Music festivals have evolved into multi-billion-dollar entertainment businesses that extend far beyond live concerts. Today’s biggest events combine music, travel, food, art, and immersive entertainment into destination experiences that attract hundreds of thousands of attendees while generating revenue from ticket sales, sponsorships, hospitality, and premium offerings.
That transformation is creating opportunities for newer festivals to scale quickly. Few examples illustrate the trend better than Experts Only Music Festival, the electronic dance music event founded by DJ and producer John Summit, which returns this September after a sold-out inaugural edition.
Unlike traditional concerts centered on a single performer, festivals feature dozens of artists across multiple stages, creating destination-style experiences many fans increasingly prioritize over individual shows. Despite inflation, higher ticket prices, and cautious consumer spending, demand for live events has remained resilient as consumers continue splurging on experiences over material purchases.
Few festivals better illustrate that long-term business model than Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Tomorrowland. Now, Experts Only is attempting to follow a similar path.
Experts Only Music Festival returns after sold-out debut
Founded in 2025 by Summit, Experts Only Music Festival is a two-day electronic dance music event featuring emerging and established artists across multiple stages. The festival is co-produced by Medium Rare, Relentless Beats, and EMW PRESENTS.
The inaugural edition sold out within days and attracted more than 50,000 attendees, making it one of New York City’s largest first-year electronic music (EDM) festivals in recent years.
Much of that momentum stems from Summit’s rapid rise within EDM. The former certified public accountant has become one of the genre’s biggest stars, with nearly 13 million monthly Spotify listeners and more than 1.8 million Instagram followers. His first headlining performance at Madison Square Garden sold out in less than two hours in 2024, highlighting the strength of his audience ahead of his own festival launch.
Still, building a successful festival is far from guaranteed.
When Coachella debuted in 1999, organizers attracted roughly 25,000 attendees but reportedly lost about $850,000, forcing the festival to skip the following year, according to the Recording Academy.
More than two decades later, Coachella has become one of the world’s most successful music festivals. Its 2026 edition topped $200 million in revenue across two weekends while welcoming approximately 750,000 attendees. Against that backdrop, Experts Only’s immediate sellout stands out as an unusually strong debut.
The 2026 Experts Only Music Festival will take place Sept. 19-20 at Randall’s Island Park in New York City with an expanded lineup and additional fan activations.
Full Experts Only Music Festival 2026 lineup
Experts Only Music Festival returns with more than two dozen artists. Here’s the complete lineup:
Saturday, Sept. 19
- John Summit
- Max Styler b2b Adam Ten
- Prospa
- OMRI.
- Soraya
- LYNY
- Taiki Nulight
- Rohaan
- Yetti
- rSun
- Stello
- Gabbs
- Airrica
- MADI
Sunday, Sept. 20
- SUBJOHNICS
- GRiZ
- Korolova b2b Innellea
- Devault
- Dreya V
- Partiboi69
- Will Clarke
- Jackie Hollander
- Dansyn
- Broken Hill
- No Static
- JOSIE.
- Mishell
- B/AN/K
- Philou
While the artist roster is central to attracting fans, ticket sales represent only one piece of the festival’s business. Like most major live events, Experts Only Music Festival relies on multiple revenue streams to support its operations and future growth.
How Experts Only Music Festival makes money
Like most major festivals, Experts Only Music Festival has built a business model that extends well beyond admission sales. Premium ticket tiers, transportation, hospitality, merchandise, food and beverage sales, sponsorships, and brand activations have become increasingly important revenue drivers across the live entertainment industry.
Current pricing includes:
- 2-Day GA: Starting at $279.99
- 2-Day GA+: Starting at $329.99
- 2-Day VIP: Starting at $699.99
- 2-Day Platinum: Starting at $1,899.99
- VIP Tables: Starting at $16,000 and exceeding $32,000
- Ferry Passes: $80
- Lockers: Starting at $64.99
- Hotel & Festival Packages: Starting at $2,100 to more than $4,000
- Merchandise: Between $17 and $200
- Food & Beverage Sales
- Brand Sponsorships and Activations
Figures are estimates based on publicly listed pricing through Tixr.
Revenue, however, is only part of the equation. Large-scale festivals also face substantial costs, including artist fees, staging, production, staffing, security, insurance, transportation, marketing, and venue expenses.
For comparison, although Coachella generated more than $200 million in revenue during its 2026 edition, estimated profit after expenses totaled roughly $68.7 million, underscoring both the financial opportunity and risk associated with operating events at this scale.
“You have to make the P&L (Profit and Loss) make sense, and if costs are increasing, you have to make more money,” Metatone Programming Manager Kellon Johnston-Roper told TheStreet.
Johnston-Roper said rising expenses are sometimes passed on to consumers or absorbed by artists, making it increasingly important for festivals to create memorable events that justify higher spending.
Medium Rare Co-founder Adam Richman told TheStreet that consumers are also increasingly willing to pay for premium offerings. To meet demand, Experts Only has expanded ferry capacity, increased VIP inventory, and added more merchandise locations throughout the festival grounds.
How Experts Only filled New York’s EDM void
The emergence of Experts Only Music Festival has coincided with a major shift in New York City’s EDM scene.
For years, Electric Zoo served as the city’s premier electronic dance music festival, drawing between 85,000 and 100,000 attendees annually.
However, production failures, capacity issues, and crowd-control problems during its 2023 edition damaged the event’s reputation. The festival did not return in 2024, and its parent company, Avant Gardner, later filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2025, reporting approximately $155 million in secured debt and about 90,000 ticket-holder claims.
With Electric Zoo no longer operating, Summit saw an opportunity to establish a new flagship EDM festival in New York.
Experts Only began as Summit’s record label, originally launched in 2022 as Off the Grid before rebranding in 2023. Since then, the brand has expanded beyond music releases into live events, including Experts Only Music Festival in New York, UNVRS in Spain, Tofte Manor in the U.K., and George in Washington.
The festival business continues to expand
Experts Only’s expansion mirrors broader growth across the global live entertainment industry.
According to Research and Markets‘ 2026 Music Festival Market Report, the global music festival industry is valued at approximately $3.55 billion in 2026 and is projected to reach $6.74 billion by 2030, representing a compound annual growth rate of 17.7%.
Here’s some of my previous coverage on the live event industry:
- Justin Bieber turns Coachella 2026 into a $5M merch empire
- Why brands are spending billions on 2026 FIFA World Cup
- Did Coachella make money in 2026?
Researchers attribute that growth to rising demand for live entertainment, higher spending on experiences among younger consumers, increasing investment from sponsors seeking experiential marketing opportunities, and continued innovation in large-scale event production.
“The music festival business you put up millions of dollars to hopefully make a small amount back. That’s a challenging economic model,” Medium Rare Co-founder Joe Silberzweig told TheStreet.
“That’s what makes the live music business so difficult. If you miss by just a few thousand tickets, your P&L could be completely upside down.”
Richman said live events have remained resilient despite broader economic uncertainty because consumers, particularly Gen Z, continue prioritizing in-person entertainment.
“Live events have really ramped up post-COVID, and it’s one of the things that hasn’t been affected by the economy compared to maybe some other sectors,” said Richman.
What it means for the future of Experts Only and the music festival industry
With growing brand recognition, expanding sponsorship opportunities, and multiple revenue streams, Experts Only is evolving beyond a music festival into a broader live entertainment brand.
Metatone Co-founder and John Summit’s Manager, Holt Harmon, told TheStreet that one of the keys to building a lasting festival is resisting the urge to do everything at once. Instead, organizers intentionally reserve new ideas for future editions, giving returning fans fresh reasons to come back each year.
As Summit’s career and the festival continue to grow, Harmon expects larger partnerships with national and global brands, while emphasizing that authenticity remains more valuable than simply maximizing sponsorship revenue.
“The idea of why we throw this isn’t just to make money. We do this because we love it, and we want it to be something people come back year over year, and they want to tell their friends about when they leave,” Harmon said.
Whether Experts Only Music Festival ultimately reaches the scale of Coachella or Tomorrowland remains to be seen. But after selling out its inaugural edition, expanding internationally, and capitalizing on sustained demand for live experiences, the festival has quickly emerged as one of EDM’s fastest-growing brands.
Its rapid rise also reflects a broader transformation across the festival industry, where success increasingly depends on building year-round brands fueled by premium offerings, diversified revenue streams, and loyal fan communities, not simply selling tickets to a weekend of live music.
Related: Justin Bieber turns Coachella 2026 into a $5M merch empire
