Concert Season at Baylor University

Show Notes

Concert season is almost here at Baylor and across Waco, with nationally known artists and rising stars taking the stage at venues like Foster Pavilion. Go inside the concert scene with Jason Cook, Baylor Vice President for Marketing and Communications, in a conversation at the historic Texas Music Cafe. 

Cook examines how the community has become a destination for artists and fans alike, the partnerships helping grow Waco's music ecosystem, and the work that goes into creating memorable experiences both on stage and behind the scenes. From family-friendly concerts and football weekend performances to major touring acts and emerging artists, discover how live music is helping shape the cultural life on campus and in Central Texas.

THE CONVERSATION INCLUDES:

•    how Baylor and Waco are building a thriving live music ecosystem together 
•    the interview’s location at the historic Texas Music Cafe in Waco. 
•    the growing lineup of concerts coming to Foster Pavilion, Baylor Ballpark, McLane Stadium, and other venues 
•    why artists, agents, and promoters are increasingly taking notice of Waco as a tour stop 
•    the unique fan experience Baylor aims to create through intimate venues, hospitality, and accessibility 
•    how concerts have become part of Baylor traditions, from Family Weekend to football tailgates and Howdy at the Hurd 
•    what goes into booking major artists, from scheduling and venue availability to financial planning and forecasting 
•    the role of partnerships with Magnolia, Athletics, city leaders, local businesses, and community organizations 
•    how social media, streaming data, and audience trends are changing the way artists are discovered and booked 
•    behind-the-scenes stories from concerts featuring artists like Willie Nelson, Lauren Daigle, Forrest Frank, and others 
•    how live music enhances Baylor's connection to Waco while creating new opportunities for community engagement and growth

Transcript

Derek Smith:
It is almost concert season here at Baylor University in Waco, Central Texas. Many announcements have dropped in the last few days, and there's more coming here as we welcome some of the top national artists to Baylor University, to Foster Pavilion, to Magnolia Field at Baylor Ballpark, McLane Stadium, and more over the past year. And we're going to talk about the concert scene in Waco with Jason Cook today on Baylor Connections. Jason is our vice president for marketing and communications here at Baylor, but more than that, he's become something of a concert promoter, just a concert man in general. How would you describe it?

Jason Cook:
Yeah, my other duties as assigned and my job description is quite big right now, Derek, but an opportunity to bring live music to Waco and to really showcase what our community has to offer, to enrich our community for people who live here. It's just what a great opportunity. And how awesome is it to be here at the Texas Music Cafe, which has a long legacy here in Waco? And just to build on that through our venues at Foster Pavilion, McLane Stadium, Baylor Ballpark, and all of our campus too.

Derek Smith:
Well, what you just pointed out is great because it's fun being here on this stage where in a venue where a lot of national artists have performed, have recorded, have visited. Waco, Texas Music Cafe is a big part of it, as is world records. And even I think anyone who moves to Waco hears things like, "Oh, well, there's been times we've had Garth Brooks or George Strait here." Waco really does have a great musical tradition that maybe we're able to revive a little bit.

Jason Cook:
We always talk about the ecosystem here and yes, Baylor University, we're blessed with just tremendous large facilities that we want to make sure that we steward well. And we bring events and acts to that to get people in there outside of sports seasons. But you look at this ecosystem that smaller venues, intimate, real personal venues with artists like Texas Music Cafe, you've got The Backyard in downtown Waco that is just a great history of over 10 years of bringing a lot of up and coming artists into the community. You've got Camp Fimfo bringing artists in. You've got what the city of Waco is doing during the summer as part of their concert series. So there's just a lot of opportunity. And what we like to think is we're just bringing a little bit of icing on the cake to something that's been here in Waco for quite some time.

Derek Smith:
Well, we've really seen the concert scene pick up in the last couple years. I remember when Forrest Frank came and performed at Foster Pavilion going on, what, a little over a year and a half ago now. Feels like that was really a kickoff to a lot of big things coming here to Waco. I guess broad question is, how's it going? How are those efforts to get more and more big name artists to stop here?

Jason Cook:
I will tell you, it's not easy. And I kind of think it's a complex jigsaw puzzle that we're trying to put together because our arenas have a capacity. Then you're trying to look at the availability of the artists, availability of our venues. Then you're trying to look at the financials, does it fit? Can we make the show affordable? And then just the nature of getting the right people for our community as well. It's going extremely well and we've had a great first year. And we're in a situation right now where we're frankly turning some people away just because we can't get the right dates or they're stacked on top of each other related to that. So it's been really great that the word is out across the country, particularly in Nashville where so much music originates right now that Baylor is here. Foster Pavilion's a great venue, but there's other places to play in this community as well.

Derek Smith:
When you think back over the last couple of months, we've seen names like Old Dominion who's coming to Waco, going to be here at Baylor Family Weekend. We've got Braxton Keith, a rising country artist coming here. Those are a couple we've already seen, but let's kind of run down the concert scene here because in recent days we've seen names like Pat Green, [inaudible 00:04:14], Carter Faith coming. So let's run down a little bit what people can expect over the next few months.

Jason Cook:
Well, I might need my calendar in front of me, but we do have a really action-packed fall and we're already looking at booking into the spring as well. So we'll kick off with a new concept this year with our Baylor Backyard tailgate series. We'll have a live concert in conjunction with every football game this fall, which is really part of our fan first initiative under a new athletic director, Doug McNamee. And probably the signature of that is going to be Pat Green for the Big 12 opener against Colorado. But we've really tried to curate some different types of artists kicking off the season with Suede, which is a R&B group here in Waco that is really one of the top party bands in the community. They're going to do a great job. And then we'll end the season with a Waco staple with a Sloppy Joe Band as part of that. So a really nice mixture.
But then we'll kick off the Foster Pavilion season with Old Dominion for family weekend. We had Lauren Daigle last year sold out concert and Old Dominion is just one of these bands that just puts on a great show. Their lead singer, Matthew Ramsey, is probably one of the great band front men in the country today. And True Confession, they happen to be my favorite band as well. So there's a little personal excitement in there.
And then we'll go into Braxton Keith as we kick off October, at Foster Pavilion, which is one of the country's next biggest stars coming in. Then we're partnering with Magnolia for Silobration to a kickoff concert at Foster Pavilion with Mt. Joy. They are one of these indie adult alternative kind of jam bands, if you will, and has an incredible national following. And they're just going to be a different kind of genre for us. And that's probably the second most requested group from students that I've gotten as well. So we're excited about them coming up in October 22nd. And we're going to squeeze in Howdy at the Hurd in there as well. That's going to be on Friday, September 25th. That's going to be an outdoor festival concert that all Baylor fans are invited to, but we're going to have Carter Faith for that concert.
And Carter, her album, Cherry Valley, was up for the American Country Music Awards Album of the Year. So she has just an incredible following in Nashville and we can't believe we got her to come to Waco for Howdy at the Hurd. So we've got a busy fall, already looking for the spring too.

Derek Smith:
The question you say you get a lot is, "Hey, who's next?" No matter who's there, everyone wants to know who's next, right?

Jason Cook:
Yeah. There's quite a bit of pressure, Derek. You could have a great concert, a sold out crowd, and people walk out of the venue and they say, "Okay, Jason, who are you bringing next?" So it's an incredible amount of pressure. And I talk about that jigsaw puzzle, but trying to find an artist that is good for our community, that we can get tickets at a good price point. And we've done well in both the country and the Christian genres. That speaks a lot to our Waco community. But Mt. Joy is going to spread that audience out for us quite a bit, not only with our students, but with Magnolia as their audience keeps getting younger and younger. So there's a lot of musicians out there, and that's one of the neat things, just be able to discover new people and then bring them to Waco.

Derek Smith:
A little bit I want to ask you, Jason, what it takes to bring an act to Waco. Maybe we can sort of work backwards from if there's a concert, say September 21st, what it takes to make that happen. But before we get there, I want to ask, you've mentioned Silobration. We talk about Mt. Joy. It's bringing the Silobration festivities off their main campus and just a few blocks away, but nonetheless, to Foster Pavilion, working with athletics and making game day more exciting. Are those things you envisioned when we started the concert, bringing more concerts to Waco? Or what's it mean to you and to Baylor to be able to partner with different aspects of the university or the community?

Jason Cook:
Well, when we got started in this, and Derek, you mentioned back in the day, I mean when the Ferrell Center opened, there was quite a few national artists that came here and Garth and George Strait and Keith Urban played here, just a lot of different acts. And it is hard work. I mean, it is an intentional effort to get people here. And I think when we started a couple of years ago restarting this music program, it was really just to fulfill our contractual obligations with the city of Waco who were just so generous in the construction of Foster Pavilion. And so we're required to do a certain number of events, but what we found is this concert program generated so much excitement in the community. And we started saying, "You know what? It could be a little bit more than just what we're required to do." And that's where we started looking at Howdy at the Hurd, a festival kind of environment.
We brought the boys from Oklahoma to McLane Stadium. We brought Willie Nelson to the Baylor Ballpark. So what was originally about Foster Pavilion has grown so much more. And the community, not only people living here, but the local businesses, the city leaders, the chamber of commerce, people really, the hoteliers, they've really gotten excited about that because they see what live music can do for a community. And it really communicates that this community is alive. There's a lot of excitement. There's things to do here, but live music's just a great gathering point as well. So I never would've imagined how it could have really changed a lot of how people feel about Waco, both inside and outside the city.

Derek Smith:
Well, some people who are watching this have been to concerts. Maybe they went and saw, like you said, Lauren Daigle, or Forrest Frank, or Tucker Wetmore, any number, Hudson Westbrook in the last year. But for those who haven't, take us inside what they can expect if their concert experiences are going to Dallas or Houston when someone big comes through. How does the experience here compare?

Jason Cook:
Well, I think the biggest thing that you have is just the intimacy of Foster Pavilion. And I like to think of it, you walk in and it looks like you're going into a concert hall at the end of the day. So for all of the reasons that Foster Pavilion is a great basketball venue, it's just as good of a concert venue too because the seats, you're right on top of the stage. So I think that it creates more of a intimate feeling to it. Our production company, Tristar Production Group out of Nashville does all the major concerts for country, not only just in Nashville, but in this region as well. It's going to be a great audio and lighting experience as well. So these are national level production teams that are coming in as well. And then I think it's just going to be a great experience.
On the athletic side, we have great partners who really focus on a good fan experience for our fans. Same thing with concerts. There's going to be such great Baylor hospitality there. So you're going to get good music, good seats, a good experience, but then also great hospitality is part of it. And that's our competitive advantage.

Derek Smith:
I think most of us are thinking about the experience from the standpoint of an attendee of a fan, but you also have to think about as you're attracting people here, what that experience is like for the artist, for the people who set the concert up, who come here from out of here. What have you heard from people about what Foster or other facilities are able to offer these big name artists?

Jason Cook:
Well, one of the individuals that we work with, with Noise New Media, which is our agency out of Nashville we work with, he used to book the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo for over 20 years. And that's the largest concert budget in the country. And so he took me behind the scenes for the Houston Rodeo before we even started our concert business and said, "Jason, the biggest thing you can do and the thing that you could control is what happens backstage. To make sure that the artist has an incredible experience, that they are well taken care of. And that leads to a better performance on the stage. But then also word gets out within the artist community that Baylor University takes care of us when you go there." So that word of advice, we've really taken to heart to make sure that whoever comes in our venue, they're going to have a great experience backstage.
And I recall Lauren Daigle when she played for Family Weekend a year ago, she came off the stage and said, "Jason, what a great venue. This room is excellent. The fans were right on top of me. It sounded great. It was just such a great experience." And that was just a great testimonial. And we want every artist who takes that stage of Foster Pavilion to have that experience.

Derek Smith:
Well, obviously the facility itself as it was built, there's aspects of that, but it does take a lot of work to make this happen both on the floor, behind the scenes, and even long before any of that is a possibility of taking place. So let's work backwards a little bit. Take us inside, Jason, what it takes to land one artist. Because if you land one artist, I know you're probably looking at, I don't know, X number of others, but let's work backwards. Take us inside that process of identifying, working, negotiating, landing them here.

Jason Cook:
These are long-time relationships that Noise New Media has built with agents and with different agencies, both in Nashville and Los Angeles, and trying to build those relationships and connections. And obviously you're looking at available dates and we're tending to work 8 to 12 months in advance. And that's really hard because we don't get the football schedule from the Big 12 for the conference games until the end of February. And then we don't get the basketball schedule, the conference basketball schedules for Foster Pavilion really till the end of September. So we're trying to project openings quite a bit and facility availability. So once you get kind of an agreement on the date for a facility, then you're looking at the scale of production. What will a production cost? Then you're looking at what's the artist guarantee? And then how do you create a performer with tickets and things of that nature, ticket prices? So it is quite an expensive endeavor.
And what we saw coming out of COVID, recall that all the musicians stopped touring. They stopped performing. And there was a lot of pent up demand for people wanting to go to concerts. And so the market just skyrocketed. So if you're looking at some of the artists we're attracting to Foster Pavilion well into the six figures for a guarantee, then our production costs, depending on the level of artist, well into the six figures as well. So it is an expensive proposition to get people here, but sometimes it's just all these balls have to get in the right order at the right time to be able to secure some of these falls.

Derek Smith:
Jason, you mentioned Mt. Joy. And I think in years past, a lot of bands, if they were big, you always heard them on the radio. I think the social media and the internet have changed things quite a bit. There's some bands, some big performers, some big personalities out there that because of social media, I haven't heard. And yet if they came to Waco or wherever, they're going to fill out an arena because people love them.

Jason Cook:
Well, I go back when we opened the Hurd Center three years ago. We have Bailey Zimmerman here to open that building up. And here's a guy who has no formal music background whatsoever. They always talk about Nashville being a 10-year town. You move to Nashville and it takes you 10 years to make it big. Here's a guy who just started putting music out that he wrote out on TikTok and it found an audience and it started clicking. And now Bailey Zimmerman's one of the biggest names in country music today. And that's the story of how it happens right now. And I personally listen to SiriusXM, The Highway, and there's so much music that I'm listening to right now that you won't hear on traditional radio for six to eight months down the road. And so I think the whole music business is just different now. And it's all built on streams and views, to be honest with you.
And that's where people are consuming music. And that's why it's so important for us to make sure we get different connection points with our students, with the community, with young people, and try to find out where they are, who they're listening to, and then try to put all that data into some algorithms to say, "Hey, could they perform and perform well at our venues?"

Derek Smith:
And we've seen many of those take place already and more to come. And Jason, I was asking you for the timeline to bring someone here. Also, before we move on from that too far, I wanted to ask you the timeline to get Foster Pavilion. We'll go there set up for a concert because I appreciate our basketball coaches, they can move back occasionally to the practice gyms, even if it's at a non-season portion of the year, but it takes a lot of work to get Foster Pavilion from a basketball venue to a concert venue and back.

Jason Cook:
Well, most certainly. And first and foremost, Foster Pavilion was built to be a basketball arena. And so you look at the floor, the floor is permanent down. So whenever we bring a concert in, we've had to get special floor covering to come in and bring us part of that. You've got to push back some of the seats so you can bring the stage in. You've got to hang the lighting and speaker rigs from the rafters of the building. You've got to bring in the blackout curtains that block all that natural sunlight to give it that field house feel to it. So there's just a conversion that has to take place. You've got to move the basketball goals behind in the hallway and things of that nature. So it is quite the undertaking to turn it into a concert venue. But then ultimately we want to make sure that we're good stewards, that we can immediately flip it back to a basketball venue as well. So it is a multi-day affair.
And I think both Coach Drew and Coach Collin like to practice a lot in the venue in Foster Pavilion because that's where we play games and they want to have that home court advantage. So we're very respectful of that and we try to steer away from basketball season the best we can. But every now and then, if we could get the artists, this could be a good fit in Waco. We go and plead and beg, "Can I have this date? Can we look at protecting that so we can get somebody like a Mt. Joy into the venue?"

Derek Smith:
And our athletic facilities friends, they're also concert facilities workers as well? Is that the case?

Jason Cook:
Yeah, it is. I just love our athletics facilities folks because they've truly embraced turning Foster Pavilion into a concert venue, turning the Baylor Ballpark into a concert venue for Willie Nelson. They've gotten excited because there's a lot of creativity, a lot of problem solving that comes into the day. But ultimately it's an opportunity to get new people, new fans, expose them to some incredible athletics venues that we have. And hopefully they have such a great experience at a concert, they'll come back to a basketball game, or to a baseball game, or a football game. And we've kind of experienced that, Derek, from all over campus, whether it's our partners in Baylor Police, our public safety and security group, student life. They have all seen what the concerts are doing for Baylor, what concerts are doing for Waco, and just an opportunity to come and pitch in.
And I was talking to DJ Robman just a couple of days ago who oversees our public safety and security group and said, "DJ, I hope that our police officers are positive in supporting." He said, "Well, Jason, they get a front row seat to the concert." So of course they are. So it's been really good to have such great partners on our campus, but throughout the city of Waco, Waco Police, McLennan County Police, all the jurisdictions, our city partners, it really has been more than just Baylor, it's all of Waco.

Derek Smith:
As we've talked about concerts, we've talked about concerts that are taking place mostly at Foster, but also you've mentioned Howdy and the tailgates before football games. But we also had a concert on The Diamond, Magnolia Field at Baylor Ballpark, Willie Nelson, such great, I think, fan reaction to that and a sellout. I'm curious, is that something we might see more of? And what's special about that venue for music?

Jason Cook:
Well, we didn't know how that was going to turn out. And I think that the reason we looked at the ballpark is that because of Willie Nelson's age, he's only doing outdoor venues right now just because he doesn't want to be caught into a 5,700-seat arena with all these germs going around and everything is outdoor. And Willie's such a treasure. We want him to be with us as long as we can. So we started looking at outdoor venues and in the Baylor Ballpark, we'd never done a concert there before. And when we walked through it just had this kind of amphitheater feel to it. And sitting there on the banks of the Brazos River, it was just that night in May was just a picturesque concert environment, one of those nights that the weather was just perfect that you will remember forever. And one thing that we heard from so many people was a great audio experience as well.
So it wasn't built to hold concerts. We had taking people throughout the catacombs underneath the baseball stadium. The dressing rooms weren't meant for concert performers, but we may do. And I think the fans had a great experience and we're hopeful that we can bring someone back for this spring if we can get the baseball schedule to work out because it's a great venue and people took notice of what a special evening that was.

Derek Smith:
Well, you mentioned Willie Nelson being here. I remember the image of President Livingstone presenting him with the Lion jersey. And I want to ask you about that and really just stories. As we're kind of heading to the final few minutes, you have to have accumulated some fun stories that people might enjoy. Anything really stand out to you about the experience of working with some of these artists or even fans, what you've been able to see?

Jason Cook:
Well, you already stole my first one was having an opportunity for President Livingstone to present a Lion jersey to Willie Nelson. He was only here one semester in 1954 in the spring, but just to close that loop of Baylor history that he is part of the Baylor family and to come and to finally embrace him all these years later, that was a special moment. I remember Ty Myers before at Howdy at the Hurd last year. We partner with the Pi Phis on campus for that Howdy tradition in September every year. And we had them in the Hurd Center ballroom. And then bringing in Ty Meyers to meet all of them in the shrill of the excitement of all those girls to meet Ty Myers was pretty special. I remember Lauren Daigle walking off the stage. I remember Tucker Wetmore, who we caught just before that guy has just taken off big time.
But I remember him out in the bus pen area outside of Foster Pavilion exercising to make sure that he looked good on stage. So just a lot of those kind of moments that happened. And then just, I remember Forrest Frank, our first concert there, to see these families walk into the venue, Baylor alums had never been in the Foster Pavilion. And to see these kids, their eyes light up, have a great experience at that. And those are lifetime memories that we planted that night and hopefully that some of those small kids will one day become Baylor students as well.

Derek Smith:
That's fun to see. It was fun seeing him have Baylor jersey. And really a lot of these artists have had Baylor gear on at some point, which is I think fun for all of us to see. Well, Jason, as we wind down now, you mentioned that people are always asking what concerts are next. But are there any areas kind of broadly that as Waco continues to grow, as Baylor continues to grow as a concert host, that you're excited about seeing us lean further into or look to improve our game even more?

Jason Cook:
Yeah, I think that the one thing that we really worked hard on is early on I mentioned the ecosystem. And I don't want people in the community to feel that we're in competition with them for live music. We want to make sure there's lots of different options related to that. And we can't bring every artist to Foster Pavilion or to Baylor Ballpark or McLane Stadium, but we want to make sure that there's a great diverse ecosystem here in Waco. Because again, live music is just so important for any community, but particularly for ours. And we want to look at bringing some different types of artists. I think over the past year, we have some opportunities to bring some big established Christian bands into the community. That's something that we're working on for next spring and into next fall as well. So there's an endless number of target lists that we're looking for.
So just be patient with us. And if there's a concert that may not fit your schedule or may not be your favorite artist, wait. There may be some that come pretty soon, but I would encourage you just to go to any of our concerts. And I think that my wife and I have gotten to be such great music fans at this stage of our lives and go to concerts all across the country. And unlike a sporting event, when you go to a concert, you always walk away a winner and you always have a great time. And that's the experience we want to create.

Derek Smith:
Well, it's exciting to see that continue to develop and we appreciate the work you are doing. And not just you, but all of our partners across campus and people in the community who are making this happen. And people want to stay on top of this. We'll link in the show notes to the Baylor Concerts webpage and social media, but feels like it's right to say Baylor University social media, then the concert page specifically is the place to kind of stay tuned for that info.

Jason Cook:
Most certainly, baylor.edu/concerts. And then all of our social handles are bayloruconcerts. And so we just did a little bit shifting because as I talked about, we started out with just Foster Pavilion and this has grown so much that it's Foster, it's McLane, it's Baylor Ballpark, it's even Waco Hall with comedy now. So we want to make sure that we capture everything that's going on our campus for our community.

Derek Smith:
Jason, thanks for sharing that. Thanks for your time. And we'll look forward to seeing you out there at the concert and seeing what's ahead.

Jason Cook:
You bet. Thanks, Derek.

Derek Smith:
Appreciate it.
Jason Cook, Baylor's vice president for marketing and communications, our guest today on Baylor Connections. Again, to stay on top of Baylor concerts, bayloruconcerts on social media, we'll link to that on the show notes. I'm Derek Smith. We appreciate you being with us on the program today. Reminder, you can hear this and other programs online. You can find the video on the Baylor University YouTube channel, or you can subscribe to the audio version on iTunes. Thanks for joining us here on Baylor Connections.