The Buku Music & Art Project, at least the version we’ve come to know over the past decade, is no more.
Last week, producers of the cutting-edge electronic dance music, underground hip-hop and indie rock festival, staged in and adjacent to Mardi Gras World, shocked fans by announcing it would not return in 2023.
“Times are changing,” the announcement stated in part, “and the current model of BUKU needs to take a break.”
After two years of COVID-forced cancellations, Buku returned to its riverfront home in March with a roster topped by Tyler, the Creator, Tame Impala and Glass Animals. The daily allotment of 20,000 tickets did not sell out.
Far from it, apparently.
When a festival says it “needs to take a break,” that usually means two things: It lost a lot of money, and it probably isn’t coming back.
If that's true, Buku's run was relatively short but colorful.
'Progressive subculture'
Dante DiPasquale was a second-year Tulane University law student when he and Reeves Price, who had just earned an undergraduate degree from Tulane, launched Winter Circle Productions in 2009 to produce and promote concerts.
First in New Orleans, then other markets, Winter Circle tapped into a demand for acts that weren’t necessarily “mainstream.”
In 2012, Winter Circle created Buku as a festival-sized manifestation of that aesthetic. Part underground warehouse party, part urban music festival, it celebrated “the progressive subculture of New Orleans” in a setting that was “gritty yet colorful.”
An immersive experience, the sensory-overload setting near the Mississippi riverfront was starkly industrial and colorfully Carnival. Graffiti artists, art installations, the twin smoke stacks of the nearby Market Street Power Plant, local food vendors, massive tankers and container ships gliding by on the Mississippi River — all were part of it.
Most years, Buku sold out entirely, or came close.
The two-day event, the organizers noted in their farewell message, “became a homecoming for the most amazing bunch of beautiful weirdos ever assembled.”
“A lot of multigenre festivals morph with what’s popular at the time,” DiPasquale said in a March interview. “We’ve always been dance- and rap-focused with sprinkles of indie rock.“Without sounding too boastful, we’ve set some trends and seen bigger festivals catching up to that. It’s been cool to stay true to our brand and have an audience that it speaks to without having to change with the times.” After AEG Presents, the global entertainment powerhouse that co-produces the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, acquired Winter Circle, DiPasquale and Price became AEG vice presidents. They set up AEG’s Gulf Coast office in New Orleans.“It’s been the best of both worlds for the last six years,” DiPasquale said in March. “We still feel like an independent house and run our own show, but we’re tapped into the mothership and all the resources and knowledge that comes with it. It’s been a good partnership so far.”