Meet Madeleine Goodhand | Founder of Imagine Music Festival

We had the good fortune of connecting with Madeleine Goodhand and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Madeleine, what is the most important factor behind your success?
The Iris brand has been around since 1996, 26 years, and the festival has been around for eight years since 2014. Why have we lasted so long? We think our brands appeal because we are authentic and came up from within the electronic dance music community. We are always listening and interacting with our customers, who provide meaningful feedback that we make a priority to implement. Another factor is undoubtedly perseverance and patience. It’s taken many years to develop this small business from a dream to a scalable brand with a proper foundation to continue to grow.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
We have three businesses that all work synergistically together. First, we started as a promotion company, Iris Presents, producing and promoting our own weekly EDM events. That led to producing a larger scale annual festival, the Imagine Festival. The Imagine Festival hosts 30,000 – 40,000 guests per day over four days at a beautiful 5000-acre farm called Kingston Downs in Rome, Georgia. Most recently, in 2018, we launched our own Music Hall and Events Facility to house our events and others, called Believe Music Hall. Our weekly IRIS events allow us to bring in smaller acts and develop local and regional talent. It’s a great testing ground for hot new acts that should play Imagine Festival. We also bring in significant national acts that allow our fans to experience the same talent level we bring out to the festival year-round. In addition to that, Believe Music Hall has allowed us to reach out to other music genres and demographics by partnering with various promoters and producers. Our venue has also been host to several television shows and feature films, broadening our business across the entertainment industry. Believe Music Hall features one of the most impressive LED Walls in the city coupled with the best D&B Audiotechnik Sound System, all housed inside a historic church built in 1907. In fact, in 1958, the Rev. Martin Luther King Sr. delivered the first evening service when it became St. Stephens Missionary Baptist Church.

Like any entrepreneur, the road has not been easy, especially for Imagine Festival. The business has had to overcome everything from financial loss, Covid-19 cancellation, and most recently, a cancellation for Severe Weather, among other obstacles along the way. These past two years have been the ultimate test, but we continue to believe in the vision and make changes that ensure a bright future for the festival. The most recent change has been to move to a brand new venue called Kingston Downs, which features all the beauty of Mother Nature with more resilient roads and topography than the previous site. Despite all of these challenges and setbacks, the festival continues to be a success and grow in size. We are excited for this year’s event as it has indeed been three years in the making.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We would, of course, say that you should come to check out our venue and our festival, happening September 15-18. For the festival, you can either choose to camp with us on-site or book a nearby hotel with a shuttle to and from the festival. You will start your weekend off on Thursday with an epic Pre-Party featuring Seven Lions and an Ophelia Records takeover. Spend your evening getting to know your neighbors in camping and exploring the vendors and silent disco. Friday kicks off the start of the main festival with all stages open and an abundance of activities, vendors, amusement, and art for you to explore. On Saturday, you will not want to miss the Pool Party with Kaskade, followed up with another pool party on Sunday with Adventure Club. With so many artists and things to do, you will want to check the schedule and plan out what sets you want to see using the Imagine app. Each night as the festival ends, the campgrounds will come alive with afterparties and possibly some secret sets. You will be pretty tired come Monday morning, but we will wish you farewell and welcome you back to do it all again next year.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
There are a lot of people we have to thank. Firstly our entire team has helped produce the festival. Without their expertise and skill, we would not have been able to build such an amazing production. We hand-picked the best in the industry to create the festival, and we could not have gotten where we are today without them. Our customers who supported us through the beginning and believed in our vision. When Imagine started, it was a small festival in the middle of downtown Atlanta. Those first attendees believed in our vision and continue to come back and support our growth over the past eight years. Finally, of course, we would not be here today without the support of our family, who have been our biggest fans and stood by us during the toughest challenges.

Website: https://www.imaginefestival.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imaginemusicfestival/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/imaginemusicfes

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/imaginemusicfestival

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ImagineFestivalTV

Image Credits
DV Photo Video, Imagine Music Festival