By Olivia Turner | Arts & Life Editor
Behind the lights, ticket sales and big-name bookings of Foster Pavilion’s two-year concert series is a careful strategy — a collaboration between Baylor, a Nashville marketing agency and the artists themselves.
The series is officially underway, with announcements for new shows coming out on a nearly monthly basis and the first performance already in the books. In April, the Baylor and Waco community got a taste of Foster Pavilion as a concert venue for the first time with Forrest Frank’s show. On Sept. 12, the community will have the opportunity to experience another concert setup in the venue for Lauren Daigle’s show, now officially sold out as of Tuesday, and yet another show will occur on Oct. 23, featuring Tucker Wetmore.
While the series itself is fairly recent, the start of Baylor’s music collaboration goes back a decade, to the Title IX scandal, according to Jason Cook, Baylor’s vice president of Marketing and Communications.
“Baylor was going through big concerns over how we handled sexual assault and interpersonal violence on our campus,” Cook said. “And it was national news — a lot of pressure on the institution.”
Cook said he was recruited to come to Baylor in 2016. President Linda Livingstone followed not far behind with her appointment in 2017. Together, Livingstone and Cook decided Baylor needed a means to bounce back and reposition itself — a rebrand with music at the forefront.
“Music is so important in the lives of young people,” Cook said. “It’s really embedded into so many cultural components and into fashion and just every part of our lives.”
In 2018, after engaging a creative agency and selecting a small boutique firm in Dallas to work with, the marketing department centered on a song for the first Baylor-themed music video, “Lights Shine Bright” by Toby Mac.
“In these dark times, Baylor needs to be a light,” Cook said. “We have a responsibility to be a light, to shine upon others … so this piece of music became all about our positioning. … It really gave people hope and excitement and that our Christian mission was still alive and well.”
From there, the “light” musical theme evolved to include more videos — a commercial utilizing “Shine a Light” by Elevation Worship, and another titled “We Were Born to Run,” which would eventually become Baylor’s primary commercial. The video featured Apollo LTD’s “Run,” an original track made specifically for Baylor. The latest commercial showcases Forrest Frank’s hit song, “Never Get Used to This.”
According to Cook, the idea for a concert series came into play with the construction of the Foster Pavilion. There was a debate over whether the pavilion would be placed next to the Ferrell Center or along the Brazos River. The eventual decision to relocate along the river was made with both the economy and the community in mind.
This decision also attracted financial support from the city in the form of $35 million for construction, but not without strings attached. In order to obtain an official certificate of occupancy, the contract stated there would need to be a series of 10 shows hosted at the pavilion over the course of two years. But these weren’t intended to be one-off performances, Cook said.
“It really is about the community and creating some energy and entertainment options within Waco,” he said. “Having facilities like Foster Pavilion and McLane Stadium … are community resources as well an opportunity to bring people to Waco who maybe have never been here before.”
Once the idea was set in stone and put to action, things started getting complicated. There are many factors to take into consideration when booking these entertainment performances, from choosing ideal performers to marketing strategies and, of course, finding the perfect date for each performance.
Cook said planning and scheduling can be tricky, especially when working around athletics schedules. As of now, they are booking spring concert dates without knowing the Big 12 schedule, which will be released in late September, he said. Despite the workarounds, Cook described the athletics department as a “tremendous partner.”
To get a feel for who Baylor wanted to see on the new stage, Cook worked with students to create a survey asking other students what genres and types of performances they would be most eager to attend. When the survey was complete, the Christian and country music genres were most requested, he said.
Narrowing the decision down to names is a beast of its own, according to Steve Richo, a co-founder of Noise New Media, the marketing agency Baylor is partnering with for the concert series.
“You could really want to bring someone to the building at a certain time, but they’ve got other tour dates and album releases, and sometimes, they’ve been selected to appear on television shows or movies,” Richo said. “There are all these things in the artist’s schedule that … the stars have to align in order to get the artist to come to that building at this particular time, on this day — when we don’t have a basketball game in the facility, or another event happening in Foster — and make it all work.”
Richo said the agency maintains relationships with many major talent agencies across the country to discover artists best suited for shows at venues the size of Foster Pavilion.
“They know our team, and they know what we’re trying to accomplish at Foster,” Richo said. “There’s a two-way communication about who’s available. We do a good job of keeping track of things like chart positions, award nominations, survey results, sales from other concerts that the artists have done — that’s a really big indicator.”
On a few occasions, Cook has even brought artist ideas to the table in meetings, such as Ty Myers for Howdy and Tucker Wetmore for the October show.
Finding acts that are growing, but not becoming so big that ticket prices are no longer affordable, is a tedious balance, Cook said.
“You don’t want to get an artist who’s too new in the business, because you can’t just sell 50 seats, but if you get someone who’s a really big name in your ticket price, you get a jump into the $300 range,” Cook said. “We’re really trying to find that — that sweet spot that fits the facility.”
The team also takes into consideration the costs of similar shows in other cities, like Dallas or Austin. While the shows are expensive to put on, Cook said their goal is for the pavilion’s prices to be more affordable in comparison, with the added convenience factor of Foster’s accessibility and proximity to campus.
While a majority of the artists announced so far are either Christian contemporary artists or country artists, Richo said they are aiming to host a variety of genres.
In addition to selecting acts and selling tickets, Noise New Media also supports various marketing initiatives, including social media, artwork on the Foster Pavilion pages, digital advertising, radio advertising, billboard design and more.
“Using those pre-sale opportunities and targeting special groups for those, such as Bear Foundation and the student population, that’s been a successful strategy for us to build some excitement,” Richo said. “And the fact that those pre-sales are scarce, … we can raise a lot of buzz through our own channels with our direct email communications with those parties and let them know it’s a special purchase opportunity.”
Every concert is truly unique in terms of the arena, from lighting to stage setup, Richo said.
“The sight lines are great; the audio is great,” he said. “It’s got great facilities for teams, for artist teams coming in. We’re gonna have a big team for Lauren Daigle. … She’s got backup singers and horn players and all kinds of folks that are hard to squeeze into a lot of facilities. And I think that this team, the team already knows on their side, they’re going to be in for a good day at Foster.”
While Foster Pavilion is currently soaking up a lot of attention due to the volume of concerts and announcements, another local live music venue doesn’t see it as competition, but more so a chance for collaboration, said Chris Cox, a co-owner of The Backyard Bar Stage and Grill.
“Just last week, Cross Canadian Ragweed had their reunion, and they had their pre-party at our place and their after-party at our place,” Cox said. “So instead of it killing our weekend, it actually gave us a really good weekend.”
Historically, The Backyard has primarily been a venue that hosts country music artists and bands. About a decade ago, before The Backyard opened, Melody Ranch used to have live music nights. Once those fizzled out, The Backyard picked up live shows. Their goal? To keep Waco on the map.
“We owned a little place on the other side of town that held 200 people, and we wanted to do something bigger because Waco used to be a main stop for most of those local and regional guys,” Cox said.
Since Foster Pavilion is a bigger venue in terms of size than The Backyard, Cox said he is glad to see them hosting artists that are just slightly too big for his space.
Still, while Baylor and The Backyard are collaborating, communication is key, he said.
“That’s the one thing Waco can’t do,” Cox said, referring to simultaneously occurring events. “It’s hard to have the fair and a big concert. It’s hard to have Sing at Baylor and a concert that should attract Baylor students. So you have to be very aware of what’s going on in town before you book something big.”
One of the most exciting aspects of owning a live music venue has been watching artists and bands make it big, Cox said.
“Hudson Westbrook sold 3500 tickets at The Backyard, and he didn’t even have an album out,” Cox said. “They blow up on TikTok and social media so fast that the days of having to get in that little van and travel for five or six years before you get known is dead, it really is.”
Cox said The Backyard is always open to suggestions for new artists. To submit feedback, he encourages people to reach out via social media.
Overall, Cook said he sees the concert series as both a responsibility and an opportunity for unity between Baylor and Waco.
“This is really transformational for our community, that it just says there’s a lot of excitement, energy things to do in Waco,” Cook said. “Look at all these musicians that are coming here. … So given the success that we’ve seen today, I don’t see this ending after two years.”
