Carmen Macri
Words by Carmen Macri
Have you ever wondered about the inner workings behind the scenes of Jacksonville’s beloved festivals? Who might be the mastermind behind the curtains? When it comes to events like Florida Fin Fest, we simply stroll in and soak up the music, the food, the art and the learning experiences. But let’s not be fooled — while it may appear seamless, these festivals don’t materialize overnight. Behind the scenes, a dedicated team pours their hearts and souls into ensuring Jacksonville’s entertainment scene thrives for everyone’s delight.
One man, in particular, is Niko Costas, founder and CEO of Real Time Entertainment and Management — RTEAM for short. At the heart of RTEAM lies talent buying — the meticulous process of sourcing bands for the venues they represent and the events they curate. RTEAM also focuses on event production (their events as well as others), they facilitate event production by managing audio and video requirements, festival finances, permit acquisition, staffing and vendor contracts all while building up artists relations.
RTEAM sprang into existence as a solution for their college band, Side Reel, to gain credibility at the local bars. Naturally, a group of college kids attempting to secure gigs at event spaces wasn’t met with much seriousness. That’s when Costas took matters into his own hands, deciding to launch his own entertainment management company and stepping into the role of manager for a few years to establish the band’s credibility. They landed gigs at places like Lynch’s Irish Pub, who they still do business with today.
“I was going to school for event management, so it kind of always naturally tied in and we began to kind of build up our portfolio of clients,” Costas shared. “We wanted to bring more interesting music to Jacksonville and Jacksonville Beach, not the same kind of bands that were here locally, but we got all these bands that are touring through that would love to stop now.”
Fast forward a few years, RTEAM was focusing less on the entertainment management aspect and decided to dive head first into festival production and talent buying – and Jacksonville thanks them greatly for it. A few years ago, Costas and his team were entirely too fed up with how little our city knew about ocean conservation. Being a coastal town and all, you would assume that would be second nature to us, but it turns out, it wasn’t. So RTEAM decided to create a festival that is equally entertaining as it is educational — Florida Fin Fest — and the festival blew up. Who doesn’t love a free music festival with food trucks and an entire ocean education village? No brainer.
“How can we combine that [entertaining people] with doing good and serving our communities?” Costas explained. “Something that we were passionate about was ocean conservation and sustainability. We grew up here in Jacksonville. We spent a lot of time in the ocean surfing, on the river paddle boarding and just interacting with our local waterways. We said, ‘You know what? Let’s find a way that we can help make sure that people know how to protect those and even give back to those areas.’”
RTEAM saw a niche opening in a space where big corporations were booking talent but had no one to service these specific parts of a large-scale event in the corporate world. Costas saw this as an opportunity to grow and expand RTEAM.
“We’ve started to dive really into that as well, for example, like Jaguar Land Rover, a huge pillar of their Defender brand, is music,” Costas shared. “So we work with their agency that produces events for them to now help book all the talent and run the kind of the entertainment side of their festival that they produce as a brand.”
Costas and his team coined the term “rockstar aspirin” when referring to what they do as a company. They work behind the scenes with the groundwork and scouting and hiring the talent for these larger festivals. Anything to make the event run as smoothly as possible. They have landed themselves talent buying for Virgin Voyages, Range Rover House, Destination Defender New York and Texas, and the Taco and Tequila Festival.
“So we procure all the entertainment and then we manage everything from the stage backwards,” Costas explained. “We’re booking the talent, we’re managing the hospitality, we’re helping with ground transportation and all the logistics, really anything that’s related to the performance itself.”
Since the inception of Florida Fin Fest, RTEAM has wasted no time popping up or sourcing talent for festivals throughout Jacksonville — and across the globe. Their goal is to activate underutilized areas and keep the concert experience fresh and interesting. Next month, they’re rolling out their latest project: the River City Railway Concert Series. I’ll admit, before our chat, I was in the dark about what the Railway entailed. I had this image of a shabby old railroad in mind, but… clearly, that was not the case.
If you’re in the dark about it like I was, let me clue you in, River City Railway is a sweet hospitality spot right in the Sports Complex near Downtown Jacksonville. The lot is made up of 25 individual railcars each offering a private and exclusive spot for parties, pre-games or even just chilling after a game or a night on the town. And now? It’s the prime location for Jacksonville’s newest local festival.
“We all love going to, you know, the St Augustine Amphitheatre, Daily’s Place, like the great staple venues,” Costas shared. “But for us, we want to create something that’s more of an experience with the music versus it just being a concert that you go to.”
RTEAM’s primary objective is to breathe vibrancy into various corners of our city and beyond through music and entertainment. In addition to Florida Fin Fest, the River City Railway Concert Series and Woodstock at Canine Social (a dog-friendly festival), RTEAM is actively involved in several other upcoming local events worth noting. Keep an eye out for the upcoming collaborations with 904 Happy Hour like Brunch Fest at the Riverside Arts Market and Duval De Mayo.
Watch the exclusive interview with Niko Costas here
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