LAUREL ENTERTAINMENT

ACL Festival. Credit Taylor Regulski. Courtesy ACL Festival. 

Laurel Entertainment is a new entertainment company focused on acquiring, promoting and operating music festivals. Our mission is to empower independent festival operators to grow and prosper by supplying capital and resources to supplement their current management team.

Lead by John McAvoy, along-side industry veterans Bill Stapleton (Co-founder of the Austin City Limits Music Festival and Lollapalooza Chicago), Mark Dinerstein (co-founder and former EVP, Operations & Strategy / President, Corporate Development of LiveCo) and Bryce Johnson, Laurel Entertainment will deliver rich customer experiences to music lovers of all genres.

Advantage to Partnering with Laurel Entertainment

  • GROWTH: Capital & expertise to both expand current and create new festivals & events.

  • LIQUIDITY & RISK REDUCTION: Chips off the table with a new partner to help cushion volatility. 

  • RESOURCES & EXPERTISE : Experienced team to supplement marketing, customer communications, site selection & planning, sponsorship, production services, ticketing, talent booking and more.

  • SCALE: Large network of festivals & events to capitalize on economies of scale. 

  • RETAINED OWNERSHIP: Significant economics to creators with an appropriate level of continuing autonomy.

Meet the Team

Bill Stapleton

  • Austin City Limits Music Festival

  • Lollapalooza Chicago

  • C3 Presents

  • New Waterloo

  • BA, MBA, JD from the University of Texas

  • Credit Suisse

  • Lehman Brothers

  • Asset Management Finance

  • BS from Wake Forest University and MBA from Duke University

John McAvoy - CEO

Bryce Johnson

  • Michael Ovitz and affiliated companies

  • Core Scientific

  • Dragon Global

  • Lone Star Ventures

  • BS from MIT, post-graduade research at Tokyo University, JD from UCLA

  • LiveCo

  • Knitting Factory Entertainment

  • Clear Channel Entertainment / PACE Concerts

  • BSM from the A.B. Freeman School of Business at Tulane University

Mark Dinerstein

Jolie Goldberg

  • BS from the University of Southern California Marshall School of Business

Lisa Hickey

  • Austin City Limits Music Festival

  • Lollapalooza Chicago

  • C3 Presents

  • DoStuff Media

  • Panacea Collective

COMING SOON.