Hearne: KanRocksas Fest to Become Kansas City’s Bonnaroo

It’s like this…

The dramatic announcement of a geeky sounding music fest – KanRocksas -at Kansas Speedway this summer may seem haphazard, but that’s not the case, says promoter Chris Fritz.

"There was some logic to it," Fritz muses. "The idea here is to make this an incredible music experience for the music fans."

More to the point, an annual experience…

"Yeah, that’s totally my plan," Fritz says. "We’re only putting out 80,000 tickets a day now. Unless we go to a three day festival (in future years), but not this year."

And if 100,000 people show up, can KanRocksas handle the body count?

"Well, we think so, but we’re going to evaluate it," Fritz says. "I don’t think we have to worry about it this week. But we have a plan for it."

How many to allow in for the August 5-6 fest in KCK will be determined by what’s best for the fans.

"I don’t want to have a greed factor eliminate a business plan," Fritz says. "We don’t want people saying, ‘It was too crowded and was just no fun.’ We want people to go and then say they couldn’t have had a better time. We want this to sell out every year before we even announce the bands."

Kinda like Bonaroo in Tennessee?

"Yeah, only this this is Kansas City’s own festival," Fritz says. "Obviously every festival has something in common – great music and a lot of people getting together for a great experience."

 

http://www.mb-kc.com/
This entry was posted in Hearne_Christopher and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

19 Responses to Hearne: KanRocksas Fest to Become Kansas City’s Bonnaroo

  1. bob says:

    Ha!
    “And if 100,000 people show up, can KanRocksas handle the body count?”

    There are several great bands with this, but outside of Enimen none of them could sell out Strarlight. And how the hell can you fit 100,000 people, stages, dj tents, and campers inside without using the bleachers? 20 – 25K tops. Also, only 20 some odd bands for a festival? I hope this does well, but this is amateurism all over it from the promoters standpoint. Not to mention Lolla is the week after. That gets announced tomorrow. I bet 90% of the announced bands will be at Lolla as well. Going to be hard to pull in out of region folks. KCK or Chicago? Chicago everytime.

  2. Super Dave says:

    Stupid Date
    Yes lets have an outdoor show in fucking August when the heat could alone would be a great reason to not go. Fritz needs to either do better than this or get out of the business.

  3. chuck says:

    63rd st. back in the 80s.
    Huge Rails, huge…

  4. Super Dave says:

    Eminem is lucky
    Least by having on the Kansas side Eminem and the other acts won’t have to pay e-tax. Sorry you loose again Kansas City MO.

  5. Rainbow Man says:

    KCK Cops are cool
    Well… the good news is that KCK’s finest will chaperone this one. And KCK will love having this crowd. There will be no bitching from the dotte. The KCK cops will only be focused on getting everyone in and out, and only busting dangerous idiots. The partiers will not catch any crap.

  6. smartman says:

    Medickaid
    At least with 100,000 people a day Chris has a legit chance of getting some strange. Maybe a grandma-grandaughter hookup. Might even find a new wife. Kind of a live version of E-Harmony although I hear he prefers prefer E-Hermoney.

    Methinks it’ll be more like Boner! Ew!
    Maybe John Martin can come back and have a “Sno-Cone” booth just like in the old days.

    KCK cops probably already have this budgeted for a quarter mil to make up for the EPA office and the Fiat dealership going to Olathe.

  7. bschloz says:

    No Shoes No Shirt No…….
    Tough name..
    Speedway in August not exactly RedRocks…but alright
    Glazer is right again….Legends FTW –WYCO is kickin ass!

  8. Guy Who Says What Others Think says:

    Awful name, awful acts, poorly attended.
    Nice try. Wait, not really.

  9. kcredsox says:

    Try This
    kanrocksASS, now we’re talking!!! I imagine it will take a few years to even come close to 80,000 per day.

  10. craig glazer says:

    They Will Be Fine
    First off, they have had near that many people when the track opened, its not Woodstock they will mostly be in hotels or come for a day and maybe go home and drive back. Likely 50,000 will be from the KC area. These overall are big name bands in todays market. Eminem alone can bring near half the crowd. 98.9 has proven KC can draw large music crowds. Yes Legends is on its way to being the center of this city. In ten years it will be THE area for shopping and entertainment. Not yet.

    Of course out of towners will be the big news. Something like this can really bring some bucks to town for a weekend. Sounds good. Hey its a forward move for KC.

  11. kctacoparty says:

    Kingdom Hearts?
    What’s with the Kingdom Hearts image with this story?

  12. harley says:

    GREAT IDEA…
    I hope it comes off. It will need a ton of people to make money…but fritz knows how to
    run a concert. Brnging in 80-100k at the speedway is huge for 2 days….generates lots of
    peoplei n the area…plus the soccer stadium will be open too.
    Cant wait for the casino….huge…huge money….and lots of tax dollars.
    KCK is stomping on kcmo like a bad ass…..kcmo is withering like other large
    urban cities………
    good luck chris….hope this is a huge success for you…..you’re the #1 guy
    in concerts…maybe liewicke could learn a few things from you on how to do concerts.

  13. David says:

    re: Harley
    Damn Harley could please not make reasonable comments like that, it tends to ruin your whole nut jobs ALL CAP ranting rep. So you better be careful, if you keep making good, positive, well meaning, non ranting commetns , you will lose your whole reputation.

    With at said, (grimacing) I agree ( cant believe I am saying this ) with everything Harley sadi in the previous post (that post and that post alone, this is a limited agreement ; )

    Lets hope this thing work, although it seem like a poor mans Lollapolaza which is going on the same week end in Chicago, and seems to have the exact same line up headliners and all……. so who knows….. Lets hope Frtiz pulls from the 9 incluseive states, becasue no one from Chicago will come this way that weekend.

    PS
    Loved ememin in “Malibus most wanted” he did a good job portraying a goofy little white rapper.

  14. gully says:

    80,000, really?
    I hope to be proven wrong, but I don’t see attendance in the 80,000 range unless more than one major name isn’t added to the announced lineup. Sure, Flogging Molly can draw a couple thousand at the Uptown, and for some odd reason people seem to like the skinny white boy from Michigan, but I don’t think that sells 50,000, let alone the 80,000 to 100,000 being bandied about.

  15. Hearne Christopher says:

    Lolla is the same weekend! There will be maybe 15 more bands announced. Think they’re hoping for the sum being greater than the individual parts

  16. Hearne Christopher says:

    Robbed it from the fest’s facebook page

  17. Hearne Christopher says:

    One of the premier local promoters I spoke with guess-timated 30,000 to 40,000. Hopefully he’ll be low.

  18. Markus Aurelius says:

    Glazer, unless Legends drops the outlet mall conversion it
    will never become the center of the city. The internet killed outlet malls.

  19. thelogabides says:

    M&M is from Michigan?
    Sheet I thought he was just a white trash wigger from st Joe. Hope it does well. I won’t be there, too old I guess. Sweating my balls off listening to shitty outdoor sound systems doesn’t thrill me. I did Rio for carnival that was enough humanity for me thanks. I much prefer small venues where I can see and hear whats being played.

Comments are closed.