Music for a change
Cambiar Festival projected for spring 2019
by Jenna Lennon
Kaylee Largay’s mother was diagnosed with Leiomyosarcoma, an extremely rare form of cancer, the summer before her junior year of high school. After countless chemotherapy treatments, surgeries, and experimental medical trials, Deena Laviolette lost her battle to cancer by the end of Largay’s freshman year at Emerson College.
“Cancer is one of those things that it doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor; if you’re of whatever descent; if you are gay; if you're straight,” Largay said. “It literally does not matter where you are or where you come from, cancer can affect you.”
The recent college graduate channeled those experiences into positive change for others also affected by rare cancer through Emerson’s Entrepreneurial Experience (E3), a year long program where students of any major work to create and develop their own business venture.
Largay participated in the E3 program in 2017. She structured her venture, Cambiar Festival, as a B Corp, a company that makes a profit for the benefit of social or environmental good.
Cambiar Festival (spanish verb meaning ‘to change’) is a global music, art, and fashion festival with a philanthropic goal: one hundred percent of ticket sales will be donated to a different cause each year.
“My step-mom is Cuban-Puerto-Rican so [the name] was kind of a way to incorporate both of my moms,” the founder and CEO said. “I grew up with that culture and that language, and it was just this perfect way to put two and two together.”
The first festival is projected for spring 2019 in Boston, MA.
“We want to make philanthropy cool because I think a lot of companies now, there’s a surge of social entrepreneurship: there’s a surge of these t-shirts that are giving ten percent of their t-shirt sales to a non-profit ... and that hasn’t been apparent until the last five years,” Largay said.
The E3 program is led by Lu Ann Reeb, the director of entrepreneurial studies and business studies, and the president and founder of Boston Media Group LLC, the founder of Legal Talk Network LLC, and a two-time Emmy award winning executive producer for television.
“Kaylee had this wonderful spirit to turn that really sad episode in her life of her mother's health issues and ultimately her death from this cancer into something memorable and positive and really innovative in terms of the Cambiar Festival,” Reeb said.
“So a festival, we all think of it mainly as a concert, but she has these added pieces to it in terms of art and fashion,” she continued. “So it's just unique. I don't know of anything like it. I know of fashion festivals and music festivals and art festivals but combining all those things: isn't that Emersonian? I mean it really is.”
Largay is currently developing a partnership with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA where she plans on donating revenue from the ticket sales of the first festival.
“I wanted to give back to [Dr. Andrew Wagner] specifically and his research because I think he's so incredible and one of those doctors that really cares about his patients,” Largay said.
“I reached out to him two years after my mom died when I was coming up with this idea and asked him if there would be any way that I could give to him and Dana-Farber,” she continued. “He instantly remembered everything about my mom; he remembered everything about me; he knew our story; he knew when she passed.”
But a venture this large doesn’t come without a hefty price tag.
“Ideally, we would want to have a venue of 18,000 to 20,000 people, so we're looking at high costs,” Largay said. “We're looking at projected between $1.3 and $1.5 million.”
“I say $1.3 to $1.5 (million) because two weeks ago I looked at the budget and it was $1.3 (million),” Largay said. “This week, I got another quote from something that was $50,000 more than I thought, so that price goes up constantly.”
Largay started a Givebutter campaign a few months ago to cover the initial legal fees and start-up costs.
“It's similar to Kickstarter but they take less money,” Largay said.
It has since raised just over 12 percent of the initial $11,000 budget mostly from friends and family. As a result, Cambiar Festival filed for incorporation in March.
To cover the remaining costs, Largay is looking for donors and investors to contribute larger sums of money. With no secured investments yet, Largay is actively pitching and seeking out investments.
“But that’s entrepreneurship,” Largay said, “just pitching until you can’t pitch anymore.”
But Largay doesn’t want to create a festival “just about money hungry people” rather a “community where the actual attendees are the ones giving money towards that cause.”
“I want the people that are investing to care about my mission,” Largay said.
“The hope is that after we donate the money from the festival, our team is able to work with that non-profit throughout the year to ensure that our funds are being put to good use.”
Largay is still in the early stages of planning for the festival, which involves finding sponsors, artists, partnerships, and building her team. Prasuna Cheruku, Director of Communications, and Joelle Lewis, Director of Artist relations, are among the first of “strong women” Largay intends to add to her team.
“I remember going to Forbes 30 Under 30 with [Cheruku] a year ago and being like ‘that’s going to be us one day’ not even having Cambiar Festival be real yet whatsoever, just an idea,” Largay said. “It wasn’t anything that was actually going to happen, and at that point she already believed in me and was like ‘I want to help.’”
Cheruku, who is currently studying on Emerson’s Los Angeles campus before she graduates in May, “immediately wanted to be on board” because of their similar interests and the festival’s mission statement.
“There's a lot of people that want to make festivals or concerts and want to be a part of the music industry but not many people have that outlook on it that they actually want to make a difference, and they want to be in music and entertainment to promote social change and illuminate issues,” Cheruku said.
Largay met Lewis through their sorority, Alpha Epsilon Phi. The Emerson College junior was a new member and Largay was working on her business plan for Cambiar Festival while in the E3 program, and the two bonded over music.
“When we reconnected after her semester at [Emerson’s Los Angeles campus], and she spoke about how Cambiar is growing, I immediately decided this was a project I had to be a part of in some form,” Lewis said in an email statement. “...She is incredibly collaborative, and always keeps the entire team in the loop as the festival continues to grow.”
Largay is “really excited” about the addition of Cheruku and Lewis to the team.
“They are smarter than me and talented and very strong women which I think is very important for me in building the foundation of this company because that’s very rare in the music festival space,” Largay said.
“But I think the roles are somewhat blurred when you start out…,” Largay said. “It's like ‘what can I help you with’ or ‘how can we think of this together right now.’”
Ultimately, Largay’s goal is making a difference.
“With rare cancer, there's not enough treatment options, there's not enough research that's been done,” Largay said. “When [my mom] was diagnosed, we were told there were three places we could send her to get treatment which were New York, Boston, or Texas. Those were our options.”
“If I could affect one or two people or help one family going through that or give one person another treat option and five more years of life...oh my gosh that’d be incredible,” she continued. “If I had that time to be able to go back and somebody did that for me and I had five more years with my mom, that’d be incredible.”
Projected venues and artist lineups for the first Cambiar Festival were not released at the time of interview. The lineup is expected to be released in late 2018.
For more information, visit www.cambiarfestival.com.