Why Tito’s, Southwest and Jack Daniel’s Keep Going Back to Willie Nelson’s ‘Anti-Festival’
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From the main stage at Willie Nelson’s annual music festival, North Carolinian folk singer and songwriter Lou Hazel asked the small audience gathered for his early set: “How’s everybody doing?”
A lanky, grey-haired man in the front row shouted back, gleefully: “We’re in Luck!”
Enveloped in near-constant clouds of barbecue smoke and weed, the rest of the onlookers chucked—it was true. Nelson’s ranch, dubbed “Luck, Texas,” isn’t technically its own town. The property, home to buildings from the original set of the 1986 Western Red Headed Stranger, sits about an hour west of Austin within the city limits of Spicewood.
Luck Reunion started in 2012, initially requiring all brand signage to be hand-painted. Often described as an “anti-festival,” it now pulls in millions in sponsorship dollars from 20 different brands—tapping into uniquely progressive strain of Texas’ spirit that the almost 91-year-old Nelson embodies. With long-term, experience-first partnerships, brands like Southwest Airlines, Tito’s and Jack Daniel’s embed themselves into the festival, physically interacting with the 4,000 attendees and reaching an audience of up to 50,000 more through the ticket lottery and the event’s production arm, Luck Presents.
“The brands become almost like the artists to the festival, where they’re actually bringing value and story and energy to the event,” Matt Bizer, founder and executive producer of Luck Reunion, told ADWEEK. “People look forward to seeing them there.”
Branded saloons and general stores
Luck Reunion happens during South by Southwest, Austin’s 37-year-old conglomeration of festivals spanning music, tech, film, education and culture, capitalizing on the influx of non-Texans flooding the state each March.
Brand sponsorships at Luck range from the $10,000-20,000 on the low end, $20,000-50,000 in the mid-range and $100,000-300,000 on the high end, Bizer said.
Southwest, a sponsor since 2017, takes over Luck’s general store (the Red Headed Stranger set included all the components of an old western town—jail, saloon, chapel, etc.). This year, it used the space to spotlight Wearsos, a partner company that sells leather goods made out of repurposed leather from old airplane seats and hand-painted by artisans from Costa Rica.
