There's a reason Inlander readers voted Northern Quest Resort & Casino's BECU Live as the area's best concert venue. With 20 shows announced for the summer 2023 slate at time of publication, Northern Quest has become the hottest spot for outdoor shows. (From Jason Mraz to the Beach Boys to Ludacris, check out the full lineup at northernquest.com.) Director of Vibe Matt Gibson (no, really, that's his job title) told us about what it takes to put together a summer concert lineup. (SETH SOMMERFELD)
What are the first steps when you're putting together a summer concert lineup?
It really has to do with supply and demand: who's going out that year, who's not and what your market likes to enjoy in terms of the genres of music. This year we're partnering up with Live Nation to book the content. And we work together to discuss bands and personalities that would make sense for Spokane.
The bands that we had lined up to begin with really had the same kind of flavor — this artsy folksy bent to them. That's great, but Spokane really likes their classic rock and country, so we should probably get some of that in there, too. And the more we talked about it, the more things shifted around, and we started getting different acts like Young the Giant and Lindsey Stirling, which is completely different than what we've traditionally booked there.
What's the hardest part of the booking process?
The toughest part about the whole thing is the routing — figuring out which acts are going to go to which venues at what time, and getting that schedule put together. It's about the most difficult math problem that you could ever take on.
What benefits are there to the Live Nation partnership?
The most important thing that we're gaining from this is the ability to be part of that tour routing for all of these amphitheaters: Auburn, Bend, Boise, us. So as next year and the years following, you're gonna see names that you know, wouldn't necessarily be at Quest. Because a lot of what we did was fly-in dates, where you book a band and they would fly in specifically for Northern Quest. And what we're getting now are more touring productions. A lot of expenses are going to go down because of it, as well as [increased] access to some of the talent that we might not have had luck with because they were on a tour.
It seems like y'all are trying to do away with the idea of "casino concert" being a punchline to describe past-their-prime acts.
Yeah, that whole stigma is going away real quick. I mean, 10 to 15 years ago that was definitely the case with casinos. And that's not the case anymore. You've got a lot of tribal properties around the country that know what they're doing, and are playing at a professional level. And Quest is definitely one of those places.
What is your favorite summertime activity?
I'm away from home so much because of the event industry and around so many crowds that when I take time, I greatly enjoy simply crashing at home. I'll work in the mornings to take care of the yard or build a project, then enjoy a beverage and grill some food with my family outside while watching some baseball.
What place/locale do you always go to every summer?
The last thing I want to do on a rare day off is go to any sort of event! ♦
