Austin's Transmission Events, the Company Behind Fun Fun Fun Fest, is Coming to Dallas

Mike Brooks

Transmission, the folks behind Fun Fun Fun Fest, will soon be bringing a lot of guitar face to Dallas

You may not know the the name Transmission Events, but you sure know the work that they do. Based in Austin, Transmission are the folks behind Fun Fun Fun Fest, the music festival held each fall at Auditorium Shores in the capitol city. They also do all the booking for prominent Austin venue Mohawk. So, you know, they know what they're doing, and their work comes with a pretty damn good pedigree.

Now comes the news that Transmission will officially have a presence here in Dallas, and they've picked up a couple of the most respected local talent buyers to help lead their expansion: Kris Youmans, co-owner of Three Links and the man behind Tactics Productions, will be working alongside Ryan Henry, the longtime booker for Granada Theater. Dallas and Austin just got that much closer together.

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Transmission's general manager, Bobby Garza, says that his company's work booking shows in Dallas had brought them in contact with folks like Youmans and Henry over the years, and that moving to consolidate forces was a natural progression. "We feel Dallas is an amazing market," he says. "We think that there's a lot of amazing things happening there and we want to be a part of it."

Youmans says it's a move that's been a couple years in the making. Back in April 2012, for instance, Tactics and Transmission worked together to book the At the Drive-In reunion shows. "99 percent of the bands I book here, they book in Austin," he points out. "So it just makes sense to work together and bring in more of these types of shows; that was kind of the ultimate plan."

The two companies will now essentially be working together under the Transmission banner. "Tactics won't be producing any more shows," Youmans clarifies. "We felt like it was smarter to go under one moniker. Ultimately, really I felt like Transmission had the stronger brand with Fun Fun Fun. They're more nationally and really internationally known, so it just made more sense."

Dylan Hollingsworth

Kris Youmans

Youmans and Henry will be setting up a new office in Dallas to lead the local event booking for Transmission. The two once worked together years ago when Youmans was the talent buyer at the Granada and Henry was just getting started in the business, working security for the Lower Greenville venue.

Garza emphasizes that the move is one they hope will bolster Texas music in general: "Our company's been growing quite a bit in the last year and a half, and I think we always wanted to stay Texas-specific," he explains. "Austin is obviously our home base and where we've made a name for ourselves, but we think we can do the same things in other markets."

Most saliently among the news plans is the fact that Transmission will take over the booking for popular Deep Ellum venue Club Dada, as well as its sister location City Tavern in downtown Dallas. (Both are owned by Josh Florence.)

For the time being, anyway, Youmans says not to expect any major changes for local music fans. "We're probably just going to be doing more shows," he says. "Hopefully in the spring we'll have a collection of great shows at the Bomb Factory, but who knows what else." To that end, there's notion he can confirm isn't in the current plans: "I've gotten a couple questions about fests. Maybe at some point we'll do that, but at this point we're just getting in and starting running."

Garza says Dallas had some obvious perks from Transmission's standpoint: "Dallas has some amazing venues... Everyone we've worked with is really awesome to work with," he says. "I don't really like city-to-city comparisons. I've been to Dallas and checked out shows and hung out with Kris, and it feels like there's a lot of demand for shows and opportunity to bring in good shows."

Youmans isn't so shy about making the comparison, though: "One of the things I've talked about with [Transmission] is trying to change the perception of how Dallas is looked at by the majority of the folks in Austin," he says. He adds, with gruff laugh, "One of my hopes is that with Transmission coming into Dallas, maybe Austin folk will start looking at us like a legitimate city -- instead of just a bunch of rich fucks."

Legitimate or not, Garza is excited to grow the Transmission family, and looking forward to bridging the gap between Texas cities. "We're excited to be working with some folks in Dallas who are local natives," he emphasizes. "I don't think we would ever come into a city and try to take over. Our intention is to find good people who are on the ground and partner up."

Read the full press release on the next page.