All Access Fest: Live @ The Hollywood Palladium on April 10 was a jam-packed day full of networking, new connections, live music, interactive booths, and more! As The Hollywood Palladium doors opened in the morning, so did the minds of 1,200 attendees as they realized their potential in the music and live entertainment industry. If you attended this year’s event, THANK YOU! We hope that you had the experience of a lifetime and made connections that will help propel your career in the music industry. To our volunteers, industry experts, and exhibitors, thank you for teaming up with us to help young people find their place in the industry. Let’s relive the day with a recap of all the highlights!
This year, we shook things up at The Hollywood Palladium with a brand-new event structure. The new All Access Fest style was created to build a welcoming environment for young people to navigate through the venue and connect with all the professionals around them.
Quick, thought-starter panels rolled throughout the day kicking off dedicated hours on topics like Marketing & Branding, Live Entertainment, and Music Creation & Distribution. Conversations were led by experts in the field from companies like Live Nation, 1824, Wasserman Music, and BMG along with individual artists like Blu DeTiger.
The venue’s main room was made up of three sections: The Workshop, The Network, and The Interview, which housed over 90 industry experts who were ready to share their advice, knowledge, and network with participants. In The Workshop, we had experts that represented several aspects of the industry from touring to branding to music distribution leading panel topic related activities and discussion. The Network was where industry experts were stationed and ready to speak with young people, answer questions, and connect. The Interview was where we had HR professionals ready to review resumes and give interview tips. These three elements introduced an innovative and inviting way for all participants to hone their skills in networking, professionalism, and got them directly connected to industry professionals.
We also introduced two new areas to the event, The Artist Lounge and The Live Nation Lounge. The Artist Lounge was created to bring more live music to All Access Fest and give young performers the opportunity to showcase their talent to the audience and a group of industry experts. This lounge mirrored our Open Mic Fridays that happens every month virtually on twitch. Our experts Choklate, Chuck Nunley, Noah Preston, and Yulia Gonzalez, attended the lounge and gave live feedback to the performers throughout the day! Each hour, industry expert Choklate brought out some of her breathing and mindfulness techniques to share with the audience and the performers. This helped keep the energy high and ease the nerves of those about to perform. The performers came from all backgrounds, various genres and styles. A huge shoutout to all of our Artist Lounge performers – you all killed it and brought sweet vibes all day long.
The Live Nation Lounge was packed throughout the day with young people looking to get tips and tricks on building up their professional online presence from experts at Live Nation! We had professionals in the lounge ready to speak to attendees looking to work on their Linkedin profile and gave tips on how to improve their chances of scoring their dream gig.
Students and educators from nearly 150 schools like Lawndale high, Morningside high, and Cal State flooded The Hollywood Palladium throughout the day checking out our booths, completing our scavenger hunt, and jamming out on instruments.
You heard that right! We had a live instrument setup by Mobile Sessions for anyone to rock out, two DJ booths to jam out on (AlphaTheta and Girls Make Beats), Ones to Watch interviewing young people about their fave artists, Headcount sharing information about voting, Tekton live printing over 600 custom T-Shirts and sharing info on merch, over 700 professional headshots being taken by KlicksbyKam, and a deliciously huge snack bar full of free goodies!
Even with all that, the biggest hit of the day may have been our scavenger hunt with prizes provided by KORG. Thanks to KORG, we gave away over 50 pieces of professional music equipment to anyone who completed the scavenger hunt. These prizes included ukeleles, MIDI keyboards, foldable piano keyboards, guitar amps, and more. The scavenger hunt helped to emphasize connections, interact with the booths, and explore the entirety of All Access Fest.
The day wrapped up with a mixer with our industry pros, volunteers, young people, exhibitors, and the Music Forward team. What other fest provides this kind of experience and direct engagement with industry for young people?!
Thank you to everyone who contributed to making this event one to remember and for furthering our mission of providing young people with the tools and experience necessary to enter the music and live entertainment industry. A big thank you to our sponsors: Live Nation, Thompson Hine, House of Blues, Norris Foundation, US Bank Foundation, LA County Arts & Culture, Concord, KORG, and DLS Events.
If you weren’t able to make it to All Access Fest: Live, don’t worry! Catch all the action, networking, and conversations when we put on All Access Fest: Virtual on September 10th! If you did attend, we hope to see you again this September for brand-new information and connections. More info here!
Did you catch All Access Fest in the news?! Watch our piece on KTLA here and our piece on KABC here.