Festivals In Focus: Q&A With Pure Imagination’s Candace Devine
The fest returns to Watson Lake in Prescott, Arizona on May 17.
By Team JamBase Apr 9, 2025 • 12:57 pm PDT
Photo by Blushing Cactus Photography
Live music festivals continue to grow in popularity and diversity as the landscape shifts and responds to trends and technological changes. JamBase’s ongoing interview series with promoters of music festivals looks for insights into the challenges and rewards of hosting memorable events. This installment presents a Q&A with Pure Imagination's Candace Devine.
The 2025 Pure Imagination music festival will be held in Prescott, Arizona on May 17. This year marks the fourth installment of the event held at scenic Watson Lake.
The eclectic Pure Imagination 2025 lineup features Cheap Trick, Matisyahu, Arrested Development and The English Beat. Additional performers include Gone Gone Beyond, Kelsey Waldon, Ponderosa Grove, Bird and Byron, Kids in America, Pijama Piyama and Dutch Holly.
Launched in 2022, Pure Imagination presents a day of music, nature and culture with an eco-conscious ethos. Beyond the stage, festivalgoers can explore scenic hiking trails, on-site kayaking and the Prescott Night Market made up of artisan vendors, immersive art installations and performances from aerial artists, fire dancers and more.
Pure Imagination tickets are on sale now. Learn more about the independent festival through a Q&A with Pure Imagination founder Candace Devine.
What got you into the world of independent festivals/promotions?
I threw myself into the world of festivals in 2021 when I watched people cancel each other, loved ones, and friends over differences in the pandemic. People picked sides on EVERYTHING and lost their patience as well as their ability to agree to disagree. Civility had left the building.
As a musician myself, what I’ve always known and experienced to be true, live music brings people together. It’s an experience that connects people in an emotional/soulful place that transcends differences. We needed something in my area that would land on a large enough scale to bring people of all backgrounds, ages, and ethnicities to come dance and sing together. So I got a personal loan and followed my gut, and became a festival owner/creator.
Photo by Blushing Cactus Photography
Did you have a mentor(s) or an education in the space?
I have been lucky that although I didn’t have a mentor, I did/do have wonderful relationships that allowed me to compile a small group of talented people with incredible experience and understanding in focused lanes. Talent buying, marketing, strategic planning and hospitality, as well as my own experiences/perspectives from performing on many different stages all over the country and globe.
What do you wish you knew starting out that you know now?
You ALWAYS need more money. Prices of artists, stages, labour, liquor, transportation, etc. have gone up every year. As an indie fest, there are challenges every year with aligning budget and costs.
Being in the marketplace of “festivals” and starting out of a pandemic was, in hindsight, a difficult thing to do as many/most other fests in our region are well established, bigger, and many of them owned by large groups or corporations. I have learned that my desire to bring the most exciting acts we can afford with no real guarantee of how many people will show up to a lesser known, kind of rural location, has been far more exciting and challenging than I expected. But worth every single second of effort, passion and stress.
What are 3 things you wish concert attendees knew about hosting and promoting an independent music festival?
There are SO many moving parts. As someone who has attended many festivals, played on all kinds of stages as an artist, and watched from afar, I see festivals entirely differently now. They encompass not only music but so many elements from food, bathrooms, performance artists, activations, sponsors etc., that involve support crews in each lane to get them safely in place. As well as safety needs, security, medical, evacuation plans, insurance, health department, parking facilitation, the cooperation of weather, and that’s just off the top of my head a very small list. A festival is something I WISH could be less expensive.
1. I wish attendees knew how much it costs to put on a festival. I wish I could charge attendees far less for tickets, as I am sure other fests do too! Festivals SHOULD BE accessible and attainable for as many people as possible and that is getting harder and harder to achieve year over year.
2. I wish people realized how little artists make on streaming and how there is a trickle-down effect that makes hiring artists for live shows more expensive – and how that translates into ticket prices everywhere.
3. I wish people understood JUST how important it is to support live music so artists can continue on sharing their gifts to uplift audiences. If you can stream songs hundreds and thousands of times, try to plan for at least one concert or fest a year. Get out to a few small club shows a year, or buy that merch from an artist you love. Support independent venues, fests and artists of all kinds. Art and music are the soul of humanity. It’s a garden that needs to be attended to.
What is your favorite thing about promoting independent music festivals?
It’s fun to promote the festival because it’s thrilling to see the public get excited about artists they love coming together to create an all-day/weekend experience. It feels so authentically correct and so appropriate to see a community of musicians gather together and share with the community of our area and anywhere this happens.
What’s a favorite festival that you’ve attended or worked on and why?
[Laughs] well, my favorite festival is mine cause there is undeniable love and passion put into it that I believe you can feel when you walk in the park. An intimacy and sincerity that our attendees have often remarked on. I think part of that is the location of Watson Lake Park in Prescott, Arizona – its stunning Dells rock formations and the big pillow clouded skies. But also the nature of diverse attendees. We have everyone from young families, 18 to 20-somethings, to people in their 70s+ attending. So the feeling of community and how we value our attendees from all backgrounds is also an abundant source to the joy I believe Pure Imagination brings. Artists have remarked that we “feel like a legit fest and back yard family BBQ all at the same time.”
All that being said, knowing the work and effort it takes to make a festival happen, I am a big supporter and fan of ALL fests. Good job, everyone, and THANK YOU. The world needs you. Ok, maybe not Fyre Fest [laughs].
I have had wonderful experiences at Bottlerock in Napa, Jazz Fest in New Orleans, Outside Lands in San Francisco and many more, including Arizona’s Innings Fest, M3F, DUSK and Gem & Jam fest. Arizona has wonderful fests happening around our state that I encourage people to support.
How do you prefer to engage with brands or sponsors who want to come on board? What qualities do you look for?
I always take a meeting. With just about everyone. I want to hear why brands and sponsors connect with our fest or feel we would be a good fit to help promote/represent them. I am grateful for wonderful sponsors and am always looking for more. With a sponsor partnership, I believe it only makes sense to have some throughline. As a festival we stand for kindness, diversity, and hearing artists with different sounds and different points of view. With the direct goal of bridging gaps and reminding people to find their commonality again instead of hating each other for their differences.
We also work at being environmentally conscious by using all recyclable or compostable products for our food and bars. We appreciate brands that see our efforts and resonate with that. In this modern world most people want and need most things. So we also partner with brands that share our values and that may also be a little outside the box. For example, we have a loyal sponsor here in town that has a family owned business selling appliances. I don’t know that people instinctively think of a music festival = appliances. But they love our message and resonate with what we do. They enjoy the fest every year and we are grateful for their continued support and our ability to promote them.
What are the qualities you look for when partnering with an artist to curate/co-brand a festival?
Our main focus with our lineup is to create an eclectic, curated soundscape. You will see in every lineup we have put up a little bit of a lot. We like many sounds being embraced: country, hip hop, pop, rock, indie rock, R&B, soul, reggae, jazz, electronic, bluegrass, folk, world and other lanes. When we are looking at artists, we are looking at a whole experience and how the playlist will flow for our attendees. We want people to try on new acts they wouldn’t typically listen to while also reveling in the artists they already listen to and love.
How has the indie festival promotion business changed post-pandemic?
I didn’t know the promotional strategies of fests prior to the pandemic, so I can only speak to the changing lanes I’ve experienced in the last 4 years. It feels like the marketplace to advertise has gotten a bit tougher (probably for all kinds of businesses) because EVERYTHING is advertised through social media or in digital spaces now. So, being loud or visible enough for people to find you comes at a price. Influencers cost a fortune for one reel, ad buys are a must on things like Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok, Spotify, JamBase, Google, Radio, streaming networks, and others.
We still do old-fashioned banners, flyers, street teams etc. as well as email blasts on top of all the digital stuff. Even with that, I still think getting the word out is tough when you have to break through SO much content people absorb daily. I wish I had been around doing this when everyone just put flyers on telephone polls in their city and at venues, or took out an ad in the paper to promote. In theory, it seems like it was probably an easier go.
Do you think that the effects of the pandemic are over/complete for people promoting independent live music events?
I think the effects of the pandemic, as far as people being afraid to be in spaces with a lot of other people, have subsided. I think people are at a point where they need and want to be in environments where they feel uplifted by their community. Whether it be other festival goers, or neighbors, or sporting events, etc.
However, I think the financial ramifications of the pandemic, inflation, and the struggling economy continue to take quite a toll on festivals of all sizes, but certainly smaller independent ones trying to keep up in the waters of the big fests. I tend to say a festival is like a wedding. If you go to get a sheet cake for a birthday, maybe it’s $30. But if you call for that same sheet cake and say it’s for a wedding, it’s $100. In my experience, the festival marketplace is the same.
For us smaller fests, I believe as long as we continue to do our best to create a special event, a feeling, a memory being made, where people know they have been thought of and considered in every element of the experience, we will be able to stick around. By staying true to the nature and power of live music, I believe small indie fests can survive the post pandemic situation and the struggle to get the word out while operating without massive budgets with the support of our repeat attendees, sponsors, and word of mouth at the core of all the other promotional outreach.
Are there any trends you see taking shape over the next couple of years?
I have no idea. It seems we’ve come back into an era of pop. Which I love, but also where are the bands? I feel as though in the cyclical cycle of music, perhaps maybe we will start to see bands emerge again sooner than later? It’s been a while.
We’ve been on an ongoing train of pop divas, solo acts, and collaborations between solo acts mixed with a lot of electronic influence. (Again, not mad at it) but I’m kinda hoping we get some bands back in the mix, holding instruments and working together to make a whole sound. But that’s just me. I like it when we have a big mix of sounds happening in the mainstream. I guess that could explain Pure Imagination Festival lineups in a nutshell.
What is the best advice you can give to someone looking to attend a festival in 2025?
A festival is a great place to be yourself, hear artists you love sing out about how you feel, connect with new artists and people in a way that will leave a lasting impression, and expand who you are. I always feel like an album is EVEN BETTER after I have heard an artist perform it live. So my advice would be to just go … GO TO A FESTIVAL!
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[JamBase is a media partner of Pure Imagination.]
