Country is one of the hottest genres in North America, and Brooke Dunford at Republic Live is helping to turn up the heat. Republic Live’s Boots and Hearts festival brings in 40,000 people per night annually and has shown power in breaking country artists: the Boots & Hearts Emerging Artist Showcase has helped launch the careers of stars like The Reklaws, Jade Eagleson and 2022 winner and Universal Music signee Owen Riegling, all of whom are country radio and country chart mainstays. Dunford has built a reliable marquee venture, but isn’t comfortable playing it safe. Last year, she made a risky call by booking rock group Nickelback as the headliners at a country festival — it turned out to be a trendsetting success, with Nickelback since playing other country festivals across the continent. This year, Republic Live announced two ambitious new endeavours: the company launched a new pop-punk focused festival, All Your Friends Fest, and a Nashville-based management wing, RLive, with Emerging Showcase alumni Tyler Joe Miller as the first client.