Can Los Dells become the next Coachella?
Festival located near Wisconsin Dells has 26 Latin music acts for Labor Day weekend
As monster singles go, “Despacito” is Godzilla.
The sweet strums of a Puerto Rican cuatro, the irresistible Latin percussion, the alluring voices of Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee — and in the remix version, Justin Bieber — all add up this summer to the most streamed song of all time, and the first video on YouTube to surpass 3 billion views.
And while “Despacito” is at the head of the pack, it’s not alone. YouTube reports that streams for Spanish-language songs have exploded this year, with Latin artists accounting for more than a third of the year’s 100 most-viewed acts.
With the growing festival market driving the record $7.3 billion North American live music industry, the time seems ripe for the Latin equivalent of a music festival like Coachella or Lollapalooza to emerge.
If Damon Zumwalt has his way, it’ll be in Mauston, 20 miles northwest of Wisconsin Dells.
That’s where Zumwalt’s Los Dells festival is taking place Sept. 2 and 3.
The location seems crazy. Less than 1% of the country’s Hispanic population is in Wisconsin, and only 3% of citizens in Juneau County are Hispanic, according to the Pew Research Center.
But Zumwalt has the land (1,500 acres), the investment ($6 million to $10 million), and the belief that if he builds it, the people will come — between 20,000 and 30,000 a day, if his estimates hold up.
He also has a phenomenal lineup, including “Despacito” hitmaker Daddy Yankee — the most streamed artist in the world on the digital music service Spotify.
Also topping the 26-act bill: reggaeton hitmaker Nicky Jam (one of an elite few artists to cross 1 billion YouTube views this year), and Maná, the massive Mexican rock band, which was the fourth highest-grossing touring Latin act last year despite only 28 concerts in North America, according to concert trade publication Pollstar.
“I don’t think the Hispanic community has been well served in this region,” Zumwalt said. “And when I do things, I go big.”
A growing market
Traditionally, Latin artists focus on major markets with robust Hispanic populations, like Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Chicago and Texas’ largest cities.
But the demographics are changing. In 2017, the Hispanic population reached a record 58.6 million in the United States, and accounted for 51% of the population growth from the year before, according to Pew Research. Hispanic spending power in 2015 totaled about $1.5 trillion according to Nielsen, the consumer tracking company. Hispanics spend nearly 30% more than the average American on music.
Within the past two years, Latin artists have noticeably expanded into secondary markets, said Leila Cobo, executive director of Latin content and programming for Billboard, the music industry publication.
That includes Milwaukee. This summer, the Wisconsin Center District hosted its first two Spanish-language events since 2006 at the Miller High Life Theatre, and will bring the first Spanish-language arena show to the market Sept. 3 with Fiesta De La Raza at the UW-Milwaukee Panther Arena.
Early last year, PTG Live Events — operator of the Riverside Theater, the Pabst Theater, Turner Hall Ballroom, and the Back Room at Colectivo Coffee — hosted its first Spanish-language concert with Pepe Aguilar. This year, it will host 13 to 15 Spanish-language concerts including Aguilar, reggaeton superstar J Balvin, comedy shows, and a play at the Pabst with telenovela actresses.
“With things like Spotify cutting into actual album sales, touring becomes much more of a necessity,” said PTG talent buyer Marc Solheim, who has been overseeing the group’s Latin shows. “It’s an audience that is definitely underserved. I feel like there’s only growth that can happen.”
A vision in Mauston
Zumwalt’s interest in Latin music was ahead of the curve. A San Diego native, he grew up loving Latin music, and had a vision for Los Dells since 2002.
That’s when he acquired his land in Mauston, the location of a dude ranch he visited four years earlier. Zumwalt made his fortune establishing Contemporary Services Corp. in 1967, after his freshman year at UCLA. It’s a crowd control and security firm used at concerts, music festivals, sporting events and the last 12 Olympics.
Zumwalt constructed and opened the massive Woodside Sports Complex on the Mauston property in 2013. It bills itself as the largest allturf multi-sport facility in the Midwest, with 12 synthetic turf baseball and softball fields, a 90,000-square-foot multiuse dome and other amenities.
Zumwalt started organizing Los Dells last year with his son and lead talent buyer Damon Rey, using CSC contacts to connect with artists and assemble the lineup.
“The first impression people had were, ‘Is this an Internet hoax?’ ” Zumwalt said. “But money talks, and the best bands aren’t inexpensive.”
Zumwalt will spend $2.5 million to $3 million on talent alone. The lineup is designed to cater to a wide range of tastes, including crossover bachata singer Prince Royce, long-running Mexican regional act Los Tucanes de Tijuana, electronic funk band Kinky, and pop singer Becky G, who also starred in the Power Rangers film reboot this spring.
Zumwalt created roads for semi-trucks to bring in staging equipment and installed a $100,000 draining pipe system underneath the fest’s primary field — so that if it rains, the ground doesn’t get soft.
Investments like those are budgeted for long-term use, including possibly country and rock festivals next year.
“To make a profit in the first year is very unlikely for any new festival, and it may not happen for us,” Rey admitted. “It’s not going to stop us from having a year one, two and three (for Los Dells). We’re playing the long game.”
Facing obstacles
Smartly, Los Dells organizers are courting consumers in Milwaukee and Madison, and especially Minneapolis and Chicago, with Spanishlanguage TV, radio and print advertising.
But impressive as the lineup is, Latin music concertgoers aren’t accustomed to this kind of genre-jumping approach common at established American festivals like Coachella. Most multiact Latin music events in the country are centered around specific genres and cultures, whether it’s a day of mariachi bands or a night with Puerto Rican reggaeton acts.
“The market is very fragmented where you have people who like regional Mexican and people who like pop and people who like rock,” Cobo said.
Los Dells’ other wild card is the location. Most U.S. Latin music festivals have naturally sprung up in major cities, but Los Dells organizers are banking that the Wisconsin Dells’ popularity — with between 4 million and 5 million annual visitors — will enhance the festival’s appeal.
“We want to create a holiday weekend tradition where people are visiting the water parks during the day and coming to Los Dells later in the afternoon,”
“We want to create a holiday weekend tradition where people are visiting the water parks during the day and coming to Los Dells later in the afternoon. Kids 10 and under are free because we want to have families involved.” ADAM MILLS FEST PRODUCER, MADISON NATIVE
said fest producer Adam Mills, a Madison native who helped establish Las Vegas’ acclaimed Life is Beautiful festival. “Kids 10 and under are free because we want to have families involved.”
Fest goers will still have to fork over at least $99 for single-day admission, or up to $195 for a general-admission twoday pass. Then there are the transportation, food, and hotel or camping costs.
“When an event’s in an urban area, it’s a lot easier to remove some of those additional costs (for consumers),” said John Bustos, president of Bustos Media, whose Latin music stations include WDDM-FM (104.7) in Milwaukee.
With Los Dells’ partial lineup only revealed in late June, “the question is, if people have enough time to prepare economically for (Los Dells),” Bustos added.
Even though Latin music “has huge visibility” thanks to streaming, Cobo cautioned: “There’s a big difference between liking and listening to music and getting people to buy tickets. I don’t think we’re at a point yet where all the people listening to (’Despacito’) are going to see Daddy Yankee.”
But Cobo added: “The fact that (Los Dells) is happening speaks to how ubiquitous Latin music has become. … It would make me really happy if this festival did well because it would show there is a market for this.”
If there isn’t, Zumwalt joked, he could “use a little tax write-off.”
“I don’t want to minimize the risk. It is a big risk,” he said. “But I can take a hit.”
And he’s confident Los Dells will prove to be successful.
“Some of the best festivals like Coachella started off smaller. The name is so successful it’s sold out (each year) before they release the names of bands, and it’s out in the desert in 120degree heat,” Zumwalt said. “The Dells is a more beautiful place. I think we can establish a reputation and make this part of Wisconsin a destination.”