Building the Largest Latin Music Festival: From Inception to Acquisition

For some, entrepreneurship is an innate skill and calling. That is true for Ian Ruzal-Bron, who was born in Argentina and immigrated to the U.S. with his family at the age of four-years old. “I started doing concert promotions as soon as I got to college when I was 18,” Ian says. In his career, Ruzal-Bron has promoted some of the world’s largest festivals and concerts across all genres, from country to hip-hop, but eventually found his focus in dance music. He cut his teeth as a world-class festival promoter working for Insomniac, a renowned festival promotion company, where Ian helped lead the production and promotion of dance festivals from the West Coast to the far East, including Japan, Korea, and more. But Ian knew he wanted to build something of his own. In 2020, he and his business partner, Kirk Taboada, established their company, IRBKAT LLC and stepped into their first entrepreneurial challenge: building what would become the nation’s largest,, multi-stage Reggaeton music festival.

Founded in early 2020, Vibra Urbana needed help to truly scale and tap into an otherwise untapped market for the Latin Music genre. With Ian and Kirk’s rich experience, and a newly minted business, they were brought on to take Vibra Urbana to the next level, of which Schwartz & Shreiber helped form the company, TRAC PROJECTS LLC. 

Understanding the challenge ahead of them, and with little infrastructure to start, Ian turned to his long-time college friend and esteemed music & business lawyer, Brianna Schwartz, for support. Alongside her was Partner and Co-founder, Alexis Schreiber, and in under one year, Schwartz & Shrieber built from scratch the legal infrastructure for Vibra Urbana, including every legal document, bylaw, and operating agreement associated, to get it quickly off the ground. “I’ve worked with a lot of law firms, and S&S attacks challenges fearlessly,” says Ian. “They treated me like family all of the time. They talked to me about and guided me through every situation, regardless if it was early in the morning or late at night. They put in the hours, and you could tell.”

The first festival in Orlando of July 2021 spanned two days, 20 bands, and drew an impressive 22,000 fans. Recognizing they had something special, they quickly put on four more multi-day festivals over the course of two years, across three cities, and entertained hundreds of thousands fans — plus they added five separate full-production concerts in between festivals to keep their highly-engaged audience eager for more. 

All the while, Schwartz & Shreiber provided the expertise and legal support required to pull it off. Everything crossed their desks, from vendor to venue agreements, festival policies, IP protections, and talent contracts. “They handled all negotiations with very high-level artists, managing it with grace, poise, and attention,” Ian states. “These things come down to the last minute, and Alexis and Bri understood the delicacy it took to manage it.”

By May 2023, Vibra Urbana partnered with AEG, one of the largest presenters of live music and entertainment events in the world, and created a joint venture for future Vibra Urbana festivals. “It’s vindicating to get the attention and support of a large company,” Ian states, and credits Schwartz & Schreiber for helping them reach that moment. 

Looking back on the years of building the festival and working with Schwartz & Shreiber, Ian doesn’t hesitate saying, “I would 100% recommend them. The impact for me was massive, and I can’t thank Alexis and Bri enough.” He continues, “They were our right-hand partners along the way, and they were fun.” 

Thinking about his experience with law firms further, Ian ends with, “That’s an unusual combination in this industry, especially as a woman-led business that truly wants to help everyone make their mark, from prestigious artists to young talent and nation-wide festivals. I’m so happy I asked them to be a part of my journey.”