BNP Paribas Open will have a music festival vibe to broaden appeal

In Melbourne in January 2023, the Australian Open introduced AO LIVE, a curated music festival that ran alongside the hugely popular Grand Slam tennis tournament. Acts performed before the main draw began, then continued on the grounds throughout the two weeks of competition.

Earlier this year, AO LIVE debuted a multi-night music series during the first days of the tournament, which essentially turned the start of the tournament into more of a block party atmosphere, complete with buzzing open-air stages and four nights of electronic dance music.

Organizers at the BNP Paribas Open weren’t in Melbourne for the event but took some notes from afar. And influences from that festival-like vibe will surely be noticeable this year at Indian Wells.

The Indian Wells Tennis Garden will be outfitted to host bigger acts under two shade structures. Paradise Pavilion will include one stage, and the Village Stage will be expanded to host larger artists.

American Idol winner and Indio native Abi Carter will play on March 4. Grammy-nominated country music star Sara Evans will headline on March 7, the first Saturday of the tournament. Sixwire and Zac Barnett of American Authors will also perform on the Village Stage as part of what the tournament is calling an All Star Jam.

Music will continue on March 8 and again on March 12, with a special courtside DJ show throughout the Stadium 1 evening session. The Village Stage and Paradise Pavilion, the two giant shade structures at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, will host the live music and DJ sets, as live music takes a center stage between sessions on Stadiums 1 and 2.

Tournament officials aren’t coy about saying that live music will have a prominent place at the BNP Paribas Open moving forward.

It follows what is being adopted at major tournaments around the world. It’s all part of an effort to create a more engaging, immersive fan environment that goes beyond the traditional tennis experience.

“It’s part of us reaching out to a new audience, a younger audience,” said Philippe Dore, vice president of marketing at the BNP Paribas Open. “All walks of life.”

The organizing bodies in tennis have been intentional over the last decade about attracting younger fans to the game. From grassroots programs to social media to highlighting celebrities in attendance and even adjustments to the game itself have all been aimed at drawing in youthful audiences.

Warm-up times have been slashed, and a serve clock was introduced at the 2018 U.S. Open to speed up matches and make them more digestible to younger viewers who gravitate to shorter engagement cycles. Many hard courts, such as Indian Wells, which switched its hardcourt surface from Plexipave to Laykold in 2025, have shifted toward faster playing surfaces that favor more aggressive, high-speed play.

A balancing act

With all of the emphasis on increasing the game’s popularity to a younger audience, introducing a festival-like experience at tournaments feels like a natural evolution.

“There’s just times where I think tournaments have had to dig deep and be creative,” said Andrew Krasny, the longtime stadium announcer at the BNP Paribas Open. “We want to create an atmosphere, almost like a festival atmosphere, where a diehard tennis fan feels at home but then again someone who’s new to tennis can feel that there’s so much more than just the tennis.”

The U.S. Open is among the tennis tournaments that have dove head-first into live music at its annual event in New York. In 2024, the tournament introduced the Finals Fan Fest, featuring a live DJ duirng viewing parties and an after-party concert headlined by Grammy-nominated dance music project Galantis following the women’s final.

The tournament also used live DJ sets during the tournament in an effort to enhance the fan experience.

But having live music at these tournaments does not come without its concerns. There are some who believe that a music festival experience can become distracting and even detract from the world-class tennis with storylines that seem to become more intriguing every year.

“Now, you have a plethora of choices,” said tennis Hall of Famer Mark Woodforde, who resides near Indian Wells. “There are high quality food outlets and there are beverages and there are concerts going on. There are people buying tickets that are not interested in tennis.”

Woodforde, an Adelaide, Australia native who won 12 Grand Slam doubles titles, including six at Wimbledon, was in Melbourne this year for the Australian Open. He said that he felt that at times the music at AO LIVE was a bit overdone and that the nighttime festivities took away from qualifying matches.

“To me it was like, ‘Hello, there’s tennis being played,’” Woodforde said. “It really does attract attention, but it still is a sporting event and it still is a tennis event.”

That is why balancing live music and tennis is important for BNP Paribas Open organizers. Dore said that the tournament’s team is conscientious about that as they move forward.

“We don’t want to get away from our tennis,” Dore said. “Tennis is the reason we’re all here. So, we protect that a lot.”

But, Dore said, the tournament is always looking to keep attendees engaged. He said that the tournament’s research shows that when people come to Indian Wells for the event, they’re here an average of three full days. He said that part of the responsibility of the tournament is to keep them continually engaged when they come, be it through tennis, world-class dining or, looking ahead, live music.

With the BNP Paribas Open routinely being named tournament of the year on the World Tour, there is pressure for the team at Indian Wells to continue to deliver time and again. Not just for the players, but for the fans and the tennis industry that descends upon the California desert every March.

“It’s a balance, really,” Woodforde said. “It’s about finding that happy medium. But it was, without about doubt, a tremendous vibe on the grounds of the Australian Open.”

Andrew John covers the BNP Paribas Open for The Desert Sun and the USA TODAY Network. Email him at andrew.john@desertsun.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: BNP Paribas Open will have a music festival vibe to broaden appeal