Legendary music publication, Rolling Stone, has purchased a controlling interest in Life Is Beautiful Festival in Las Vegas. With this purchase, Rolling Stone intends to bring the festival to different markets around the world.
This move comes as a result of Rolling Stone and its parent company Penske Media Corporation (PMC) looking to expand further into live events. Last year, PMC purchased a stake in the Austin-based South By Southwest in concert with fellow media company MRC.
“Live events have to have the ability to tell stories and create a narrative and impact through content just beyond the event itself that happens once a year,” says Rolling Stone CEO Gus Wenner. “So I think the combination of Rolling Stone, with our scale of over 60 million readers, and our ability as a journalistic outfit, to combine that skillset with an unbelievable live event that attracts 180,000 people a year — that’s new territory and really, really compelling.”
David Oehm, the CEO of Life Is Beautiful, added, “We are thrilled to realize the potential of Life is Beautiful in partnership with Rolling Stone. As a landmark institution and touchstone of the music industry for over 50 years, the Rolling Stone team will help to deepen our connection to fans of music everywhere, while also championing the cultural initiatives that make Life is Beautiful so much more than a music festival.”
Life Is Beautiful 2022 is scheduled to take place in downtown Las Vegas on September 16-18, 2022. No lineup info has been shared as of now, but in the past headliners like Billie Eilish, Gorillaz, The Black Keys, and J. Cole have topped the bill.
