt out many times over, we still don’t have the work-life balance right - but we hope to one day! 

What made you want to be a part of the industry? And what’s something you wished you knew about it prior to being involved?

It really just comes from our lifelong love of music and the joy we feel playing a small part of watching an artist grow and create a beautiful career in this part of the world. Nothing better than connecting an artist with their fans.

How big is your team?

Tiny! 3 of us own FOMO and our touring company BBE and we have 4 full time and 2 part-time staff. 

If there was one act/group you could book for FOMO, who would you pick?

Argh, there are so many it would be hard to pick just one!

Last question. What can punters expect from FOMO 2020?

Top-quality production, insane performances from the artists, exciting NZ debuts (Lizzo, Rico etc) and an all-round great night of music. We are excited to get there really soon!

Thanks for speaking with me. FOMO 2020 is going to be something special, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who thinks that. Bring on January 15th.

Thanks so much Ange!