News

Despite a recent report that permitting issues were being resolved, Rothbury Festival promoters surprised fans by announcing on January 22 that there will be no 2010 festival this July 4 weekend in Rothbury MI, as there has been for the last two summers.

Organizers framed the move as a postponement, and wrote that "we intend to move toward continuing Rothbury in 2011."

The statement said that a contributing factor in the decision was that the festival's late start in booking would result in a sub-par artist lineup for 2010. The late start resulted from permitting complications resulting from the sale of the festival venue property, the Double JJ Resort, to a new owner.

The full text of the announcement follows:

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Smooth vocal jazz and R&B will be the order of the day at the 20th anniversary Jazz Aspen Snowmass June Festival this year as popular crooners Harry Connick, Jr. and Natalie Cole headline the opening (June 25) and closing (July 3) night concerts for the 10-day festival. 

A third of the four big concerts will feature festival artist-in-residence Christian McBride with Grammy winning vocalist Dianne Reeves and other Jazz All-Stars on June 26. Headliners for the Sunday, June 27 concert were not yet named. All headline concerts take place at the Benedict Music Tent in Aspen. 

FP Jazz Aspen Snowmass June Festival page

Milwaukee World Festival Inc., the producer of Summerfest, announced it has reached agreement with the city to extend the existing lease to the festival grounds for an additional 10 years until 2030. The deal will allow the company to move forward with substantial site improvements envisioned for Henry Maier Festival Park.

Under the deal, the average annual rent will continue at about $1.4 million, but MWF will pay a supplemental public safety services fee of $100,000 per year with a schedule of annual increases. The city's Common Council has approved the lease extension and Mayor Tom Barrett is expected to sign off on it soon.

Summerfest is billed as "the world's largest music festival," presenting more than 800 artists on 11 stages for 11 days in the city's lakefront park. The main venue, Marcus Ampitheater, holds 23,000. This year, Summerfest runs June 24-July 4. So far, only the opening night headliners have been announced. The June 24 show will star country heartthrob Tim McGraw with Lady Antebellum and Love and Theft.

Amidst this season's cautious optimism over festival economics comes the first serious bad news for the industry as Rose Presents of Minneapolis announced that its 10,000 Lakes Festival will not be produced in 2010 and is on indefinite hiatus.

The festival has run in late July at Soo Pass Ranch in Detroit Lakes MN for seven years and had attracted a faithful and enthusiastic audience for its ambitious lineups of mostly jam and some alternative rock. Last year for the 7th annual 10KLF, the festival presented Widespread Panic, Wilco and the Dave Matthews Band as headliners. 

But having a core fan group was not enough for Rose and its partners to turn the festival into a successful business venture. A notice addressed to fans from promoter Rand Levy was posted at the festival website on December 18. It reads:

"We want you to know we have heard your voices as community and the 10,000 Lakes Festival wants to deeply thank all of our fans, artists and attendees for seven amazing years at Soo Pass Ranch. While 10,000 Lakes will be on hiatus for 2010, we believe that the music never stops. It can't, you make it possible.

The Hannah Montana set is getting its own festival, Pop-Con, coming February 20 to Long Island NY's Nassau Coliseum—possibly the launch of an extensible festival brand from Live Nation to reach the tweener demographic that has driven massive concert ticket sales for Miley Cyrus and other acts.

Teen sensation Justin Bieber and Disney Channel sweetheart Selena Gomez top the bill for the day-long event, which will feature multiple stages, various vendors, games and other family-friendly amenities. A "culture mall" will bring together fashion merchandise companies.

A Pop-Con 101 seminar will dispense career advice to anyone aspiring to pop stardom, and a range of panel discussions and informational sessions will be offered. Attendees can pre-submit their own audition videos; the winner gets a two-song demo deal with a major label producer and a guest shot on the Pop-Con stage that night.

Other artists scheduled to appar include Push Play, Mercy Mercedes, Care Bears on Fire, Nat and Alex Wolff and many more to be announced.

The city council in Gulf Shores AL approved a plan for a major new rock festival to be sited on the city beachfront this coming May 14-16. Promoter Shaul Zislin, a local restauranteur, says he will stage The Hangout Music Festival as a three-day event on four stages and plans to attract up to 35,000 attendees per day. No artist names have been dropped, but festival planners have likened the event to major festivals like Rothbury and Coachella. Now that the city has signd off, expect to hear some booking news fairly soon.

There is no full festival website, but here is where to keep up with Hangout developments.

A proposal for a major new festival tlhis spring in Panama City FL was disapproved by the Panama city council, which determined that the community could not handle the influx of up to 100,000 festival goers.

The proposal by Endless Summer Productions called for the 1st Annual Beach Scene Music Festival to be held at a city-owned beachfront park on consecutive Saturdays March 20-27. A long list of top name performers was listed as a "potential entertainment lineup."

So Beach Scene won't go down in Panama City, but the producer is said to be considering other Spring Break locations, such as South Padre Island, as alternatives. We'll watch out for further developments.