MTV acquires South Lake Tahoe's SnowGlobe EDM festival

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — It started as a dream of Chad Donnelly's after growing up in Colorado and attending Denver Broncos football games in the cold and snow. He thought to himself, if people will attend a football game and sit in the snow, why not a concert?

That observation turned into an internationally recognized event in South Lake Tahoe where electronic music fans have headed to for three days, December 29-31, since 2011. In that first year, 28,995 tickets were over the three days and it grossed $1.5 million.

The popular festival also caught the attention of MTV, which announced Monday they have expanded their global live events business into the U.S. with the acquisition of SnowGlobe Music Festival which attracts more than 20,000 fans each day.

MTV plans to reinvent their New Year's Eve coverage by connecting their New York Times Square live event to the festival in South Lake Tahoe and beyond.

Besides the music fans, MTV was also attracted to the event because of the live action sports and interactive art exhibitions.

“With SnowGlobe, MTV is taking the natural next step in its resurgence by expanding deeper into live events, as we continue to reach our fans and capitalize on our strong brand in new ways,” said Chris McCarthy, President of MTV, VH1, CMT, and Logo. “In a festival space where many events have become indistinguishable, SnowGlobe stands out with a unique mix of music, sports, and art that makes it a favorite among artists and its growing audience.”

“With SnowGlobe, we’ve always endeavored to create an event experience that sets itself apart from the typical music festival model,” said Donnelly, CEO of SnowGlobe. “We are incredibly excited to be joining the MTV family, whose legacy of developing boundary breaking programming and events perfectly aligns with our long-standing ambition of creative innovation.”

In 2018, SnowGlobe will also feature all-new art installations as well as their signature “Big Air” activation showcasing extreme winter sports demonstrations.

Donnelly and his team have been working with a local group, the No-Globe Alliance, who had concerns about the noise created from the event which takes place on the Community Playfields on Al Tahoe Blvd. Sound mitigation improvements are planned for the 2018 event which is the final year of their contract. He said sound mitigation remains one of their top priorities and are excited to see how their analysis and implementation of recommendations help with this year's event.

No other changes are planned for 2018.

"There are no plans to take SnowGlobe out of South Lake Tahoe," said Donnelly when asked if they had plans to move the event when the contract expires. "SnowGlobe is truly grateful to call South Lake Tahoe home and we look forward to many future New Year's Eve's together."

Donnelly and his team at SnowGlobe Music Festival will still produce and manage the festival.

"We are looking forward to working alongside the many skilled and resourceful people on the MTV and Viacom Live Event's teams to continue to evolve the SnowGlobe experience," said Donnelly.

Reflecting on the previous seven years of producing SnowGlobe in South Lake Tahoe, Donnelly said the best part was seeing diverse groups of people coming together in "such a breathtaking part of the world to celebrate their shared love of music."

This move to acquire SnowGlobe, is MTV’s latest step to build on its success and expand and diversify beyond cable TV. MTV currently leads all cable networks in ratings growth, driving its longest streak of growth in seven years.

MTV will collaborate with the SnowGlobe team to expand SnowGlobe to additional dates and locations worldwide and leverage its team to launch other new events as well.

SnowGlobe’s three-day festival advance purchase passes are sold out, but there are some passes still available and single day passes are now on sale.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

See SouthTahoeNow.com for updates and information about this year's festival.