Why Tito's, Southwest and Jack Daniel's Keep Going Back to Willie Nelson's 'Anti-Festival'

From the main stage at Willie Nelson‘s annual music festival, North Carolinian folk singer and songwriter Lou Hazel asked the small audience gathered for his early set: “How’s everybody doing?”

A lanky, grey-haired man in the front row shouted back, gleefully: “We’re in Luck!”

Enveloped in near-constant clouds of barbecue smoke and weed, the rest of the onlookers chuckled—it was true. Nelson’s ranch, dubbed “Luck, Texas,” isn’t technically its own town. The property—home to buildings from the original set of 1986 Western Red Headed Stranger—sits about one hour west of Austin within the city limits of Spicewood.

Luck Reunion started in 2012, initially requiring all brand signage to be hand-painted. Often described as an “anti-festival,” it now pulls in millions of sponsorship dollars from 20 different brands—tapping into the uniquely progressive strain of Texas’ spirit that the almost-91-year-old Nelson embodies.

With long-term, experience-first partnerships, brands like Southwest Airlines, Tito’s Handmade Vodka and Jack Daniel’s embed themselves into the festival, physically interacting with the 4,000 attendees and reaching an audience of up to 50,000 more through the ticket lottery and the event’s production arm, Luck Presents.

“The brands become almost like the artists to the festival, where they’re actually bringing value and story and energy to the event,” Matt Bizer, founder and executive producer of Luck Reunion, told ADWEEK. “People look forward to seeing them there.”

Branded saloons and general stores

Luck Reunion happens during South by Southwest, Austin’s 37-year-old conglomeration of festivals spanning music, technology, film, education and culture, capitalizing on the influx of non-Texans flooding the state each March.

Brand sponsorships at Luck range from $10,000 to $20,000 on the low end, to $20,000 to $50,000 in the midrange and $100,000 to $300,000 on the high end, Bizer said.

Southwest, a sponsor since 2017, takes over Luck’s general store (the Red Headed Stranger set included all of the components of an old western town—jail, saloon, chapel, etc.). This year, it used the space to spotlight Wearsos, a partner company that sells leather goods made out of repurposed leather from old airplane seats and hand-painted by artisans from Costa Rica.

Southwest also partners with Luck Reunion as part of its “On the Rise” program, a contest that supports early-career musicians. Over 80 acts entered the contest this year. Three finalists are chosen from those entrants, each of which are featured in a video in their hometown that highlights their roots, inspiration and style, with fans then voting on a winner through Southwest’s website. Lou Hazel was the airline’s 2024 Artist on the Rise, snagging him a spot on the World Headquarters Stage during Luck Reunion.

“Our customers and employees are passionate about music, and [Luck’s] audience is so built in on music,” said Alyssa Foster, head of brand partnerships and entertainment public relations for Southwest. “We’re really able to weave our branding in a very organic way and hit on some of our messages without being too in anyone’s face, and really just make that nice connection.”

Becoming part of the experience

Tito’s, Luck Reunion’s longest-running sponsor, has been there since the beginning. The Austin-based vodka brand’s name adorns the Saloon, a cozy, two-story building that serves as one of the event’s five stages.

“It’s always about the cocktail and what that experience is like,” said TJ Mathias, director of national events at Tito’s, “and being a part of an event that’s just inherently cool.”

Texas-sized sustainability challenges

This year’s festival was powered by roughly 95% solar energy, 5% shore power and no gas-powered generators, Bizer said, which Luck was able to achieve through a partnership with Reverb and Overdrive Energy Solutions.

While this represents major progress in sustainability, some barriers are inherent to Luck’s location. The Texas Hill Country doesn’t have the recycling and composting facilities for events like Bonnaroo or Outside Lands. It eliminated “single-use” plastics from the event this year, allowing only bio-based, compostable plastics to be used for food and beverages—acknowledging that without access to industrial composting, it’s all going to landfill.

“Hopefully within the next two to three years, we’ll be fully 100% compostable and recyclable,” Bizer said. “Our goal eventually is to get as close to carbon-neutral as possible.”