If money has kept you from going to music festivals like Coachella, Ultra or Lollapalooza, a new website might be the solution. Fund-A-Fest is an online payment plan system for purchasing tickets to big music festivals.
According to its co-founders, Andrew Cantarero, 23, and Terrel Jones Jr., 22, they came up with the idea to start Fund-A-Fest after a series of failed business attempts in college. Now, they’ve created a system to help people get to their dream music festivals.
"Some of those festivals have been some of my best college moments and experiences," Cantarero said. He said he would go to Coachella with Jones and two other friends every year.
Jones said those were his favorite times.
"It’s absolutely unreal," he said of Coachella. "Every time I leave, I’m just speechless. I’m like, ‘What was that?’"
But for the two college students, money was an issue. The cost of the festivals is high, at least $300, and the VIP section of Coachella approaches $1,000.
So Cantarero and Jones did what any broke college student would do: They found a way to solve the problem.
During their senior year and after they graduated from the University of Oregon in 2014, they dedicated themselves fully to the founding of Fund-A-Fest and fundafestival.com, the website that allows people to pay for tickets in month-by-month increments based on the three plans available.
Jones said the website is self-explanatory. Once you access it, you choose the festival you want to attend and the time frame for paying.
Each festival has three options: a 5-, 7- or 12-month plan. Then, Jones said, you put your information in and that’s it. The tickets will ship two weeks before the start date.
With each plan, the cost of the ticket is divided equally over the months, according to the plan. At the end, you get the ticket and festival pack. The pack is a box of sunglasses, pens and other things to take to the festival, Jones said.
Tickets for 2016 are currently available for Coachella, EDC, Sasquatch, Ultra, Outside Lands, Lollapalooza, Hard Summer and Stage Coach.
Linda Soriano, 22, is a UF public relations senior. She said she has attended Ultra, Gentlemen of the Road and Coachella, and she plans to attend Coachella again in April. She pays for every festival in full.
"I do think it’s worth the price, if it’s your thing," she said of the cost.
For Gentlemen of the Road, she said she paid $150 for a two-day ticket and saw some of her favorite bands, such as Mumford & Sons and Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros.
She said payment plans would help college students attend more festivals and help them budget their money better.
Cantarero said the tickets are pre-purchased from authorized resellers or from smaller festivals, so they’re guaranteed to be real and valid; there are no third-party tickets.
"We try to make it even more than just a company," Jones said. "We give it more opportunities. We want them (people) to have a community feel and get them excited to go to something that they couldn’t afford to go to before," he said.
There is a 14-day "grace period" with making payments, he said. So if, for example, a 12-month plan is purchased and the plan falls through because no payment is made, it will be cancelled.
However, all the money will be refunded with the exception of the first month’s deposit.
Fund-A-Fest has sold more than 600 payment plans, according to Jones, eight of which have not been completed.
The company’s profits, according to Cantarero, come from the pre-purchased tickets. On the payment plans, a portion is added to the ticket cost based on the month.
For the 5-month plan, 10 percent is added; the 7-month plan adds 20 percent; and the 12-month plan adds an extra 30 percent, which the customer pays over the designated months. Another company, called MoonClerk, handles all the ticket sales.
Jones said the company has made more than $100,000 in profit, though there have been some challenges.
"Actually doing it," he said. "You’ve opened up the door to a whole new world." He said marketing and finding a sponsor to support the payment plan have been the most difficult obstacles.
Looking to the future, Cantarero said he’d like to expand the website into a platform for people to buy tickets for everything from the Super Bowl to the Grammy Awards.
"We’re kids who just love music and love to go to music festivals," Jones said, "and want others to have that same opportunity. We don’t want anyone to be left behind."
