With music and live events once again at the heart of civic engagement, nonprofit voter registration organization HeadCount is on track for another record-setting year — driven by partnerships with some of the biggest names in pop and festival culture.
So far in 2025, HeadCount has registered 38,207 new young voters, a sharp increase compared to past off-year election cycles. The group credits much of that growth to collaborations with chart-toppers Sabrina Carpenter, Tate McRae, and Brandi Carlile, whose recent tours have helped turn concert crowds into a powerful force for civic participation.
“We’re continuing to see that meeting young people in the spaces they already love is one of the most effective ways to engage them,” a HeadCount spokesperson said. “As politics gets increasingly polarized, live music remains one of the last great gathering places where connection and action can thrive.”
HeadCount teams have been present at sold-out arena tours for Carpenter and McRae this year, where fans not only packed arenas but also lined up to register to vote at HeadCount booths. The organization also integrated digital sign-ups directly into each artist’s online programming, amplifying outreach far beyond the venues themselves.
Youth turnout is expected to play a major role in Tuesday’s elections, including the New York City mayoral race, which could result in the city’s youngest mayor in a century.
Beyond the touring circuit, HeadCount was the voter registration partner for Chappell Roan’s pop-up events nationwide, and appeared at more than 50 major festivals, including All Things Go, Electric Forest, and Outside Lands—three of the year’s top drivers of voter action.
Since its founding in 2004, HeadCount has registered more than 1.3 million voters by merging music culture with civic engagement, working alongside artists such as Harry Styles, Billie Eilish, and Dead & Company to bring voter participation directly into the live entertainment experience.
