Mar 09, 2018
Slime is slime, regardless of what language you speak.
Viacom’s live event business is booming. Just this past year, the company has launched Comedy Central’s Clusterfest, a first-of-its-kind music and comedy hybrid festival; Bellator MMA came to New York’s Madison Square Garden; and Nickelodeon brought Bikini Bottom to Broadway via the smash hit SpongeBob SquarePants the Musical.
Now, Nickelodeon will add to this growing constellation of live experiences with a two-day immersive music festival called…you guessed it…NickelodeonSlimeFest.
Nickelodeon debuted this kid-friendly festival in Australia, and has since slimed fans around the globe with events in South Africa, Italy, the UK and Spain. Now, the green goo is coming to the U.S., emphasizing the power and reach of Viacom’s global properties. It makes sense: outstanding events are universally appreciated, and slime is slime regardless of what language you speak.
The concerts filled with viscous goo build on Viacom President and CEO Bob Bakish’s strategy to help the company grow by tapping into the tremendous appeal of its content library.
“I’m happy to say that we continue to make progress on the ground across the portfolio, creating and executing experiences that engage our fans in the real world,” Bakish said during Viacom’s third quarter 2017 conference call. “Fiscal year-to-date, we’ve had 1.5 million people on the ground at our events, a number that will continue to grow.”
Aside from these impressive numbers, the move towards hosting more live events in the U.S. (each flagship brand – MTV, BET, Comedy Central, Paramount Network, Nickelodeon and Nick Jr. – now has at least one major event) makes perfect sense for Viacom. Festivals are beloved by a diverse range of people; there are festivals or conventions for nearly every form of art, music or niche hobby in existence. Viacom is a purveyor of cultural trends, armed with access to the hottest talent and a beloved vault of intellectual property, along with forward-thinking employees ready to take these assets and paint them on a new canvass—such as a music festival.
SlimeFest stands out in the festival scene, too, as the only major music festival for kids and families in the U.S. This year’s headliners include Zedd, Liam Payne, Flo Rida and JoJo Siwa. It’s produced in partnership with Live Nation, the world’s largest producer of live music concerts (as someone obsessed with live music and festivals, I can vouch for their prowess). SlimeFest is also being held in Chicago, which any festival fanatic will know is synonymous with Lollapalooza, the famed, multi-genre music and arts extravaganza. The Windy City has years of practice dealing with throngs of revelers, but will it be prepared for slime time?
Find out for yourself, and buy your ticket here, before they’re sold out.
SlimeFest is coming to Chicago Saturday, June 9 and Sunday, June 10. Use the hashtag #NickSlimeFest to stay up-to-date.