A Conversation with Life is Good Kids Foundation’s Bert Jacobs – HuffPost 9.3.10
Mike Ragogna: What’s your history and involvement with Bonnaroo?
Bert Jacobs: Well, we really just became friends with the Superfly guys who own and operate Bonnaroo. I’ve enjoyed the music, and been out there as a fan like anybody else. That’s my history with Bonnaroo.
MR: And this resulted in the Life is Good Festival which happens September 11th and 12th?
BJ: That’s right.
MR: Can you tell us about it like where it is and what people can expect from it?
BJ: Sure. It’s a private farm that’s about fifteen minutes outside of Boston. It’s at a place called Blue Hills, and it’s a wide-open field. We’ve made an arrangement to take it over for the weekend and produce a mini Woodstock.
MR: And who are some of the acts that you have there?
BJ: Well, we have Jason Mraz headlining on Sunday, then we’ve got Ben Harper & the Relentless 7 on Saturday. Ziggy Marley is going to open for Ben Harper, and Guster is going to open for Jason Mraz. We’ll also have Corinne Bailey Rae, Galactic, and many other notables.
MR: You also have OK Go, right?
BJ: We do, and they should be fun. They promised something theatrical.
MR: Maybe they’ll bring treadmills with them.
BJ: Their treadmills, right.
MR: And you’re also going to have Laurie Berkner for the wee folks.
BJ: Yeah, we’re going to build a stage so the kid’s acts will be on simultaneously. We’ve got three stages, and two of them will be devoted to adult music and the third will be devoted to the kid’s bands. So, we’ve got the Laurie Berkner band, we’ve got Dan Zane and Friends, we’ve got They Might Be Giants, and we’ve got a band from San Francisco that’s fantastic called The Sippy Cups.
MR: Isn’t it interesting how the world of kid’s music has proliferated with some pretty good artists now? Now, this event is for the benefit of kids.
BJ: It is. It’s to help children overcome life-threatening conditions. One hundred percent of the profits from the event will go to kids that need it.
MR: And you’re hoping to raise how much money?
BJ: We’re hoping to raise one million dollars.
MR: Is that a goal for ticket sales only or is that with additional sales of merchandise, etc.?
BJ: Well, there’s two buckets really, and one is the event itself, which includes anything from sponsorships to ticket sales to t-shirt sales. Since that’s our business, we’ve already sold hundreds of thousands of dollars of the Life is Good festival t-shirt. We’ve been selling that shirt nation-wide since the beginning of the year, so we’ve got a little bit of a head start. So, one bucket is the profitability of the event, with all of those things rolled up.
Then, we have a second bucket, which is just fundraising. We’re asking festival goers, which should be in the neighborhood of thirty thousand people over two days, to raise money for kids. It’s not unlike getting sponsored if you were going to be in a walk or a marathon. This event that they’re going to, while it’s fun and games and they’re going to hear their favorite bands, the event is to raise money. So, we’ve done things like, instead of a VIP lounge, we’ve got a VGP, which stands for a “Very Good Person.” If you’re able to raise one thousand dollars, you’re going to have an open bar, we’re going to take care of you with service, and you’re going to have your dinner taken care of. You’ll have preferred viewing, and you’ll have all the things that a typical VIP would do, except we’re not going to give this to anybody unless you’re raising the money for kids.
MR: How did the organization come about? How did you form the Life is Good foundation?
BJ: Well, we’ve been in business as Life is Good, the clothing line, since ’94. We learned something from our customers that we really didn’t know in the beginning, and that is, that the people who face the most adversity in their lives are the ones who embrace the message the most. When people go through hell and they come out the other end–that can be chemotherapy, growing up in the worst neighborhood, being exposed to violence it can be any of these things–we heard from them over and over again through emails, letters, and just bumping into people on the street who tell us their stories. We’d scratch our head and say, “Why are these people the ones embracing the message that life is good?”
Then, one day, it really hit us over the head like a ton of bricks. The reality is that when you go through such difficult things, you never take anything for granted again. So, it was just a natural that we created a foundation of some sort, and the reason that we focused on children is because children are the greatest optimists in the world. Children live their lives wide open and they think anything is possible. Unfortunately, as we get older, we tend to close down a little. So, one of the things Life is Good is dedicated to is sort of keeping that child in all of us alive; that playfulness, that openness, and that optimism. Not just because it’s fun and healthy, but because it’s powerful.
MR: Has there been anything in the Boston area, festival-wise, that was like this?
BJ: It’s different than anything that’s going on, and the area really needs it. My younger brother, John, who is my business partner, we spent the last couple of years traveling around to all the major music festivals trying to decide if we could get into this game and if we could, what space was open. We found that at any events that welcomed families with young children, the music was not so good. It might be good for the young kids, but it was a sacrifice for the parents, you know? So, our goal is to have it family friendly and welcome families to come, but for music fans to be side by side, listening to the best music in the country from all genres.
The other thing we found is that music festivals are just starting to move in the direction of embracing all genres. Forever, it was a blues festival or jazz festival or jam bands or whatever. We made a concerted effort to take on a wide array, a broad variety or types of music, and the only common thread that runs through them is that they spread good vibes and they all celebrate. They celebrate what’s right with the world rather than what’s wrong.
MR: Since you’ve had the foundation, are there any special stories that stand out?
BJ: There are so many we wouldn’t have time. Right now, we’ve got operations in Haiti working with children who’ve lost their parents and lost their homes. Now, almost one hundred percent of those children have shelter, food, and water, but they have no joy. We’ve merged our kid’s foundation with a 501c3, a non-profit that was called Project Joy and is now called The Life is Good Playmakers. They train childcare providers to deal with kids that are going through things like this. We did it after hurricane Katrina, and the stories are amazing. These are kids whose lives, in many cases, would end by the time they’re ten or twelve, and we honestly believe after the programs are done, they will be great citizens, and they’ll have a joyful life.
There are individual cases of children with cancer, because we also work with oncology departments who are so courageous, they blow you and I away, Michael. We had a girl named Lindsey, many years ago, who insisted on wearing her Life is Good hat when her little head was bald, and she danced around the hospital room, cheering everybody else up all the time. When we heard about it, it was actually on the radio in Boston, and we were down in our old warehouse packing t-shirts. So, we decided to pack up one of every hat that we had–some of them one of a kind–and we sent them to the children’s hospital, but we never heard anything back.
Now, Lindsey had a terminal bone cancer and about six months later, her mom called me, and I was sure she was going to tell me that Lindsey didn’t make it. Instead, she told me she did make it, and she wants to come in the office to show us something. So, she came into the office, this ten or eleven year old, and she showed us all the hats that we gave her on the heads of all the little girls on her soccer team. What those little girls did was, they shaved their heads in support of Lindsey. When she saw it, she was so happy that she reached over her hospital bed and put a hat on all of them and they took a picture for us, and we’ll cherish that forever.
MR: What a sweet story.
BJ: To make it better, it was a long time ago, and Lindsey was really the inspiration for the kid’s foundation. Last year, we went out to dinner with Lindsey and her boyfriend. She’s in college, she’s beautiful, she’s smart, and she’s just an amazing creature. So, we were very fortunate to meet her, and there are so many more stories.
MR: Beautiful. I’m curious about the Bonnaroo connection. Is the same team putting together these shows?
BJ: Yeah, that’s right. Superfly is our partner on this. Superfly operates Bonnaroo, and also Outside Lands. I mentioned to you that my brother and I did a little circuit to all the music festivals around, which by the way, is good work if you can get it. Neither of us are particularly great at any one facet of business, with the exception of making friends. It’s the way we built our business from the beginning. We make mistakes all the time, and people bail us out because they end up liking us. That’s what happened with Superfly, we just got to be friends with these guys, and we started asking a lot of questions. We exchanged information, and after we got back, we decided to take a trip to where they’re based in Manhattan. After a couple of meetings, we said, “Hell, let’s do this together.” So, they’re jumping in with both feet, helping us to understand how the live music industry runs, and we’re helping them to understand how the consumer product industry runs. Also, on the social side, I think we’re taking a lead, which they’re very interested in, and I don’t think they would have gotten involved if it weren’t for the kid’s foundation. The most important thing is there are no geniuses involved on either end. Everybody is just digging in and doing the best we can, and we’re going to try; no one can fault us for that. If we have success, who knows, we’ll probably do some more things together.
Transcribed by Ryan Gaffney