I did a post a few years ago that detailed the bands that have played at the VMworld party every year with an analysis of how much it would cost to hire those bands. I thought I would do an update to that and include the bands for VMworld 2016 & 2017. If you have not heard this years band is Blink-182 with Bleachers as the opening band who will be performing at the T-Mobile Arena. I’m not a huge fan of Blink-182 but I’m guessing most people that attend will like them.
I’ve been attending VMworld since 2008 and the official parties have always been a fun way to unwind for a bit and escape after a busy week of hard core virtualization. VMware has had a variety of different bands to play at the party over the years from 80’s rock bands to more modern bands, I haven’t really cared for the bands the last few years but that’s just my taste, which tends to be skewed to 80’s music.
VMware is a big company and certainly has the deep pockets needed to hire bigger name bands, after the bargain bands that have been playing at VMworld the last few years I was surprised to see VMware spend big again this year on bands. You might wonder how much does it cost to hire a real big name band (a lot), I did some digging and found out. Now if we price out the VMworld bands over the years we get this:
- 2007 – Smash Mouth – $40K – $60K (Treasure Island)
- 2008 – DJ & Tainted Love (cover band) – probably not a heck of a lot (cover band) (Las Vegas Speedway)
- 2009 – Foreigner – $40K – $50K (Moscone)
- 2010 – INXS – ? (prob under $100K) (Moscone)
- 2011 – Killers – $500K (Venetian)
- 2012 – Jon Bon Jovi & the Kings of Suburbia – $850K (Moscone)
- 2013 – Train and Imagine Dragons – Train – $200K-$300K, Imagine Dragons – $400K – $600K (AT&T Park)
- 2014 – The Black Keys – $975K (Yerba Buena Gardens)
- 2015 – Neon Trees and Alabama Shakes – Neon Trees – $40K – $45K, Alabama Shakes – $90K – $125K (AT&T Park)
- 2016 – Fall Out Boy – $100K – $150K, Capital Cities – $40K – $60K (Las Vegas Speedway)
- 2017 – Blink-182 – $750K, Bleachers – ? (prob under $50K) (T-Mobile Arena)
From 2011 – 2014 VMware spent a considerable amount of money ($500K – $1million) on the musical entertainment for the VMworld party. In 2015 that totally dropped down to only $150K total, in 2016 it wasn’t much better at $200K total. This year VMware went big again with a total cost of around $800K. So while it’s great to see VMware increase their band spending to get more well known entertainment for attendees to enjoy I still hold out hope that one year I’ll see a band that is more to my musical taste.
