“There may be no more quintessentially American cultural event than the Super Bowl. The culmination of the NFL season is, year after year, the most watched TV program in the country. The halftime show, which this year will he headlined by Bad Bunny (controversy and all!) is the most-watched musical performance of the year, sparking”, — write: www.hollywoodreporter.com
The culmination of the NFL season is, year after year, the most watched TV program in the country. The halftime show, which this year will he headlined by Bad Bunny (controversy and all!) is the most-watched musical performance of the year, sparking pop culture moments all its own.
With next year’s Super Bowl (Super Bowl LX, if you are keen on Roman numerals) set to be hosted in the Bay Area of California, the league and the Bay Area Host Committee are planning to lean into that cultural relevance, taking the big game and turning it into a week-long celebration of music, food, art, tech and culture that keeps the game front and center, while also expanding the league’s influence in other parts of the popular imagination.
“The great part about Super Bowl, maybe unlike most other events, is that it’s not just about what’s happening on Sunday, it allows for all of these different passion pillars and areas to come together,” said Zaileen Janmohamed, president & CEO of the Bay Area Host Committee, in a meeting with reporters in the NFL’s New York headquarters Monday afternoon. “The Bay Area is a really unique region, and events like the Super Bowl help us showcase that region out to the world.”
Next year’s Super Bowl will sprawl across the region, with the big game taking place at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, a flurry of fan and media events at San Francisco’s Moscone Center, an opening night celebration at the San Jose Convention Center, and concerts, parties, and NFL events spread from Napa Valley to Silicon Valley, and everywhere in between.
There will be traditional NFL Super Bowl events, like media day and the NFL Honors awards show, but also new efforts tied to the game, like the Pro Bowl flag football event and a related celebrity game, which will be streamed on YouTube and held in the Moscone Center.
But there will be plenty of other cultural touchpoints as well.
One recurring theme will be music. The halftime show is a major cultural moment, but the league and host committee are lining up a number of other musical events throughout the week. That includes BAHC Live! performances at the Bill Graham Civic Auditorium (Chris Stapleton and Sierra Ferrell are among the confirmed performers); and On Location’s Super Bowl LX Studio 60 at the Palace of Fine Arts, with Sting the first confirmed performer.
Peter O’Reilly, NFL executive vice president, club business, major events & international, says that this year’s musical events “build on” efforts from prior Super Bowl weeks.
“I think, relative to recent years, quantity-wise, and I’d like to say quality-wise as well, I think we’ve got a great lineup through the week,” O’Reilly told reporters Monday. “I think the week of component, we continue to build that out, both between what On Location is building out and what the host committee is doing is helping us build the quantity and quality.”
“We’re definitely a great sports town, we’re also a music hub, and for us to give accessibility to people who might not come to a game and promote music, it just felt like the right thing for us to lean into so there will be a lot of places where fans can go,” added Janmohamed. “It might be a bit of a party. We don’t mind that in the bay.”
There will be another Taste of the NFL event, bringing together world class chefs (many local to the Bay Area). And the league is launching what it is calling the NFL Culture Club at The Pearl, an “exclusive, immersive destination and refined gathering place where the worlds of sport, art, music, fashion, and community converge” with conversations, performances and art installations.
“This, at its core, is really a creative space. It’s a space where you bring together so many different elements, sports, art, music, fashion, gaming, community from across the bay into this accessible place,” O’Reilly said. “Those of you on the media side know we have NFL House that’s much more about drop-in hospitality for our partners. The Culture Club is really this place to bring to life a number of curated events, day and night.”
And of course the Bay Area’s culture continues to be defined by technology. So the host committee pitched the league on hosting an Innovation Summit at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), an invitation-only event that will “convene 500 hand-selected leaders from across tech, sports, venture capital, private equity and culture.”
“Listen, when you get to combine the biggest sporting event in the country or in the world with the tech capital in the world and the innovation capital world, really good things can happen, right?” said Janmohamed. “I think it’s a really unique blend of not just tech that happens in the bay, that’s innovated in the bay, but also art and culture and all those things that you know around food and wine, all those things that come together in the bay, that the Bay Area actually pushes forward. And we get to tell that story.”
She said that Ben Gilbert and David Rosenthal, the hosts of the popular Acquired podcast, will conduct the interviews the morning of the summit, with attendees breaking out into smaller sessions later on.
The efforts by the league, the host committee and partners like TKO’s On Location business underscore how, while football might be at the core of the Super Bowl, the sport wants to grow its cultural connections even further.
And the Bay Area might be the perfect place to do it.
“We are a little crazy out in the bay, it is true, a little weird,” Janmohamed said. “A lot of creativity, a lot of builders, a lot of dreamers, a lot of risk takers. That’s kind of the soul of who we are in the bay, but it creates a lot of energy, and there’s a ton of excitement in the city and the region’s on a rebound, and I’m excited to share it with all of you.”