Activated Events

Reports to Head of Business Operations

Activated Events is a leading independent producer of large-scale outdoor music festivals and live experiences across the Southwest. For more than 15 years, the company has built a diverse portfolio of destination events, with a particularly strong presence in country music, creating memorable experiences that bring together premier talent, passionate fans, and distinctive outdoor venues.

The company’s portfolio includes signature properties such as Coastal Country Jam, Boots In The Park, The Smoke Show, and Fiesta De Taco. Across its events, Activated Events combines compelling programming, creative production, and a deep understanding of its audiences to create festivals that feel distinctive, energetic, and authentic to their markets.

As an independently operated organization, Activated Events takes an integrated approach to producing and growing its events, overseeing everything from talent acquisition and marketing to operations, concessions, partnerships, and the overall guest experience. This hands‑on model gives the company the ability to move quickly, think creatively, and continually identify new ways to deepen fan engagement and extend its brands beyond the festival grounds.

Activated Events is seeking a creative, commercially minded, and highly operational Merchandise Manager to lead and grow the company’s merchandise business across its festival portfolio.

The Merchandise Manager will own the end-to-end merchandising strategy, spanning product development, purchasing and sourcing, inventory planning, festival operations, artist merchandise, e‑commerce, and financial performance. This individual will be responsible for evolving Activated Events merchandise from traditional event merchandise into a distinctive lifestyle brand that extends the fan experience before, during, and after each festival.

Working closely with leadership, marketing, creative, operations, digital, finance, artists, and external vendors, the Merchandise Manager will balance brand creativity with disciplined commercial execution. The successful candidate will bring a strong understanding of what consumers want, an eye for compelling products and trends, and the operational expertise to deliver merchandise efficiently and profitably at scale.

• Collaborate with leadership to develop and execute a long-term merchandise strategy that strengthens the Activated Events brand and expands merchandise beyond traditional festival souvenirs.
• Build product assortments designed to resonate with festival attendees while also attracting a broader e-commerce audience.
• Partner with designers, creative teams, and vendors to develop compelling apparel, accessories, collectables, and limited‑edition products, presenting concepts, product assortments, and recommendations to leadership for final approval.
• Identify emerging consumer, fashion, music, and festival trends to keep merchandise relevant, differentiated, and culturally current.
• Maintain a consistent brand identity and standard of quality across products, festivals, and sales channels.
• Lead all merchandise purchasing and sourcing across Activated Events' festival portfolio.
• Develop disciplined buying strategies informed by historical sales, consumer demand, event attendance, product performance, and inventory levels.
• Identify, evaluate, and negotiate with domestic and international suppliers to optimize cost, quality, production timelines, and reliability.
• Own the complete purchase-order lifecycle, from product sourcing and samples through production, quality control, delivery, and reconciliation.
• Build strong…