In the Mix: Why TikTok chose to stage its 1st big music festival in Mesa, Arizona

TikTok’s first global live music event, In the Mix, is bringing Peso Pluma, Cardi B, Niall Horan, Anitta, Charlie Puth and Reneé Rapp to Sloan Park in Mesa — home of the Chicago Cubs! — on Sunday, Dec. 10.

You may be wondering how the wildly popular streaming service decided on Mesa as the ideal destination for its first big music festival, which will be streamed through TikTok Live with video and event production by award-winning director Hamish Hamilton and Done+Dusted.

“It's a great city with some world-leading facilities, a big university and post-graduate population, and an area that is passionate about music,” says Paul Hourican, global head of music operations at TikTok.

“We also fell in love with Sloan Park, so that was a big draw. I'm from the U.K., so I have to say you have the advantage of the weather as well!”

Mesa has been 'incredibly supportive' of TikTok In the Mix

The city has been “incredibly supportive and an excellent partner,” Hourican says.

“I'd like to thank the mayor and the team who have been with us every step of the way on this journey. We're really excited about how this collaborative approach is going to deliver an amazing experience for fans in the stadium and the millions who will tune in via TikTok around the world too.”

Mayor John Giles says Mesa is "very excited" to have TikTok bring In the Mix to a facility he feels is underutilized.

Sloan Park was funded by the city.

It's the largest spring training facility in Major League Baseball, with a capacity of 15,000 for baseball games. Designed to look like Wrigley Field, it opened in 2014 with the Cubs as its primary operator. It's also the home of the Arizona League Cubs and the Mesa Solar Sox of the Arizona Fall League.

"Sloan Park is an amazing baseball facility," Giles says. "But other than spring training, it’s not particularly utilized.

"And as you know, TikTok is one of the largest, most popular gathering spots on the face of the planet, so it’s really putting Mesa on a global stage and we're excited to be part of it."

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Sloan Park was not the only baseball park TikTok considered

Sloan Park was not the first or only ballpark the team behind the festival considered.

“We looked at many, many venues in cities in Arizona and beyond and really fell in love with Sloan Park,” Hourican says.

“It has great facilities, a fantastic team and we loved the opportunity to host a concert in the round, which offers so much opportunity in terms of giving everyone at the concert a great view, but is also perfect for filming the concert for TikTok Live for the millions of people watching from home who can't be there in person.”

To Hamilton, whose job is to design the video and event production for TikTok's vertical format, Sloan Park is a "unique venue with a unique format" that checked a lot of boxes.

"It’s a great blend of a world that’s open but also had audience seating ready made. You’ve got the grass bank on the one side, which is informal and fun. You’ve got a large grass surface, which is obviously super flat, and then you have the bleacher seating."

Presenting the concert in the round "feels more immersive, more connected and more fun," he says.

"And as the camera director, it gives you many more angles and points of view. What we really wanted to do with this particular festival was to make it immersive and give it a very different kind of visual language."

Sloan Park is 'a great venue for entertainment like this'

To Giles, the appeal of the stadium is obvious.

"I’m not bragging, but we think Sloan Park is the best spring training facility in the country," he says.

"It’s the equivalent of a lot of other baseball teams’ regular-season stadiums. The Cubs are a quality organization and this facility was built to their specifications. It’s not like a typical spring training or minor league baseball facility."

It's also nicely situated.

"It’s an amazing location for a sports venue, right at the freeway on Rio Salado (Parkway)," Giles says. "It's well-situated for traffic control. And for all the same reasons, it’s a great venue for entertainment like this."

Giles credits the Cubs with playing ball, as it were.

"They are the master tenant, so it’s with their blessing that this is happening," he says. "The Cubs deserve a fair amount of the credit for cooperating, being flexible and allowing the stadium to be utilized for this purpose."

Giles says the city offered no incentives to TikTok.

"It’s location, location, location, right?," he says. "It’s a great facility and I think TikTok recognized that they couldn’t do any better than this as far as accessibility and just the strategic location of it.

"Phoenix is the fifth-largest city in the United States. I think it just all fell into place on the merits of the facility. We didn’t need to incentivize it at all."

TikTok has 'never done anything on this scale before'

In the Mix is being billed as TikTok’s first global live music event, but it’s not their first foray into presenting concerts.

“We've staged live performances before, including an Ed Sheeran concert in the U.K., but we have never done anything on this scale before,” Hourican says.

The whole event is meant to feel like home for TikTok users.

"What we're trying to do for the people who watch it on their phone is make it feel as if it's been created from a different mindset and the dynamic between the performer and the lens is completely different than, say, Coachella," Hamilton says.

"Within the stream itself, we will be using phones to capture and create some of the fun, which is a unique set of challenges but also gives you a very unique take on the live experience. For me, as a creative, I'm inspired by it. It's a whole new live language for me."

Hamilton says he's been especially excited by the prospect of capturing the show in a 9-by-16 format.

"I'm having to unpick the visual language I've used for many years and really try and create a hybrid visual language that will serve the phone and the platform in a way that hasn't been done before. And you don't often get the chance to do that," he says.

Hamilton anticipates that many people at the live event will also be experiencing In the Mix on TikTok.

"The nature of the kind of event we're creating is that people will be consuming it on their handset and also at the event," he says.

"We're encouraging that as well. And all the video surfaces at the event are in a 9-by-16 aspect ratio. This a real celebration of TikTok."

How TikTok got the perfect mix for In the Mix

In addition to the headliners, In the Mix features up-and-coming talents Isabel LaRosa, Kaliii, Lu Kala and Sam Barber from the TikTok Elevate emerging artist program.

In the Mix will also bring to life TikTok's For You feed, with activities inspired by the community's favorite trends.

“Music on TikTok is incredibly diverse, and there is something for everyone on TikTok, so when we started thinking about In The Mix and how we would put something together, we really wanted to do something that celebrated the breadth of music and creativity on the platform,” Hourican says.

“So we created a lineup that is diverse in terms of style and genre, with lots of surprises, and with a really broad mix of both exciting new talent and amazing superstars.“

The goal was to “reflect the magic of TikTok and the For You feed,” he says.

“So, as well as headliners, In the Mix will feature creators, duets, unexpected artists, special guests and other experiences.”

Is this the first of many In the Mix events in Mesa?

As to whether this will be the first of many In the Mix events at Sloan Park, that remains to be seen.

“At the moment we are super focused on putting on an amazing show at Sloan Park this weekend, so it's a little early to be thinking about the next concert,” Hourican says. “That said, at TikTok we don't stand still, and we always want to create more music experiences which will connect artists and fans in the future, so who knows?”

TikTok In the Mix

When: 2 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 10.

Where: Sloan Park, 2330 W. Rio Salado Parkway, Mesa.

Admission: $25-$60.

Details: 480-668-0500, TikTokInTheMix.com.

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Why TikTok chose Arizona's Sloan Park for In the Mix music festival