Why Arizona EDM powerhouse is launching new country events

Arizona EDM promoter Relentless Beats is launching a new country music production company called Moonlit Nites.
The company’s first event is a two-day festival celebrating the 90th anniversary of Harold’s Cave Creek Corral.
Founder Thomas Turner aims to apply his experience in producing large-scale EDM events to the country music scene.

Arizona’s most successful independent EDM production company, Relentless Beats, is expanding its cultural footprint into unexpected territory — country music.

The group is launching Moonlit Nites, a production company whose first event is a two-day festival pegged to the 90^th anniversary of Harold’s Cave Creek Corral the weekend of Oct. 3-4.

But as Thomas Turner, who launched Relentless Beats in 1996, explains, it’s been a long time coming.

“I grew up country a music enthusiast,” he says. “My father played country music for me religiously. Arizona has always been a big hub for country music enthusiasts and I still listen to a lot of country music.”

As Relentless Beats has gotten better at producing EDM events, he started thinking, “Why am I not applying these same things to the country music space? Because there would only be a positive outcome from that sort of energy put. Certainly fiscally, but more that we would create communities of people enthusiastically attending events that were being well-produced and well-thought-out like we do for electronic dance.”

The roots of Moonlite Nites go back to early raves at Rawhide

He’s had these thoughts for more than 10 years, Turner says.

“As a matter of fact, when we were at Rawhide, way back when, in the early days of throwing raves there,” Turner says, “I looked at the Western town and salivated over the idea of a country music festival in the Western town.”

Relentless Beats did Goldrush, a Western-themed festival, for many years at Rawhide and returned there this year after several years in exile.

“We had our best reviews of the festival ever,” Turner says.

“And I think a big part of that was because we were able to deliver an on-brand experience after all the years that have gone by since we were able to produce in that space plus the nostalgia of bringing it back and being really good, accomplished producers that really care about producing something everybody’s blown away by.”

As rewarding as that was, he says, “I still salivate over the idea of being able to do something like that for the country music space because we can create such an authentic Western experience.”

Giving country fans ‘somewhere to party on the regular’

Turner hopes that Moonlit Nites could stage events in a variety of venues.

“Absolutely at Rawhide, and I hope Westworld, and the center of the city,” Turner says. “I hope we apply all our special event expertise to producing events for Moonlit Nites across the city and give country music enthusiasts somewhere to sort of party on the regular.”

Relentless Beats is still going strong on the EDM front. Turner is in New York City as he talks about his plans for Moonlit Nites, having just presented a two-day event called Experts Only Festival at Randall’s Island with John Summit. That event drew 50,000.

“It was probably the coolest show I’ve ever done in my life, from an impact standpoint,” Turner says. “It was bananas. I had my mind blown by it.”

This year’s Goldrush Festival at Rawhide was also a huge success.

“But it’s really that ambitious, creative stuff that I like most, creating a brand and a community and then making an impact within that community and celebrating it with the artists that get to be involved in something special that really impacts the community more so than just a concert,” he says. “Some kind of a special event.”

Big plans for Harold’s Cave Creek Corral 100th anniversary

He’d been in talks with Harold’s Cave Creek Corral for quite some time about working with them on events before booking this 90^th anniversary event with Rodney Atkins, known for such hits as “Watching You” and “Caught Up In Country,” and Brian Kelley, the Florida half of Florida Georgia Line.

“Harold’s was like, ‘We’ve been talking to you for a while and it’s our 90th anniversary. We’d like to do something big,’” Turner said.

“And I looked at it like, ‘You know what? I want to get involved now because I want the 100th anniversary to be something magnificently special.’ In the next 10 years, we will have developed something where we could turn the key or pull the lever to make something historic happen for Harold’s on its 100th anniversary. Because it’s such an authentic spot for country music and for country culture.

“And that’s one thing Arizona has is deep roots in authentic country culture.”

Moonlit Nites will be its own production company under the Relentless Beats umbrella.

“As Relentless Beats speaks to electronic music enthusiasts, Moonlit Nites will be where country culture is emanating from the expertise of Relentless Beats as a show producer at a high level,” Turner says.

“I really think the next 10 years is going to be really special for Arizona. We can create a really distinguished space for country music enthusiasts. We’re looking to figure out what the levers are to pull for a country enthusiast to go ‘Oh my God, that’s the coolest country event I’ve ever been to.’ That’s the goal.”

‘Everybody’s looking to have the best weekend ever’

Country music has become one of the hottest genres on the planet and Turner says its earned that distinction by giving a new generation the ultimate party experience.

“If someone does a better job at pulling people together to have experiences that are their most remarkable experiences, then those spaces will grow,” he says.

“You’ve got things like Stagecoach or even Country Thunder that happen every single year and they start to be multi-generational appeal with ‘My older cousin went’ or ‘My mom went to that and now I go to it’ or ‘My granddaughter goes to it now, and I used to go.’ As time goes on, there’s a larger community that understands historic events that we all attend.”