From vision to venue, we design, develop and grow unforgettable festivals that succeed — creatively, logistically, financially.
Whether you're developing a new idea or scaling an existing event, we can get you there. We've spent decades designing and executing award-winning festivals, and bring that experience, knowledge and network to your team.
We offer proven strategies and personalized guidance across every phase of festival development. From boutique gatherings to 75,000-person destination festivals, we help you grow world-class festivals.
Clients we serve
Forecastle Festival :: Flaming Lips Performance
We have a 12-step consulting suite to take your festival from concept to completion. Each product or service below is designed to equip you with all the tools, strategies, and support you need to reach the summit of your festival potential.
Festival Consulting
Is your vision viable? Before you invest thousands to millions — and devote months of energy — let us assess the market opportunity to ensure your idea is grounded in reality. Our Festival Feasibility Study provides a 360° analysis, combining real-world data with decades of festival experience to recommend whether to proceed, pivot, or stop — and advance with confidence.
Festival Consulting
Great festivals aren't just events — they're brands. Our festival branding engagement transforms your vision into a unique, proprietary brand identity with strong positioning, messaging, visual identity, and launch-ready assets. The result is an instantly recognizable brand — the cornerstone of a successful festival.
Festival Consulting
Where festival dreams meet financial reality. Before you book talent or place a venue deposit, your festival budget needs to establish viability. Our Modern Festival Budget builds a custom financial model to help you reduce risk, improve profitability, make smarter decisions, and avoid costly mistakes.
Festival Consulting
Great festivals are built by great teams. Our Festival Staffing Plan maps your organizational structure — departments, roles, responsibilities, communications, and more — so you know who you need, when you need them, and how to structure a team that can execute efficiently.
Festival Consulting
Programming is everything your audience sees, hears, tastes, and feels. Our Festival Programming Menu extends beyond talent to memorable experiences that give audiences more reasons to attend, engage, and return. We'll craft a custom plan designed to drive ticket sales, deepen engagement, and make every moment matter.
Festival Consulting
Festival press builds momentum, shapes perception, and sells tickets. Our Festival PR & Media Relations Strategy develops your story, messaging, press materials, and outreach across national, regional, and local markets. The result is meaningful coverage that turns awareness into attendance, capturing national headlines and hometown hearts.
Festival Consulting
Your festival might have a great concept or lineup, but if no one sees or hears about it — it doesn't exist. Our Festival Marketing Strategy turns vision into visibility — and visibility into ticket sales. We build a targeted, multi-channel plan to reach the right buyers at the right time and maximize ROI.
Festival Consulting
One of your festival's most scalable, high-margin revenue channels. We've secured hundreds of festival sponsors and brand partners through a proven system that targets smarter, sells bigger, and retains longer. Our Festival Sponsorship Strategy gives you the same blueprint.
Festival Consulting
Your biggest revenue driver — make it count. Ticketing is more than technology; it's pricing, customer experience, first-party data, conversion, and more. Our Festival Ticketing Strategy helps you build a smarter sales system to increase revenue and turn interest into attendance.
Festival Consulting
One of the “Top 5” features that can make or break the patron experience — and your bottom line. Our Festival Concessions Strategy curates the right mix of brands, pricing, and placement for your market, audience, and season.
Festival Consulting
Successful festivals operate like well-planned cities. Production is where the plan becomes reality — or unravels completely. Our veteran festival production team helps plan and manage the systems behind a safe, efficient festival. We can lead the charge or strengthen your existing team where specialized expertise is needed.
Festival Consulting
The biggest opportunities are often the hardest to see. Our Festival Growth & Development Strategy combines stakeholder interviews and an on-site A–Z diagnostic to identify gaps, constraints, inefficiencies, and untapped revenue opportunities. The result: a roadmap to improve profitability, strengthen operations, grow attendance, and move to the next stage.
Decades of award-winning festival development across genres, geographies, and budgets.
0 → 75,000
attendees in 10 years
Built and grown by AOI's JK McKnight from 0 to 75,000 attendees — from a single-day grassroots gathering into a flagship Louisville waterfront festival recognized by Pollstar, Billboard, and Rolling Stone. Generated more than $1B in statewide economic impact and a billion media impressions.
30,000 / day
Charleston, SC
A two-day Charleston celebration of Lowcountry music, food, and culture, anchored in a sense of place. We curated the lineup around native culture bearers and secured brand partnerships that drove a sold-out debut and made it a staple of the southern festival circuit.
Headquartered
Asheville → Durham
A celebration of Bob Moog's legacy blending music, tech, arts, and education in the North Carolina mountains. We shaped sponsorships, activations, and installations for a genre-bending lineup — from Kraftwerk to MIA — that drew 7,500 fans a day and acclaim from NPR and the New York Times.
We’ve spent decades designing and executing innovative, award-winning festivals. We know the best festivals and what makes them succeed, and have the experience, knowledge and network to successfully guide your team.
“AOI are some of the best in the business - nationally and locally. They can do it all - big ideas and nitty gritty details - and make the process look and feel seamless to organizations on the back end and attendees on the front end. I could type a dissertation on their excellence, but instead, I will simply say they are the right person for YOU - no matter what you want to accomplish!”
91.89 WFPK, Louisville KY
Ideally, twelve to eighteen months out from your target date. There are many steps in the festival development journey, and sequence matters. For new festivals, our festival consulting engagement typically begins with the architectural essentials: feasibility, branding, budgeting, and staffing. When that foundation is strong, everything that follows can move faster and with far less risk.
Both. Some clients come to us with a new idea, while others already have an established festival that needs help growing revenue, optimizing budget, improving operations, refining programming, or solving unique challenges. Our festival consulting model is built to meet you wherever you are and help you get to where you need to be.
Each festival consulting service is designed around a specific outcome that we work toward week to week. Every festival is different and unique, so we kick off by gaining a deep understanding of what's currently in place and what needs to be optimized or procured for the festival to succeed. We also provide broader advisory support for many clients, acting as an experienced sounding board embedded in your team to help you make smarter decisions and avoid costly mistakes.
It depends on what stage of festival development you're in and where your biggest uncertainty or opportunity lives. For new festivals, our architectural festival consulting services — feasibility, branding, budgeting, and staffing — are often the best place to begin. For veteran festivals, marketing, sponsorships, and growth & development are the most popular places to start.
Schedule a free discovery call with our team. We’ll assess where you are, where you want to go, and exactly how we can help you get there.
