DICE Partners With Newport Jazz & Newport Folk For Landmark Ticketing Deal

Originally published by Pollstar

The Newport Jazz Festival and Newport Folk Festival announced that they are entering an exclusive partnership deal with DICE, the music discovery and ticketing platform. DICE is able to lock tickets to smartphones as a means to help eliminate scalpers, with the platform having recently opened a second headquarters in New York City.

"Every year of the event, we work with our partners to innovate beyond traditional ticketing," Jay Sweet, Executive Producer of Newport Folk, said in a statement. "The most important thing to us is that the fans have a fantastic experience and we know that experience starts long before doors open to our event. In a year where fans deserve to get out and go see the music they love, we know DICE is the right partner to make things as easy as possible, fair, transparent and intuitive for our Newport Family. We want these tickets in the hands of our fans and not on the secondary market."

The Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals are two of the oldest music festivals in the World, having been established by George Wein in 1954 and 1959, respectively. The Newport Jazz Festival was last able to take place in 2019, with Herbie Hancock, Corinne Bailey Rae, The Bad Plus, Spanish Harlem Orchestra, and more joining the event's lineup. The Newport Folk Festival had also been put on hold due to the COVID-19 pandemic, returning in 2021 with Beck, Randy Newman, Billy Strings, Andrew Bird and Jimbo Mathus, and more. 

"Newport Folk and Jazz Festivals have an unmatched legacy as two of the most celebrated music events in US history and it's an honor for DICE to be named their partner," DICE President Russ Tannen said in a statement. "At DICE we love working with the most ambitious operators in the world, whether that's rising independent venues through to legendary festivals that continue to push boundaries."

DICE has previously partnered with overseas festivals such as Barcelona's Primavera Sound, and has also found success in New York City in partnerships with venues such as United Palace, Elsewhere and more. DICE's Founder and CEO, Phil Hutcheon, sat down with Pollstar's sister publication, Venues Now, as a 2021 All-Star and talked about how the platform hopes to continue to expand.