Music festival Wonderfront is returning to Downtown’s harbor and bayfront for its fourth edition this May – with new owner La Jolla-based Events.com.

“We still have the autonomy to run it,” said Wonderfront founder and Executive Director Paul Thornton. “We have our best lineup yet, which is great, and we’ve got our marketing team, which is very strong, but is also supported by Events.com and their marketing channels as well, and some of the enhanced ticket functionality that they have. So nothing’s taken away, I would say. It’s just been added to.”

It is hard to dispute his claim that it is the festival’s best lineup yet, with headliners including Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals, whose 2016 Tiny Desk Concert has over 100 million views on YouTube, Grammy-winning Daniel Caesar, singer and actress Janelle Monáe, local singer-songwriter Jason Mraz, and 4 Non Blondes doing their first show in decades.

The festival is succeeding when much of the musical festival circuit has struggled post-COVID-19 to return to the highs of the 2010s, when new fests boomed and old favorites attracted record-breaking audiences.NPR dubbed 2024 “the year the music festival died” after so many canceled or postponed fests. Even North America’s biggest music festival, Coachella, which takes place in neighboring county Riverside, saw ticket sales decline by 15% last year. Wonderfront did not take place in 2023 as it moved from a November date to a May event with a bigger audience.

“We had our best year on record last year, where most festivals canceled or went away or really got into trouble,” Thornton said. Wonderfront did not need the acquisition in order to survive.

He credits some of the year’s success to his conservative financial choices. He always kept tickets in escrow so they could be easily refunded in case of cancellation. Other festivals used ticket sales to pay off old debts when they returned in 2022 and 2023.

According to Thornton, many hoped 2024 would be their year. Unfortunately, many artists had already toured with their COVID-era music and were back in the studio to make more. Festivals scrambled to lure top talent while charging higher prices than ever amid high inflation for necessities. Wonderfront saw the embattled landscape and went after up-and-coming artists geared towards a younger, less financially-affected, audience. Thornton and team’s savvy predictions about who would crossover into mainstream popularity has made the festival an industry taste maker.

Events.com has been an investor in Wonderfront since its inaugural year in 2019 with 56,000 attendees. After last year’s success, they approached Thornton with an acquisition deal.

“Collaboration between the technology company and a live events company can no doubt improve the technology but also improve the live event,” said Stephen Partridge, co-founder and president of Events.com. Partridge cited three main reasons for the acquisition, first “We could not let the festival succumb to what a lot of the rest of the interest industry was being challenged with.” Second, Events.com wanted to build its brand locally and have a flagship event its international team could come to annually to connect with each other. Finally, the festival is now a place where Events.com can test its technology with its research and development team right there. “Our partnership with Wonderfront really helps us serve all partners better,” Partridge said.

He noted research points to running events being very difficult – hard to monetize, be profitable and efficient. By investing in events, the tech company needs to have products which solve these issues if they are not to lose money. “Are we truly providing the value we believe we are? And it forces us to recognize that because it hits our bottom line the same that it would hit our clients bottom line,” Partridge said.

At this year’s Wonderfront, alongside the curated lineup, attendees will use Events.com’ digital ticketing system and AI-driven engagement tools. Payment plans for purchasing tickets are even available thanks to the platform, which is helpful when single-day tickets start at $165.

For those tickets and more information on the lineup coming to the bay May 16-18, visit wonderfrontfestival.com.