Festival die-hards who were waiting to traipse down to south Jersey for the Vineland Festival, the multi-day, multi-band fest that was “postponed” from this year to a summer 2009 launch date, are going to be disappointed: The festival’s plug has been pulled by C3 Presents, the Texas-based company that also puts on Lollapalooza, thanks to the immediate area being too saturated with multi-day affairs.
Late last year, C3 announced they were going to stage a three-day music festival on a 550-acre farm in Vineland, N.J., on Aug. 8-10. A few months later, the festival was postponed till 2009. Now, C3 co-owner Charlie Jones says, Vineland is “dead.”
“That particular part of the country got too popular too fast; there are too many festivals in close proximity,” he says, citing the emergence of the All Points West festival in northern New Jersey, which will be headlined Aug. 8-10 by Radiohead and Jack Johnson. All Points West is being staged by Goldenvoice, which also promotes the Coachella festival in California.
So I guess “too many” = “one” in this particular bit of math, unless Virgin Festival–which happens in nearby Baltimore–is also seen as being in close proximity to south Jersey. Or is “too many” actually code for the possibility that C3’s exclusivity clauses–which, in the case of Lollapalooza, restrict bands from playing six months before and three months after the festival, and have turned the Chicago area’s music bookings into “the long cold summer… it’s like hibernation,” according to one local booker–were just too restrictive for any major acts to sign on, given the proximity of the New York City and Philadelphia markets? Or maybe it’s just code for “the economy sucks, and we want to cut our losses before we start experiencing real deficits.”
Lolla organizers’ Jersey festival dies [Turn It Up via Consequence Of Sound]
Too bad the All Points West features exactly TWO acts that can fill up an arena and then a plethora of artists that usually sell out 500-1000 person clubs. But, hey, I guess that’s still worth charging $90 for.
@2ironic4u: well, but how many acts who aren’t from 25-plus years ago (or named something that rhymes with “wile e. pile us”) can fill up arenas these days?
I don’t get why some of these don’t downsize a bit. Pitchfork and Lollapalooza were two weeks apart this year, no problems there. People from one-horse towns will travel all kinds of distances if any two bands of even moderate repute are coming within 75 miles of them.
@Maura Johnston: Good point. All I’m saying is that NYC has some perfect “mid-size” level bands that they could throw on this thing to give me some sort of comfort that I’m not paying $200 to see Radiohead twice. Examples: The Strokes, Interpol, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The National, The Hold Steady, etc.
If APW exclusivity extends to the entire state of New Jersey (which would be bullshit) rather than only the NYC market, then that seems like a good way to kill any other summer festivals in the state.
A number of bands from All Tomorrow’s Parties NYC are playing Philly on their off days that weekend. I wonder what sort of clauses are in the contracts there.
@2ironic4u: Don’t laugh, but I *am* paying $200 to see Radiohead twice: at APW and 3 days later in Philly/Camden, NJ. So either Radiohead got a special deal or the contacts aren’t as exclusive as Lollapalooza’s.