Music festivals — boisterous and beloved weekend escapes for the concert-crazed — have had a rough go of it.

They’ve always been financially precarious to put on, but for a medley of reasons, roughly 100 have folded worldwide this year. That’s even more than in 2024, which NPR dubbed “the year the music festival died.”

But nobody seems to have told All Things Go.

The decade-old independent festival held every September in Columbia seems to be thriving.

Named for lyrics to a Sufjan Stevens song, All Things Go began as a blog. It then launched a small festival in 2014 when, organizers later said, they had just $7 in their bank account. About 3,000 attended that first event at a food hall in Washington, D.C. It moved to the larger Merriweather Post Pavilion in 2021.

Since then, the festival seems to have hit its stride. Three years ago, All Things Go was in a single location on a single day. Now, it’s a multiday, international spectacular, taking place across three cities.

More than 40 acts, including Noah Kahan, Lucy Dacus, Doechii and Kesha, will descend upon Howard County on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. A similar lineup will play over three days this weekend in New York, the festival’s second year there. Then, on Oct. 3 and 4, Toronto will host its inaugural edition.

Bucking the trend

Following an explosion of festival buzz after the 2020 pandemic, when cooped-up music lovers yearned for concerts, demand quickly softened. The music festival market became saturated, experts say, contributing to the recent cascade of closures.

Adam Kirr, a Pikesville native who has helped organize several festivals, said “2022 was awesome” for the industry.

“And then ’23, ’24, ’25, it just seemed like it overcorrected to the opposite,” he said.

All Things Go might be the best “counterargument bucking” the trend of festivals declining, Pollstar, a trade publication for the live music industry, reported last year. And that was before it expanded to a third city.

After missing out on All Things Go tickets last year, Brittany Carpenter of Laurel bought early this time.

“A friend of mine and I were in the queue ready to buy tickets as soon as they dropped because I was just really dead set on not missing out this year,” the 34-year-old said.

But even operating seemingly popular festivals is notoriously tricky.

Some appear lucrative, only to go bust; others seem solvent until one down year. Although observers said All Things Go’s longevity shows financial stability, its rapid expansion could lead to increased costs and risk, especially in an unfavorable economic environment.

All Things Go organizers declined multiple interview requests.

But it appears the festival has carved out a niche — women, Gen Z and LGBTQ+ audiences — and smartly identified undercard acts that resonate with fans.

On Tuesday in Columbia, workers prepared a stage hidden within the suburban forest that’s home to Merriweather. U-Haul vans and a sea of cardboard boxes sat nearby, ready to be deployed.

All Things Go is gearing up to again host a 20,000-person-a-day festival. Many other places are not.

Big acts, thin margins

The festival boom began in the 1990s with the advent of mega-events like Lollapalooza in Chicago, Coachella in California and Bonnaroo in Tennessee. Smaller regional festivals increasingly popped up during the 2010s, and again just after the pandemic.

Vito Valentinetti, who has covered over 125 festivals in 35 countries for the Music Festival Wizard website he cofounded in 2009, has for years heard the claim that the festival bubble is due to burst. That’s proven to be an empty threat, he said, but this moment has stood out.

“In the last couple of years, there are more cancellations than I’ve ever seen,” he said.

Live Nation — a concert company so huge that the Department of Justice has accused it of being a monopoly — has deep pockets and operates several dozen festivals in the U.S. But many others, like All Things Go, operate independently.

Doing so without a major financial backer is dicier, industry watchers said. It requires operating on thin margins, balancing dozens of artists’ performances and hosting tens of thousands of fans on a limited footprint.

Festivals bring in money from merchandise, food and beverage, sponsorships and, in some cases, government grants.

Oceans Calling, which is produced by a Live Nation subsidiary, has been held in Ocean City since 2023 and recently added two associated festivals, Country Calling and Boardwalk Rock. The festivals are receiving $1.65 million from a state tourism fund between 2023 and next year, according to the Maryland Sports Commission, which administers the money.

But the bulk of revenue comes from ticket sales. And the biggest cost is paying artists.

Headliners drive ticket sales, but they’re expensive. All Things Go headliners likely cost hundreds of thousands of dollars each, experts said. Identifying a rising artist at a bargain price is a win.

“What you’re looking for is someone who will potentially outperform how much you have to pay for them,” said R. Scott Hiller, a Fairfield University professor who has studied festivals.

All Things Go seemingly did that last year, booking Chappell Roan — who became a supernova in the lead-up to the festival and helped the festival quickly sell out. The “Pink Pony Club” artist canceled at the last minute, and All Things Go scrambled to replace her.

It took longer for the festival to sell out this year. But it, along with the New York version, essentially has. Meanwhile, the Toronto version is offering discounts to incentivize last-minute ticket sales.

Roughly 70,000 attended the All Things Go festivals in Columbia and New York across all four days last year, according to Pollstar. With more days and another city this year, combined attendance should easily surpass 100,000.

Costs associated with festivals, from stage equipment to the artists themselves, are rising, said Tim Sweetwood, festival director of Oceans Calling, which is also this weekend. That makes landing on ticket prices a delicate balance.

“It’s standard economics: Does that ticket price get too high for your average consumer?” Sweetwood said.

The Festive Owl, a website that analyzes the industry, said festivals are a “low-margin, high-risk game that takes a steady hand just to break even, let alone make money.”

Event insurance premiums have increased, as have labor and supply chain costs. Renting portable toilets can be four times costlier now than five years ago, according to The Festive Owl.

“What are you going to do, not rent toilets? That’s not an option,” wrote The Festive Owl, which is operated anonymously but responded to questions via email.

All Things Go’s growth could create efficiencies and cost savings, experts said. But the road to successful expansion in any business is littered with enterprises that grew too big, too fast.

Pemberton Music Festival, held at a picturesque venue in British Columbia, Canada, put out a slew of appealing lineups from 2014 to 2016, attracting bigger and bigger crowds each year. Its ticket revenue grew from $6 million to $10 million to $15 million.

Organizers filed for bankruptcy just two months before the 2017 edition, revealing they had been bleeding money along the way. They owed $17 million to creditors.

Kirr coproduced the Charm City Bluegrass Festival, which regularly drew thousands to Druid Hill Park or Union Craft Brewing until last year.

It grew difficult to manage, he said. Faced with declining ticket sales, the festival went on “indefinite hiatus” this year.

“It’s a very tough, high-stress business,” Kirr said. “And you have to be financially prepared for it.”

Carving out a niche

All Things Go, created by men, has regularly sought to highlight women artists, including an all-women lineup on one day in 2018. This year’s Toronto version is a partnership with Live Nation Women.

The festival has also become a favorite of the LGBTQ+ community, earning the moniker “Gaychella.” When the all-queer band Muna played last year, they dubbed it “Lesbopalooza.”

Meg Streissguth, a 24-year-old from Sykesville, is attending her fifth All Things Go this year with two friends. They appreciate the lineup’s emphasis on LGBTQ+ and women artists, she said, and the festival‘s “very chill” and supportive audience.

“Everyone’s giving each other compliments all the time, especially when it comes to fashion,” said Streissguth, who’s most excited to see Doechii.

Ian Kennedy, executive director of the Merriweather Arts and Culture Center, the nonprofit organization that owns Merriweather Post Pavilion, said All Things Go is his favorite of the venue’s festivals.

“It’s got that youthful energy, but it’s also a very open and inclusive and accepting crowd,” Kennedy said. “And that is Columbia at its best.”

Oceans Calling — which is annually held the same weekend as All Things Go — boasts a millennial-friendly bill. It will welcome about 55,000 daily attendees to its festival, 150 miles east of Columbia.

“Their capacity is much smaller than ours, so ... being far enough away in [Columbia], there’s enough of a pull that they could sell out their event as well,” said Sweetwood, the Oceans Calling director.

Andrea Blanco, a music fan from Miami, was determined to see Kahan in concert somewhere this year. She and a friend from Pittsburgh considered Oceans Calling, where Kahan is also performing, but opted for All Things Go.

A first-time festivalgoer, she’s looking forward to a weekend of camaraderie.

“I’m expecting community, even though we’re going to be two of the older people attending,” said Blanco, 50.

For many musical acts, such as Los Angeles-based dream-pop band Sunday (1994), the festival represents an opportunity to reach new ears. Member Lee Newell said performing Friday will be a “pinch-me moment.”

“It’s always been a dream to play, even though it’s a relatively new festival,” said Newell, who first watched live clips from All Things Go on YouTube. “It’s just sort of skyrocketed in popularity.”