It’s pretty calm out here in LA right now…
Unlike back in KC where explosions and looming concert announcements are rocking the Cowtown. For now let’s skitter past the untimely departure of heralded Plaza eatery J.J.’s and move on to more positive news.
Word on the street is that Kanrocksas is poised to announce its lineup a week from tomorrow. To date the Kansas Speedway “camping” fest has announced Kendrick Lamar, DJ Tiesto and The Avett Brothers. Additional acts that KC Confidential is hearing Kanrocksas has booked include Grammy winning band Fun and MGMT.
The $64 million question being, will Kanrocksas be able to land enough meaningful acts to compete with established fests like Bonnaroo (June 13-16), Lollapalooza (August 2-4) and Coachella (April 12-14).
Festivals that have acts like Mumford and Sons, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bjork, Wilco, The Lumineers, The National, Lou Reed, New Order, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Modest Mouse.
Forget about Paul McCartney, Tom Petty and the Rolling Stones, Kanrocksas promoters are on record as not being interested in investing in big bucks artists this time out.
Insiders say Kanrocksas is racing to assemble its lineup in time for an announcement next week to spur ticket sales.
“They’re still scrambling to get bands, I know that” says one source. “But they’re really struggling because there are so many other festivals and they just can’t get any bands. Even The Buzz had to move its date from June to September.”
Au contraire, says a source close to Kanrocksas.
“I would say it’s more likely The Buzz moved because of Kanrocksas,” says the source. “It makes sense that they would have had problems getting bands booked because of Kanrocksas which I’m hearing is poised to announce 40-plus bands next week.”
One possible issue; that a number of bands like Girl Talk, Ween and Grace Potter were turned off two years ago at Kanrocksas debut outing by getting stuck playing middle of the day shows before small crowds, sources say.
And while Kanrocksas is billed as a camping fest – which normally comes with a captive audience on site for earlier-in-the-day shows – most of its attendees reportedly were local and came out more for the big name evening acts and cooler temps.
“They have camping but it’s not really a camping festival,” says a source. Ninety percent of the people came from Kansas City.”
Stay tuned.
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good stuff
Girl Talk played a pre-headlining spot at night and had a great crowd for his set. He outdrew APC which were playing on another stage.
Lots of people camped but it wasnt nearly as many as Bonnaroo. Until the festival grows, it is not going to be. They still had thousands of people camping.
FAIL.
They are shaping up to be no different than a Buzz concert. They think they want to be bigger (50,000 people a day at a raceway) but they can’t/won’t book the array of big names that draw that many people. If it’s just a bunch of one hit wonders that couldn’t sell out the Sprint Center (Avett, Tiesto, fun. and mgmt could’t headline there) then they will draw no more than the Buzz does to their summer concert (which I think was 15,000 or so at Sporting Park).
I thought the first year was really promising. Black Keys, Flaming Lips, and Ween are all great common festival acts with years of material. Muse and Eminem were big enough names that you could consider Sprint Center sized acts. Turnout was lower than expected but the feedback seemed positive. Unless they surprise us all this week with someone huge/rare act like Nine Inch Nails(just reformed), or Tool(drummer is from here, play KC often when they actually tour) then I can’t see this being anything other than a failure.
If you hate yourself, follow Kanrocksas on Facebook. I think Brandmeyer or perhaps his father is in charge of social media. Lame, pathetic, flat posts that might appeal to about 12 or 13 ppl in KC.
Well this all works out for me. Within this line up, there are at least 10 artists I have been dying to see and it sounds like I will enjoy it even more because instead of being surrounded by the types of people who only go to see the big headline acts, I will be around people who came for the music.