Taylor Traversari

Koka Booth Amphitheatre

Inspiration: As general manager, I get to work and play in a vibrant sector of our community — having fun, creating quality events, bringing in the best bands and festivals. It’s a great feeling when the show starts to see the crowd having fun. It makes all the work behind the scenes worth it.

Professional highlights: Producing the Wide Open Bluegrass street festival in downtown Raleigh has to be right up at the top. This event included a year when we had a tropical storm and had to relocate 13 city blocks of programming into the convention center in two days.

I’d have to combine that with the Koka Booth Amphitheatre highlight of our record-setting 121,000 attendance during last year’s annual N.C. Chinese Lantern Festival.

Biggest risk: I took a few years off from working in the venue business to tour with my band, Airiel Down. We toured 20-plus states with shows in Los Angeles and New York City. I learned a lot about booking, challenges of touring, and what a band desires when they pull into a new city. This “risk” has paid huge rewards in my job today.

Core values: Family programming is the crux of who I am as a person, having my family enjoy events I help to produce at Koka Booth Amphitheatre and sharing that joy with my wife and three young daughters. There’s really nothing better than bringing them to the venue for a cultural festival, concert or the Chinese Lantern Festival.

My dad was a concert promoter for 30-plus years, so I grew up in the business. It’s pretty cool to replicate that with my own family.

Greatest challenge: Currently it’s navigating the safety for our guests and staff as we return to hosting live events again.

Fun fact: My band opened for Kiss at Walnut Creek Amphitheatre, and I’ve been to 66 live Phish concerts.