Hopscotch Music Festival

What Hopscotch Music Festival does

Hopscotch Music Festival is an independently operated, annual three-day music festival held in Downtown Raleigh, North Carolina, organized by Hopscotch Presents LLC under co-owner Benjamin Wingrove. The festival was founded in 2010 and operates as a single-event business centered on a multi-venue urban format spanning City Plaza, Moore Square, and surrounding downtown venues, featuring a lineup of nationally recognized indie and alternative artists alongside local and regional acts.

The festival's product surface is anchored by a tiered ticketing model — General Admission and VIP three-day wristband passes sold through the Etix ticketing platform with payment plan options — and supported by two digital products: the official Hopscotch Festival App on iOS and Android, which provides set times, personalized schedules, site maps, and push notifications; and Octave (by Etix), an RFID-enabled cashless payment system linked to festival wristbands, enabling tap-to-pay at bars and merchandise locations plus advance drink ordering. The core technology stack is standard and outsourced — Etix for ticketing, Octave for payments, Hive for email/CRM capture, and basic third-party analytics cookies — with no proprietary platform or AI capabilities.

The revenue model combines three streams: (1) consumer ticket and pass sales as the primary driver, (2) corporate sponsorships and brand partnerships, and (3) on-site cashless concession and merchandise transactions processed via Octave. The customer base is bifurcated between a long tail of individual festival attendees and a concentrated set of sponsors, hotel partners (Sheraton Raleigh), food and craft vendors, and the RDU airport wayfinding ecosystem. Operating with a core team of 1-10, the business relies on a direct-to-consumer, event-driven go-to-market model with marketing concentrated on Facebook, Instagram, email newsletter, and earned media including Forbes, WUNC, and Technician Online. The 2026 edition is scheduled for September 10-12, 2026.

Name

Hopscotch Music Festival

Legal name

Hopscotch Presents LLC

Website

https://hopscotchmusicfest.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2010

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Hopscotch Music Festival is an annual three-day indie and alternative music festival held in Downtown Raleigh, NC, operated by Hopscotch Presents LLC. It serves music fans with GA and VIP wristband passes sold via Etix, supported by an official festival app and Octave RFID cashless payments.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Live Music Festival Events

NAICS

Promoters of Performing Arts, Sports, and Similar Events without Facilities (711320), All Other Amusement and Recreation Industries (713990)

SIC

Services-Amusement & Recreation Services (7900)

akta.pro primary industry

Music Festival Organizers & Promoters (MPAGAAAB)

akta.pro secondary industry

Fan Engagement & Onsite Technology (RFID, Cashless, Apps) (MPAGAAAL)

Keywords

• Live music events
• Music festival production
• Event ticketing services
• Festival sponsorship activations
• Cashless event payments

Headquarters

HQ city

Raleigh

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Marketing or Sales, Personnel, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Ticket and Pass Sales: Primary revenue stream from sale of General Admission (GA) and VIP wristband passes for the three-day festival. Both tiers available for purchase through Etix ticketing platform with payment plan options during checkout.
2. Sponsorship and Brand Partnerships: Revenue generated through branded sponsorships connecting companies with festival attendees. The festival actively recruits sponsors for on-site activations and marketing partnerships, positioning itself as a gateway to passionate music fans in the Southeast.
3. Cashless Transactions and Concessions: Revenue from food, beverage, and merchandise sales processed through the Octave cashless payment system at festival venues. RFID wristbands enable tap-to-pay transactions at bars and merchandise locations.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels5 records

Core offering

Hopscotch Music Festival is an annual three-day music festival held in Downtown Raleigh, NC, featuring indie, alternative, rock, electronic, hip-hop, and experimental artists across multiple indoor and outdoor venues including City Plaza and Moore Square. It sells General Admission and VIP three-day wristband passes through the Etix ticketing platform and supports attendees with an official mobile app and RFID-enabled cashless wristband payment system.

Product overview

Hopscotch Music Festival is a single-event annual music festival held in Downtown Raleigh, NC. It is organized around a tiered ticketing model (GA and VIP wristband passes) supported by a digital ecosystem comprising the official Hopscotch Festival App and the Octave cashless payment system. The Festival App serves as the primary attendee-facing digital product for artist discovery, scheduling, and navigation, while Octave extends the event experience into cashless transactions via RFID wristbands at physical point-of-sale locations.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Hopscotch Music Festival An annual three-day music festival in Downtown Raleigh, NC featuring hundreds of artists across multiple stages and venues for music enthusiasts.
• Hopscotch Festival App (Official)

Named customers2 records

Segments2 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Six partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• Sheraton Raleigh HotelcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerOfficial hotel partner for Hopscotch 2026. The Sheraton Raleigh is located in the heart of City Plaza, minutes from festival venues. Marriott booking link provided for attendee accommodations with limited room availability.
• EtixcoreTechnology or IntegrationPrimary ticketing and app software platform provider for Hopscotch Music Festival. Handles online ticket sales for GA and VIP passes, and provides the festival app infrastructure. Contact for privacy concerns is [email protected].
• OctavecoreTechnology or IntegrationCashless payment solution provider enabling RFID wristband payments and advance drink ordering at festival venues including City Plaza and Moore Square. Available as iOS and Android applications.
• Food and Craft VendorsminorChannel Partner/ Reseller/ DistributorLocal businesses operating food and craft vendor booths during the festival. Applications open through Google Forms for vendors to join at Downtown Raleigh venues.
• Raleigh-Durham International Airport (RDU)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerPrimary airport serving festival attendees, located approximately 20 minutes from Downtown Raleigh. Provides information on rental cars, hotel shuttles, public transit (Route 100), and rideshare pickup zones.
• 2025 SponsorscoreGTM or Marketing PartnerSponsors supporting the 2025 Hopscotch Music Festival, with logos displayed on the official festival website. Sponsorship inquiries managed through [email protected].

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Moogfest: Durham, NC-based multi-day music and technology festival with a similarly experimental/indie-leaning lineup and tight integration with the local Triangle tech and creative community. Closest geographic peer.
• Pitchfork Music Festival: Chicago-based three-day indie/alternative music festival with a comparable size, tiered ticketing, and curatorial focus on indie/alt/experimental music. Strong analog in format and target audience.
• Shaky Knees Music Festival: Atlanta-based multi-day indie/alternative music festival with a comparable size, lineup philosophy (indie/alt/rock focus), and urban multi-venue format. Direct regional competitor for Southeast music fans and sponsor dollars.
• Forecastle Festival: Louisville, Kentucky-based multi-day music festival with a similar indie-leaning lineup and waterfront urban setting. Competes for the same traveling Southeast/Midwest music fan segment.
• Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival: Iconic four-day multi-genre music festival in Manchester, Tennessee. Same product category (multi-day music festival) and overlapping audience, but at substantially larger scale, making it a competitor for both attendees and top-tier artist bookings.
• Firefly Music Festival: Multi-day music festival held in Dover, Delaware, with a comparable lineup breadth (rock, indie, hip-hop, electronic) and tiered GA/VIP ticketing model. Direct competitor for traveling music fans on the East Coast.

Others

• Etix: Ticketing and venue technology provider already powering Hopscotch's pass sales and festival app. Ecosystem enabler whose pricing, uptime, and product roadmap directly affect Hopscotch's ticket sales velocity and app experience.
• Octave (by Etix): RFID cashless payment platform currently integrated with Hopscotch's wristbands. Infrastructure provider for on-site concessions revenue and a key dependency for the festival's premium attendee experience.

Broad incumbents

• Live Nation Entertainment: Largest live entertainment promoter globally, operating festivals, tours, and venues. Indirect competitor and potential partner — sets artist guarantee benchmarks and is the de facto infrastructure layer for ticketing and sponsorship bundling.
• AEG Presents: Major concert promoter and venue operator running festivals, tours, and venue programming nationwide. Sets competitive benchmarks for artist fees, sponsor packages, and festival production standards against which Hopscotch is measured.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/hopscotchfest
• Instagraminstagram.com/hopscotchfest
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/hopscotch-music-festival

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Hopscotch Music Festival