(Bloomberg) -- Rolling Stone has spent five decades writing about music festivals. Now it’s buying one.

The music publication, owned by Penske Media Corp., said Friday it has acquired a majority stake in Life is Beautiful, an annual music festival set in Las Vegas. The estate of Zappos’ ex-chief executive officer Tony Hsieh, who founded the festival, will retain a piece of the business. Rolling Stone didn’t disclose the terms.

Gus Wenner, the publication’s CEO, is building an events business to complement the music outlet’s editorial, and dreamed of creating a Rolling Stone music festival. Wenner reached out to Hsieh in June 2020 about Life is Beautiful, and the two hashed out part of the deal before Hsieh died later that year.

The festival will retain the name Life is Beautiful, but Rolling Stone will find ways to insert itself into the programming. The magazine’s journalists may appear on stage during the event, and one of the stages could be renamed after the publication. David Oehm, the CEO of Life is Beautiful, will continue to run the event with his team.

“Live events and experiential are so much a part of the future of publishing,” Wenner said in an interview. He has taken over day-to-day oversight of the magazine his father founded and later sold to Penske Media. He is trying to build its business in a way that will make Rolling Stone as relevant to music fans now as it has been in the past.

The live events business has suffered during the pandemic, and many music festivals face uncertain futures. That created an opportunity for Wenner to go shopping. He was drawn to Life is Beautiful for its location in the heart of downtown Las Vegas, as well as a commitment to offer more than just music. “It doesn’t feel the same traveling roadshow a lot of festival can feel like,” he said.

Hsieh founded Life is Beautiful in 2013 as part of his campaign to revitalize downtown Las Vegas. He moved the headquarters of Zappos to Vegas, and spent hundreds of millions of dollars to fund his downtown project.

Rock bands The Killers and Kings of Leon headlined the inaugural event in 2013. Life is Beautiful has since expanded to three days, and now includes stand-up comedy, art and speakers like Bill Nye. The most recent edition, held in September of last year, grossed $18.3 million in ticket sales, the second-most of any music festival in the world last year, according to Pollstar.

Rolling Stone plans to expand the festival internationally, and will also help produce audiovisual material related to the event over the course of the year. “The Rolling Stone team will help to deepen our connection to fans of music everywhere,” Oehm said in a statement.

Operating events could complicate Rolling Stone’s coverage of the business of concerts. The magazine writes about scandals and trends at many of the biggest festivals.

But Wenner was adamant that operating the festival wouldn’t impact the outlet’s editorial. It’s one of the reasons he wanted to invest in an independent festival, as opposed to those owned by Live Nation Entertainment and Anschutz Entertainment Group.

“We’re not partnering here with Live Nation or AEG; That was a very important and appealing part of this deal,” Wenner said. “We have 60 million readers across our various touch points. We create journalism. To add a festival, it’s a really unique and inspired combination.”

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