International Festival Forum is moving into the US market with a Los Angeles edition that reflects how festival booking continues to consolidate around structured, in-person dealmaking environments. The platform has operated for years as a central meeting point for agents, promoters, and festival programmers in Europe, and this expansion brings that same format into a North American context with a more localized focus on the US and surrounding markets.
The Los Angeles edition will bring together a curated group of industry professionals for a focused series of meetings, workshops, and showcases, with participation from major booking agencies already confirmed. That level of alignment signals intent. This is not positioned as a broad conference with open access; it is structured as a targeted environment where bookings, relationships, and long-term planning can move forward in a concentrated way.
IFF LA will be produced in partnership with We Group, a leading production company delivering large-scale festivals and live events across the globe. Born in London with offices in Miami, FL, the award-winning agency has delivered the likes of Winter Music Conference, Boiler Room: Miami and Labyrinth on the Thames.
Nick Morgan, CEO of We Group, said: “The North American festival market has been missing a platform like this.“
IFF brings the leading festival professionals together to do business, and we’re excited to help create a dedicated space for the US market that connects festivals, agents and talent in an engaging way – with real results and impact.
A focused environment built around booking and deal flow
The structure of IFF LA is designed around efficiency. Daytime programming centers on meetings, panels, and workshops, while agency pop-up offices allow for scheduled, private conversations between agents and festival programmers. That format reduces the friction that typically comes with larger industry events, where access can be inconsistent.
This approach has already proven effective in London, where the forum has facilitated high-value booking activity across hundreds of festivals and thousands of artists. Bringing that model to Los Angeles aligns with the scale and complexity of the North American festival circuit, where coordination between agencies and promoters often requires more direct, structured interaction.
The involvement of agencies such as CAA, WME, UTA, and others also establishes a baseline for the type of business expected to take place. When those groups are present in a concentrated setting, it tends to accelerate conversations that would otherwise stretch across months of communication.
Artist discovery and industry alignment in one setting
Beyond booking logistics, the event also builds in a discovery layer through curated showcases. These performances place emerging and priority artists directly in front of the decision-makers responsible for festival lineups, which compresses the gap between exposure and opportunity.
That connection between live performance and booking strategy has been a defining part of the forum’s impact in Europe. Artists who pass through these showcases often move into broader festival circulation, and the same structure in Los Angeles creates a similar pathway within the North American market.
Attendance is intentionally limited, with a capped number of delegates and a vetting process that keeps the room focused. That level of control shapes the tone of the event. It prioritizes relevance over scale and keeps interactions aligned with actual booking outcomes.
IFF LA enters a market that already has a dense calendar of conferences and festivals, but its positioning is clear. It is built around deal flow, access, and direct interaction between the people who program festivals and the agencies that supply them. That focus tends to hold attention, especially in a market where time and access are the primary constraints.
Will Vance is a professional music producer who has been involved in the industry for the better part of a decade and has been the managing editor at Magnetic Magazine since mid-2022. In that time period, he has published thousands of articles on music production, industry think pieces and educational articles about the music industry. Over the last decade as a professional music producer, Will Vance has also ran multiple successful and highly respected record labels in the industry, including Where The Heart Is Records as well as having launched a new label with a focus on community through Magnetic Magazine. When not running these labels or producing his own music, Vance is likely writing for other top industry sites like Waves or the Hyperbits Masterclass or working on his upcoming book on mindfulness in music production. On the rare chance he's not thinking about music production, he's probably running a game of Dungeons and Dragons with his friends which he has been the dungeon master for for many years.
