INTERVIEW: The Wild Honey Pie Transforms Concert Going Experience
6/26 @ Hotel Lilien, Tannersville
**This article originally appeared in our June 2025 print issue**
Photos by Kiki Vassilakis
“We had been doing these intimate, community-driven events for so long; when the pandemic happened and everyone else had to shift how they were thinking, they saw the value in what we were doing.”
Founded by Eric Weiner, The Wild Honey Pie is a creative agency known for hosting experiential concert going experiences across the United States, from Seattle to right here in Upstate New York.
Over the course of its 15 year history, The Wild Honey Pie has undergone an evolution that mirrors the ever-changing landscape of the music industry itself, with humble beginnings as a music blog in 2009.
“Remember, this is the day and age of the blogosphere,” Weiner said. “There was Pitchfork, Stereogum, Consequence of Sound, Brooklyn Vegan. At least those are the ones that are still around. This was a time before Spotify monopolized music discovery.”
These were the days when it was necessary to spend 99 cents on every single song that was going to be a part of your perfectly curated iTunes library. For most music lovers coming straight out of college during a recession, spending that kind of coin on music was not a reality they were prepared to live in. They took to the internet to seek out taste curators’ opinions on the bevvy of musical options out there as a precursor to spending their limited resources.
“That same ethos of music discovery and curation and taste is a huge part of The Wild Honey Pie, even today,” Weiner said.
Even in its early stages, The Wild Honey Pie began diversifying: putting on shows at venues in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and creating video content. But by 2013, streaming services and the damn algorithm had taken all of the fun and adventure out of discovering new music, rendering many of the blogs superfluous.
In response, The Wild Honey Pie started leaning more heavily on these other avenues. It was in this year that Weiner hosted the first Welcome Campers, an all-inclusive adult summer camp music festival, at his parents’ property in Westchester, New York. Imagine an indie rock version of Mountain Jam. Music lovers would descend on the property to camp out, play kickball, and enjoy food and beverages whilst up and coming indie rock artists provided the live soundtrack.
“It was meant to be a more social live-music experience,” Weiner said. “It’s really all about community. If you don’t fall in love or meet five new best friends, I would be shocked.”
Fast forward to 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic had shut down the world, taking live music events down with it. During this time Lucy Dunning, partner and Head of Operations, sat down with Weiner to take a hard look at what the Wild Honey Pie was really going to be.
“Honestly, I think [the pandemic] was weirdly kismet,” said Dunning. “We had been doing these intimate, community-driven events for so long; when the pandemic happened and everyone else had to shift how they were thinking, they saw the value in what we were doing.”
This allowed Weiner and Dunning to secure brand sponsorships for their events, which allowed them to expand upon the experiential events that they had been putting on for years.
Weiner added, “Our whole ethos and grassroots movement became more of a mainstream idea. The brands and the labels were taking less of a risk by working with us.”
When the world reopened following the pandemic, The Wild Honey Pie’s ecosystem of experiential concert going experiences flourished.
In attending a Wild Honey Pie event, music lovers can expect an inclusive, one of a kind experience. Weiner and Dunning seek out beautiful properties, like Hotel Lilien in Tannersville, NY or The Glens Falls House in Round Top, NY and seek to showcase these beautiful spaces in a light outside the normal weddings or corporate events that they might typically host.
“It’s really important to us that the venue involved is very clearly represented,” Dunning said. “We’re not coming in and redecorating and moving everything around; we really want to highlight the space itself.”
Before the music even begins, attendees will be able to participate in a nature walk along the grounds or a pool party, depending on the property. From there, the dinner portion of the experience comes into focus. Guests have the opportunity to enjoy specialty cocktails and event-specific menus from renowned chefs. A recent dinner party in Dunning’s hometown of Washington D.C. was held at Oyster Oyster from Michelin rated chef Rob Rubba.
Once the music begins, it's an opportunity to see an artist who might typically be playing 800-1000 person rooms in a more intimate live setting with only 150-200 people. After the set, there is frequently an after party including late night food options from local vendors and perhaps a dance party to follow.
While guests will have to pay for their drinks, the rest of the experience is all included in the price of their ticket. The proceeds from these ticket sales frequently go towards benefitting a charitable organization.
“We haven’t raised our ticket prices in three years,” Weiner said. “Our pizza parties are $55-65 plus fees. If you look at some of these other festivals, it’s like you have to take out a loan just to afford the three-day ticket cost.”
The Wild Honey Pie’s next upstate event will be held June 26th at Hotel Lilien in Tannersville, NY and will be a pizza party style event featuring food from local pizza chefs at Forno Rosso using famous recipes from Paulie Gee’s, originally of Brooklyn, NY. Ticket sales from this pizza party will go towards benefitting Kiss the Ground, a regenerative soil, nonprofit organization.
The evening’s musical guest will be the Capital Region’s own Phantogram, the indie-electronic duo made up of Greenwich, NY’s Sarah Barthel and Josh Carter.
For more information about The Wild Honey Pie, including tickets to the upcoming Pizza Party at Hotel Lilien, check out thewildhoneypie.com. For access to their video content, subscribe to their YouTube channel at “The Wild Honey Pie”.