By all accounts, the inaugural Suburbia Music Festival, held last May at Plano's Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve, was quite the success for a first-timer: a few good bands (Alabama Shakes, Rev. Horton Heat, Run the Jewels), good turnout (20,000 or so), good times. But Live Nation, which brought the event to Plano, has opted out of its deal with the city, which means there won't be a repeat in 2015.
Plano says it hopes the show will go on, but it'll have to be under a different moniker, as Live Nation owns the name Suburbia Music Festival.
'We're going to put out, on the wishes of council last night, a request for proposals,' says Plano spokesman Steve Stoler. 'We're going to approach other promoters to see if they want to put it on. If we get other proposals, we'll bring it back to council. We wanted to create a music festival that was a signature event for Plano, and based on year one we thought it was a real success.'
Stoler says the event generated about '$1.7 million in PR value for the city and $150,000 in hotel-room visits.' But in the end, Live Nation said they lost money - despite the fact Plano planted $500,000 in seed money, which won't happen in 2015. Stoler says Plano will have $125,000 in hotel tax money to spend on the event next year. Plano also could have broken up with Live Nation, but it had hoped to proceed with a 2015 festival until Live Nation sent its 'Dear John' letter to city hall.
'They knew upfront they were going to lose money,' Stoler says. 'We got 20,000 people. The reviews were very, very positive. Everyone had a great time. It was wonderful. And Live Nation, when they were there, was talking about bringing in some bigger names the second year. Another issue they said was parking, but they didn't seem interested in working out the issue in recent months, which gave us the gut feeling' they were out.
Messages have been left for Live Nation, which books shows into the House of Blues, the American Airlines Center, Starplex Gexa Energy Pavilion and other Dallas venues.
Top Picks Entities 0 Name: Plano Count: 8 1 Name: Live Nation Count: 3 2 Name: Stoler Count: 3 3 Name: Suburbia Count: 2 4 Name: Starplex Gexa Energy Pavilion Count: 1 5 Name: Dallas Count: 1 6 Name: Alabama Shakes Count: 1 7 Name: Horton Count: 1 8 Name: Steve Stoler Count: 1 9 Name: House of Blues Count: 1 10 Name: American Airlines Center Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1phrn8u Title: Plano Pulls Plug On Suburbia Music Festival Description: PLANO (CBSDFW.COM) - Plano has pulled the plug on its annual Suburbia Music Festival that takes place at Oak Point Park. Its promoter, Live Nation has opted out of its contract with the city for next year's event.
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