The hottest ticket in town: Live Oak Music Festival’s return to SLO a popular move
The 31st Live Oak Music Festival is settling in nicely to a new San Luis Obispo home this weekend after 29 years in Santa Barbara County.
And it’s come a long way from its roots — which were actually first sowed in SLO County.
The three-day roots music festival, an annual fundraiser for Central Coast public radio station KCBX-FM, began as a one-day event in Arroyo Grande with about 600 attendees in 1988. This year, it’s the hottest ticket in town.
The event sold out, with approximately 2,000 tickets sold.
As of Thursday afternoon, people were still posting comments on the Live Oak Music Festival Facebook event page trying to find last-minute tickets for the event. For those who scored a previously purchased ticket, event organizers confirmed all transferred tickets will be valid.
While the new El Chorro Regional Park venue is similar in size to the Live Oak Santa Barbara campground, the county park limited attendance to 2,000 people. The previous location had a cap of 3,000, with approximately 2,300 to 2,500 tickets being sold each year.
KCBX General Manager and co-founder of the festival Frank Lanzone said KCBX would have sold more tickets if permitted. In the past 30 years of the festival, it has sold out approximately five times.
The event brings in approximately $100,000 for the radio station each year, a fifth of its operating budget. Lanzone said similar revenue is expected this year, despite the ticket cap.
While the new location allows for less festival-goers, Live Oak artistic director and KCBX Director of Programming and Content Marisa Waddell said the venue has benefits. The old campground was known for being hot and dusty, while the new space is more green and will be on average 15 degrees cooler.
High temperatures are forecast to be in the high 60s Friday and low to mid-70s Saturday and Sunday.
The San Luis Obispo park will also be easier to reach for the majority of attendees. Approximately 60 to 70 percent of Live Oak’s patrons live in San Luis Obispo County, according to Waddell.
Lanzone said despite a venue change, Live Oak will still be the same music festival people have come to appreciate. Waddell describes the festival as “magical.”
“It’s a very mellow, family friendly event,” Waddell said. “Kind of like a little slice of paradise for three days, a little get away.”
For more information about the festival, visit liveoakfest.org.
This story was originally published June 20, 2019 at 3:48 PM.