Agreed.  I wonder if all the miscellaneous MPMF threads should be merged into one.

~ka BUMP~

This year - festivities for 2 days

R n R Carnival 7/3 @ 2:30 PM til 1 AM

CLETUS ROMP

JAKE SPEED & THE FREDDIES

ECLIPSE

R. RING

TURBO FRUITS

THE TILLERS

YOU, YOU'RE AWESOME

THE BIG SLEEP

PUJOL

& Incendium Fire arts at 10:25

On the 4th, parade starts at noon food at North Presbo (Red White & Blueberry pancakes), the park (Kegs & Eggs) before the parade

The Comet & Northside Tavern open at 11. Comet's kitchen opens at noon

NYPD pizza will be open thru the day

 

Carnival

http://www.northsiderocks.com/

 

Parade

http://www.northsidejuly4.com/

Cincinnati is busily painting every light pole shiny black and running street sweepers on every street downtown and around Washington Park.  It is hard to find a place to park when they mark so many streets as No Parking for street cleaning all at once.

 

Is there no Thread for the Choir Games?

A link to the Cincinnati Enquirer's page on the games: http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=ENT13

This should be interesting.

This is quite possibly the most positive thing I've ever seen from the Enquirer about Cincinnati:

 

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120707/ENT13/307080031

 

:clap:

I have not attended any World Choir Game official events, but it is fantastic seeing all these choirs walking around town and sometimes bursting into song.  Wonderful atmosphere.

Wow, headline on the local tabloid paper, The Enquirer: "Downtown parade to hold up evening traffic".  Mind you this is the major parade of the World Choir Games dubbed the "Celebration of Nations" and that streets will not start closing until 5:30pm.

The title should read "Stay Downtown and Watch the Celebration of Nations Parade for the World Choir Games"

 

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120710/NEWS/307100015/Downtown-parade-hold-up-evening-traffic?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

http://bunburyfestival.com/mobile_app

 

The Bunbury mobile app was released yesterday and it is surprisingly good. The only negative thing I have to say about the app is how hard the map is to read. They stylized it like honeycombs (which isn't bad), but it does not translate well to a map... Overall a great app that is very functional.

Here's some photos of yesterday's Celebration of Nations Parade.  It started off a bit slow, but the crowd was great and the excitement really picked up as the various nations showed off their stuff.

 

http://www.jjakucyk.com/wcg/

Can't wait for this weekend - on a good note it will not be 100 degrees, but unfortunately there is a chance of rain after a 3 week drought.  I do not know if this has been mentioned but for those with kids admission is free for those 10 and under.

 

Saturday will have a nice string of bands that can be seen in order: Jukebox the Ghost, A Silent Film, Imagine Dragons, Manchester Orchestra, Gaslight Anthem, Grouplove, and finally Weezer.  Also looking forward to the nice local presence including Bad Veins.  It would have been nice to pick up the Whigs on the reunion tour or The National, or even Walk the Moon (who are at Forecastle), but there are plenty of good ones.

Wish I could make it. Also wish the Whigs were playing. GbV is better though!

First, this topic needs to be more active, so I am going to post a couple of things.

 

Second, I agree with OTR and think there should be a thread for MidPoint Muisc Festival and it should merge all of the discussions from previous years. I don't know who would do this, but it should be done. There is no reason to have a new thread every year.

 

Loyalty Presale: $49 SOLD OUT

Early Bird 3-Day Tickets: $59 SOLD OUT

All Music 3-Day Tickets: $69 On Sale

 

Washington Park will be the main stage for MPMF.12

 

Headlining Washington Park:

Thursday, September 27: Andrew Bird

Friday, September 28: Grizzly Bear

Saturday, September 29: Sleigh Bells

 

Individual days can be purchased for just Washington Park (All Ages) for $25 Thursday, $30 Friday and $30 Saturday.

 

Current lineup for MPMF.12

 

GRIZZLY BEAR / DIRTY PROJECTORS / SLEIGH BELLS / THE WALKMEN / THE ANTLERS / RALPH STANLEY AND HIS CLINCH MOUNTAIN BOYS / CLOUD NOTHINGS / IMPERIAL TEEN / WILLI EARL BEAL / FRANKIE ROSE / TENNIS / JULIA HOLTER /LAETITIA SADIER / CRAFT SPELLS / SEAPONY / LORD HURON / THE BLACK BELLES / ZEUS / THE GROWLERS / J.C. BROOKS & THE UPTOWN SOUND / HOSPITALITY / RICH AUCION / STEPDAD / WHITE ARROWS / ETERNAL SUMMERS /

F.STOKES / HUME / WOODEN WAND / SIDEWALK CHALK / DIRTY BOURBON RIVER SHOW / HUNDRED WATERS / ARMY NAVY / TIM EASTON  / GOLDEN BOY / KITTEN / HOLY GHOST TENT REVIVAL

 

Focus will be put on a bikable MPMF again like last year.

 

If you would like to volunteer:http://mpmf.com/volunteer

 

Social Media

Facebook: www.facebook.com/midpointmusicfestival

Twitter: www.twitter.com/midpointmusic

I'm a bit confused on the pricing schematic. I read at Each Note Secure that the 3-day pass will not count for access to the Washington Park headliner shows. Is this accurate?

From the article:

 

All Washington Park performances will be ticketed events, requiring an All Music Access Pass, a VIP Pass, or the now available individual Washington Park Thursday, Friday or Saturday ticket to access the performance area

 

So if you purchase a 3-day pass or VIP pass you will get in to Washington Park provided it is not over capacity when you get there. Last year people were being turned away from Grammer's for Okkervil River and Cut Copy because it was over capacity.

Was down there tonight.  I'd guess about 3,000 were there total, and about 2,000 watched Jane's Addiction:

 

So this show was a little spotty.  The song selection and order didn't flow at all.  Perry Ferrel was on drugs and hopping around like the spaz kid from 5th grade.  The band didn't start sounding good until about the 5th song.  Also, from where I was, the mix was effed up with basically zero guitar.  So I was hearing bass, drums, vocals, and that's it.  It didn't look to me like Perry and Dave are friendly with each other and so the whole mood wasn't too cool.

Bunbury is reporting attendance of 15,000 for the first day.  I hope that the event does well--would be nice if it caught on and built up its popularity. 

There's no way there were 15,000 people there last night.  It wasn't jammed at all and honestly it felt pretty thinly attended when I walked up around 7:30.  There definitely was no line to get in. 

downtown last night at bunbury

 

Had a lot of fun playing down there yesterday.... they really took good care of the bands behind the scenes and everything was really well organized.... hope they keep with it and make sure to schedule it on a better weekend next year.

Saturday was a lot more crowded than Friday.  I'd be surprised if more than 5,000 walked through the door on Friday but Saturday was definitely upwards of 10,000.  The crowd for Weezer was definitely much bigger than for Jane's Addiction. 

I attended all 3 days (worked Friday and Sunday, went for fun on Saturday) and felt that overall, this was a successful event. It was very well organized. I'll post a full review later on.

 

Oh, and I now love Sawyer Point even more than before. What a terrific space!

Can someone clarify for me the relationship between Sawyer Point and Yeatman's Cove? As a kid, we just called the whole area down there Sawyer Point.

 

Glad to hear Bunbury was a success. Wish I could have gone. I really hope it grows and happens as annually.

Yeatman's Cove is the area where the Serpentine Wall is, between the L&N and Taylor-Southgate Bridges.  This opened in the 1970s.  Bicentennial Commons is Sawyer Point, and opened in 1988.  They might still technically be different parks. 

Here's the article in the enquirer stating 15,000 on Friday. I think Saturday was definitely the busiest day, though Sunday was pretty crowded too.

 

I think to boost attendance on Friday they need a bigger act that draws a lot of people in. For example, the most recent Friday headliners for Lollapalooza have been Black Sabbath, Bassnectar, and The Black Keys (in August); Coldplay, Muse, and Girl Talk (2011); The Strokes and Lady Gaga (2010); Kings of Leon, Kid CuDi, Depeche Mode (2009); and Radiohead (2008).

 

Jane's Addiction got back together several years ago (2009-ish) and have already done a couple of national tours, so the excitement for them has dwindled. In comparison, Black Sabbath just got together and their first show reunited was in June. They have plenty of excitement around them and would have probably sold out Bunbury on Friday night.

 

I realize that Bunbury is not Lollapalooza. But it is the best comparison there is. The setup is very similar being in a park in downtown with six stages. If Bunbury could have booked someone with a lot of hype for Friday night the festival would have been much better attended. I think Weezer on Saturday night was a good choice. There were a lot of people who went to Bunbury on Saturday night just to see Weezer.

 

I also don't think that ending Sunday with Death Cab for Cutie was a good decision. I think the Sunday night show needs to be full of energy, and Death Cab is not full of energy. They are good at what they do, but they don't get the crowd going like Lollapalooza tends to book for Sunday nights: Pearl Jam and Modest Mouse (2007); Nine Inch Nails and Kanye West (2008); The Killers and Jane's Addiction [they had just gotten back together, so again, hype] (2009); Soundgarden [just got back together, hype] and Arcade Fire (2010); Foo Fighters and deadmau5 (2011) etc.

 

I think Bunbury could attract a band at Lolla's abilities next year. They don't have two main stages, so it isn't like they are trying to be better than Lollapalooza, but I think they could have a comparable band there next year each night as long as it continues. From what I've heard they treated the bands really well and since they are done with their first year they can start to book bigger bands.

I think they chose their acts wisely as to avoid security problems.  You aren't going to need heavy security for Weezer and you're never going to have the bad publicity that goes with an incident.  If they booked Insane Clown Posse they'd have issues. 

I think they chose their acts wisely as to avoid security problems.  You aren't going to need heavy security for Weezer and you're never going to have the bad publicity that goes with an incident.  If they booked Insane Clown Posse they'd have issues. 

 

If they booked Insane Clown Posse I would have been very surprised. Hopefully they book some even higher caliber bands next year to ryanlammi's point. I think the event is well positioned to do that if they make another go at it next year. I wonder if a potential Tall Stacks 2013 will cause a conflict.

If you looked at how the main stage was positioned, it appeared that they could have moved it back at least 100 feet to create more space.  It's possible that its location for this festival was dictated by electric hookups or some other technical issue.  My point is there was no spare room during Weezer (people were climbing the trees), so if they want a bigger act than Weezer, they're going to need more space to make the money necessary to offset the expense of a top act. 

 

They could put another main stage in the parking lot where the condo tower was planned (old Montgomery Inn banquet center)  or the far end of the Boathouse lot, although they'd have to pay the Boathouse for a weekend of lost valet parking. 

I would love to know if anyone has perspective on whether this festival was a financial success or not...ultimately that will dictate if it happens again or not.

 

My understanding is that as of Friday night, they had sold under 11K pre-sale tickets, but walk-up sales during the weekend were pretty robust.

Okay, some thoughts...

 

THE GOOD:

-Very well organized

>plenty of ATMs

>free water stations and misting tents

>friendly, helpful staff

>great beer and food options

>volunteers treated very well

 

-Fantastic venue

 

-Affordable

>$5 beers, $2 water, most food under $10

 

-Great showcase of downtown

 

-Park kept very clean all weekend

 

 

 

 

THE BAD:

-Poorly located DJ stage with mostly-unknown talent

>A big miss IMO since all the other festivlas are booking house/trance DJs now

 

-Questionable weekend with Reds games and WCG

 

-Food vendors absolutely slammed during peak dinner hours..waits of 1/hr+

 

-Lack of diversity in talent booked

 

-Very poorly designed maps and directions (almost unreadable)

 

-Probably missed attendance targets (judging by amount of excess staff, beer vendors, ATMs and bathrooms they were likely planning for a bigger crowd)

 

-Well behaved audience...saw only one person being kicked out all weekend.

I'd think they'd be lucky to have broken even this year, but I'd hope that its more of an investment and that they can keep doing it for a few years and bringing in bigger crowds and bigger acts. Creating a music festival can be done, it will take some persistence in Cincinnati, which has had a tough time drawing national acts over the past decade for a variety of reasons. But if Louisville can do it, I'd certainly hope that Cincinnati can, too. (just not on the same weekend next time)

Yeah that brochure with the honeycomb chart was too hard to read.  You had to flip it too which was just stupid.  If they sold 15,000 tickets at $45/ea they probably came out ahead by about $100,000-200,000.  There is always the temptation to cash out but some of that has to be saved to cover for future losses.  I mean, if it rains all weekend, you're out all that walkup income, which means if you're Bill D you have to go work on the crab boats. 

 

 

The goal of the festival was 30,000-50,000 people. I'm not sure if that means that many people walk through the gate over the weekend (ie 3-day passes count as 3 entries) or if that was a per-day estimate.

 

Here is an article from KYPost quoting an estimated 40,000 predicted a couple of weeks before the festival. I'm not sure where they got that number, or whether that was per day estimates. If they were expecting 40,000 over the weekend and got 15,000 on Friday, I would imagine that the festival was a huge success. I think they wanted 30-50k each day, though. That has me a little worried.

 

As long as they can put another one together next year that doesn't coincide with Forecastle (Louisville) AND Pitchfork (Chicago) and can get a couple of bigger acts headlining than Jane's Addiciton and Death Cab, I think they could easily reach that 30-50k range each day.

 

It's unfortunate that Forecastle and Pitchfork chose that weekend. I heard that last weekend was the only weekend Sawyer Point was available all summer, so Bunbury was locked in to those dates pretty early (don't know for sure if that is true). and I believe they announced their dates before Pitchfork or Forecastle, so you can't blame Bunbury for their weekend choice (on Twitter they announced Bunbury dates in April 2011. Forecastle announced dates in September 2011. Pitchfork appeared to have announced in early 2012, though I can't find an exact date).

 

Another thing that hurt Bunbury is that Forecastle announced their lineup way before Bunbury. It was so much earlier that I was getting worried Bunbury was having trouble finding acts to headline. Though that was my speculation, no actual facts to back it up.

And while the brochure was terrible to read, the app was very well designed. After the 30 minute rain delay on Sunday all of the acts were immediately updated to reflect their actual start times and Passion Pit was removed after they cancelled Sunday morning.

 

And I agree the DJ stage was a missed opportunity.

 

And everything there was affordable ($5 16oz Christian Moerlein isn't bad).

 

To be honest, I was not very excited about the festival when the headliners were announced. It was all of the other bands that did it for me (The Bright Light Social Hour, 1,2,3, Imagine Dragons, Foxy Shazam, Grouplove, Tristen, etc). Though I did enjoy most of Weezer's set.

I'd be very surprised if they hit 30,000 for the total weekend attendance.  When I walked up Friday at 7pm there was no line to get in and there was hardly anyone milling around inside.  Again I doubt there were more than 3,000 people there Friday (look at the Enqurier's photo section, there was practically nobody in the crowd for any of the acts during the day).  10 minutes before Jane's Addiction took the stage there was still standing room on the lawn between the stage and sound booth. 

 

 

Yeatman's Cove is the area where the Serpentine Wall is, between the L&N and Taylor-Southgate Bridges.  This opened in the 1970s.  Bicentennial Commons is Sawyer Point, and opened in 1988.  They might still technically be different parks. 

 

Thanks. I guess Sawyer Point really stood out since it opened when I was a wee lad. I remember going down there when the flying pigs were just put in, the timeline thing, etc. Sawyer Point, Yeatman's Cove, and TMB Friendship Park having separate names makes things confusing.

Yeah, the L&N Bridge with the arches you walk through is the divide. 

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120716/NEWS/307160104/Bunbury-founder-Encore-coming

Good news!  I would have been surprised if it was not considered a success, but final numbers placed at 50,000 (and I think 1 person going each day would be counted each time as the total is the sum of all 3 days).  I am very excited about music in Cincy at this time - with 2012 probably being one of the busiest concert calender years in our history.  Great shows at the many venues, Riverbend having one of the best, most packed schedules in the country, and Midpoint coming up with bands like Dinosaur Jr, Antlers and Sleigh Bells to raise the profile, etc. 

 

Best shows of the weekend for me: Imagine Dragons, Bad Veins (who sounded great all the way down at the amphiteater), A Silent Film, Airborne Toxic Event (who really surprised me with their live show), GVB, and of course Weezer.  They did not disappoint and put on a show that I will always remember.  Death Cab also good but thought their placement as the last band was not quite right.  Also enjoyed the ease of entry, and plethora of food and drink stands, restrooms, ATM's, etc.  For a first year festival I was quite impressed with how it was run and the overall numbers.  Looking forward to next year.

Nope, I'm not believing those attendance figures.  Perhaps quite a number of people bought tickets and didn't show up, or others came for just a few hours and left.  But there's no way there were 10,000 people there to watch Weezer, and so how you get to 50,000 when I'm guessing only 10% of that figure was there for the main act I don't know.  We might have a Marge Schott case on our hands where she personally bought cars to inflate her dealership's sales. 

 

 

I'm a horrible crowd estimator and at this point it doesn't really matter but...how many people do you think are in this shot from Friday night:

I think it is difficult to estimate how many people were at the Main Stage, but I could easily believe there were close to 10,000 at Weezer alone.  I am not a crowd estimate expert though so I am not claiming that is the case.  One thing to keep in mind is that Bill Donabedian is an investor in the show who also has other investors that must be satisfied.  They would not continue a money losing proposition so I do not see any motivation to lie about the numbers.  This either made money or it did not, but it sounds like year 2 is going to happen.

Going by this article's figure of 4.5 sq feet per person http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/the-curious-science-of-counting-a-crowd  and a crowd dimension of 400x175 feet (using Google Earth measure tool) minus at least 1,000 people not in that space due to the center tower and fenced off center aisle, I think we're talking 7,000 on the low end and 10,000 on the high end for Weezer. 

Nope, I'm not believing those attendance figures.  Perhaps quite a number of people bought tickets and didn't show up, or others came for just a few hours and left.  But there's no way there were 10,000 people there to watch Weezer, and so how you get to 50,000 when I'm guessing only 10% of that figure was there for the main act I don't know.  We might have a Marge Schott case on our hands where she personally bought cars to inflate her dealership's sales. 

 

 

 

I was in the group shown in bold above.  I was there for about 3 hours late afternoon/early evening yesterday (Sunday), but left just as Death Cab was taking the stage.  hard to say how many others were similar to what I did.

bump. this week.

I heard from multiple bands (Death Cab for Cutie, Wussy, Neon Trees, and The Airborne Toxic Event) that this was one of the most well organized festivals that they have every played. They seemed to have hit their target crowd and made a decent chunk of change. It sounds as if they did everything they needed to make Bunbury continue for a second year, and I think that was what was on Bill's mind the whole time: do it right because you only get one chance.

 

I honestly don't know why Mr. Donabedian would lie about the attendance numbers. There are going to be records of ticket sales that will be evidence to his claim. His investors aren't idiots and this isn't their first time in something like this. Also, I personally know several people (just about everyone I went with) who didn't really care to see Weezer on Saturday (or Jane's on Friday). I had to pretty much drag them there.

 

I was working at the front gate on Saturday from 6-10pm, and there were a lot of people going in just for Weezer (with a one-day pass entering for the first time) and a lot of people leaving at 9:45 after Grouplove and RJD2 ended. Some people just don't like the headliner, so you can't estimate the attendance just on that.

Also they may have included all staff, volunteers, vendors, band members, etc. in their counts which would provide a significant bump in the total attendance. After all, these people did indeed "attend".

Venues listed online (Italics are open to younger audience, bold are new venues):

 

Arnold's Bar and Grill

Artworks on the Biore Strip

Below Zero Lounge

Blue Wisp King Records Room

C.A.C. Stage on MidPoint Midway

Cincinnati Club P&G Stage (18+)

Courtyard Cafe

Dewey's Pizza Main Stage at Grammer's

Emery Theater

Japp's Annex

Know Theater on The Biore Strip

Main Event ICB Stage

Media Bridges

Mixx Ultra Lounge

MOTR Pub

Mr. Pitiful's

The Drinkery

Vitamin Water Room at the Hanke Building

Washington Park

 

The SCPA has been removed from the website, but it seems like no venues have been removed besides that. I'm not sure if Grammer's will still host a stage since Washington Park is being used. And the Courtyard Cafe is now Mayberry, so I doubt it will be used (these are my assumptions. No proof).

 

I imagine Cincy by the Slice will be a venue as well because they have an upstairs room that they want to use for bluegrass and folk music once they get a full liquor license. Even if they don't get a liquor license by MidPoint, they can still serve beer, I believe.

 

Also, does the Blue Whisp still have a "King Records Room" in their new building? I haven't actually been to the new location yet. Their new location also seems a little distant from the other venues (except Washington Park and Media Bridges, I guess).

 

Didn't Media Bridges move? So they probably aren't going to be a venue either (just struck it off the list).

They definitely included volunteers (I volunteered and attended all three days). They may have included vendors and bands as well since they all got wristbands. I doubt they counted security, police, park personnel, etc as they didn't have wristbands (to my knowledge). All of the band members would have only been about 500 people max though (100 acts, and many of those were DJs).

Why did people volunteer for this?  I mean, this was a money-making venture, and anyone who worked there deserved to make at least minimum wage.  So if they in fact sold 50,000 tickets at $45 each, they brought in $2,225,000.  Seems like there'd be a little of that they could have tossed to the "worker bees".  I've got an attidude with this because I have spent so much of my life around music and have seen how people have been hosed by the industry.  Like publishing or art dealers, music promoters take advantage of people's passion. 

 

Also, anyone who paid $45 to be there Friday and didn't stay for Jane's Addiction is just plain stupid.  They wrote and recorded two of the must unusual records of all time (their recent records suck), records that still fry anything by anyone else on the bill.  I thought their performance was uneven, and am critical of their attempt to present their old material in its original context, but there's no denying that the songwriting and the musicianship is on another level from anything else at that festival.  It's an important band, period, and if you're a "music" fan, you don't avoid them.  It's like walking out on The Grateful Dead or Elvis because you think you don't like them.