International Festival Forum has outlined the first conference sessions for IFF LA, its first North American edition. The event will take place September 14 through 16, 2026, at The London West Hollywood, placing festival decision-makers and booking agencies in one hotel for scheduled meetings and industry discussion.
The appeal is pretty easy to understand. Festival booking often depends on scattered conversations across agency offices, conferences, showcases, and private meetings. IFF LA is organizing those conversations around a dedicated schedule, which could make the event useful for buyers who need to review artists, compare routing needs, and plan future lineups within a limited window.
Registration for IFF LA is now open. For more information and to register, visit la.iff.rocks.
The Booking Meetings At IFF LA Is the Main Draw
IFF LA is produced by International Live Music Conference in partnership with We Group. The format centers on pre-arranged one-to-one meetings, conference sessions, and agency pop-up offices. The event builds on the focused model covered in our first look at IFF LA’s Los Angeles booking format, with direct access to agency representatives placed at the center of the schedule.
Founding agency partners include CAA, Ground Control Touring, High Road Touring, IAG, outer/most, Paladin Artists, ROAM, TBA Agency, The Team, UTA and WME. Each firm will operate a dedicated office during the event, giving festival delegates a clear place to discuss artist availability and lineup planning.
The Sessions Focus on Current Booking Pressure
The first program tackles issues that can change a festival plan before an artist reaches the stage. Sessions will cover U.S. work visas for international touring, insurance and risk management, audience access, social media’s effect on artist discovery, and booking plans for 2027 through 2030.
That is the useful part here. The program connects the creative side of lineup curation with the operational work required to deliver the event. A promising booking still has to fit routing, visa timing, insurance requirements, audience demand, and the organizer’s financial plan.
Huston Powell Will Break Down Lineup Curation
A central session, “The Art of the Lineup,” will feature Huston Powell, promoter at C3 Presents and talent buyer for Lollapalooza, Governors Ball, and Lollapalooza’s international editions. Powell will discuss artist development, programming decisions, and the changing role of the festival talent buyer.
The session should give attendees a practical view of how major lineups are assembled across local and international markets. It also creates a useful link between the conference’s future-facing sessions and the day-to-day judgment involved in selecting artists for a specific audience.
Partners Add Data, Ticketing, and Production Context
Live Nation is the platinum partner, while AEG Presents will host a penthouse space across the event. Other partners include Front Gate Tickets, Tysers Live, Event Production Services, Showstop, CelebrityAccess, and SpinLab Communications.
ROSTR is also supporting IFF LA, extending the festival data and custom booking tools included in its event partnership into the conference setting. That connection matters because talent buyers need current artist information alongside the relationship-building that happens in person.
Registration for IFF LA is open now. The event will run September 14 through 16, one week after IFF LDN takes place in London from September 7 through 9.
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.
