Heading into its fifth year this summer, Music at the Intersection is making some changes. There will be no VIP tickets. The music festival in Grand Center will span three days instead of two, with the conference portion previously held on Friday now mixed in throughout the weekend—so festival goers might wander into an industry panel or keynote speaker in between musical performances. A new membership program will help unlock “events and activations” throughout the year.
Music at the Intersection is also now officially MATI—an acronym standing not only for its name, but also its key concepts of music, art, thought, and innovation. Chris Hansen, executive director of Kranzberg Arts Foundation, says organizers aren’t retiring the old name so much as opting for a nickname the public has already begun to use. “It was organic in part and strategic in part,” he says.
As for the changes to the experience, Hansen says the festival always had a queasy relationship with the VIP concept. After all, unlike many musical festivals, this one is thrown by a nonprofit and gives away several thousand tickets each year. “We never wanted to be transactional with the market,” he says…