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Cancellations plague summer concert season

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

Lollapalooza, a planned two-day music and arts festival that began in 1991 as an alternative to radio-favored pop music, has cancelled its entire 16-city tour. The Dublin five-piece band The Thrills are another one of the casualties.
Now people are finding an alternative to the alternative.
With the cancellation announced last week comes increased scrutiny placed on the business of big concerts.
“Since mid-April, something just happened that business has dried up.; tours that were doing well sold down to a trickle,” said Gary Bongiovanni, editor-in-chief of Pollstar, an Internet news and database site for tour dates, past and present.
“It’s fairly widespread.”
Usually successful, larger solo acts like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera have to fend off rumors that their tours were cancelled because of poor ticket sales.
“The strange thing about the public is that you can’t tell how something will do until you ask them to pull out their wallets,” Bongiovanni said.
Lollapalooza’s main flaw, Bongiovanni said, was the lineup.
“The package they presented skewed to an older audience, and was less than ideal for a day-long festival.”
Most large-scale tours are marketed toward teens, and the artists Lollapalooza boasted had little recognition to younger audiences. Asking the older audiences to spend two days outdoors in a large area held little appeal as well.
You could say the Morrisseys and their fans are better suited to more intimate theater concerts.
Part of Lollapalooza’s undoing was that the lineup was almost too new and exciting, though that has been their mantra since its incarnation. Many news outlets have been abuzz that some fans seem to think a two-day stop, coupled with jam band The String Cheese Incident as Day Two’s headliners, was asking too much of fans’ patience.
Bongiovanni notes that the greatest change in concerts lately has been a huge increase in radio-station-sponsored shows. This, coupled with many smaller shows taking on corporate sponsorship in the naming rights, ensure enough of a profit to keep going.
“Tour sponsors help a lot, and the kids are not bothered by it,” Bongiovanni said. “Advertising is everywhere, and they are capable of tuning it out.”
One festival doing well this summer is the Warped Tour, a high-energy collective featuring many punk bands, and sponsored by Vans, a sneaker company. It was founded in 1994, in the hopes they would replicate Lollapalooza’s success.
It seems to be working.
“Warped always does well — they book things that a 15-, 16-year-old would see,” Bongiovanni said.
Flogging Molly, an L.A.-based “Celt-punk” outfit, are out with the Warped Tour this year, and will get the chance to be exposed to thousands of younger ears.
“The concert business has a good first quarter in 2004,” Bongiovanni said. Still, the April squeeze has yet to let up.
“Tours were selling well, such as Bette Midler, Rod Stewart, and Prince. But in mid-April, things just dried up. There is no explanation for it aside from people just wanting to hold on to their wallets a little tighter. And the pain is shared by everyone in the music industry.”
Perry Farrell, musician and founder of Lollapalooza, posted a message on the show’s Web site shortly after the cancellation, hoping to get in touch with performers and fans to organize at least one show with the Lollapalooza lineup before the summer is out.
Meanwhile, Morrissey has picked up only one American tour date this summer, a sold-out Chicago date, and is making himself available to the European summer concert circuit.
American fans can rest easy, however, as he will be back in the fall to launch a full-scale tour, according to MTV News.
The Thrills have struck out with their would-be Lollapalooza tour mates The Polyphonic Spree and Gomez to pick up some of the pieces.
In support of their forthcoming album, “Whatever Happened to Cory Haim,” due Sept. 14, The Thrills have scheduled a number of dates for the West and Midwest, and hopes that the East Coast might get its Thrills yet.

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