Wheels fall off some US travelling music festivals

NEW YORK - While wandering for eight hours in the hot sun searching for bathrooms, libations and good food has limited appeal to anyone over age 30, many a youngster lives for the three-day, raining-like-crazy, dancing-in-the-mud summer festival.

Some have become so popular that they have spawned the much more palpable touring incarnation, taking the atmosphere on the road to established venues with better facilities.

The latest not to make it is the Zooma Tour, a proposed traveling version of Tennessee's annual Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival, featuring former Phish frontman Trey Anastasio and Ben Harper & the Innocent Criminals.

It was to kick off June 16 at the Tweeter Center at the Waterfront in Camden, N.J. But last month, the promoters called the whole thing off.

"Unfortunately, ticket sales weren't what anyone expected," Zooma producer Jonathan Mayers told Billboard.com. "We went into this hoping to do a whole concourse activity and really present a full entertainment experience, and because of where we are with sales we aren't able to deliver that. So we all mutually agreed to pull the plug."

Asked why the concept didn't take off, Mayers said, "It's really hard to say. I just think at the end of the day the synergy just didn't work like we thought it would -- it just didn't resonate with the audience."

The Rolling Rock Town Fair, now prepping its sixth edition to be held Aug. 6 at Jennerstown Speedway outside Latrobe, Pa., also tried. In 2001, the Rolling Rock Tour visited theaters with capacities of 1,500-2,500 in 15 major markets from late September to mid-November. The bands included Tantric, Oleander and Beautiful Creatures, with ticket prices ranging from $12-$15. Tour organizers worked with local promoters in each market.

But for a variety of reasons, it never worked, producer Lee Heiman recalls.

"Where the fair had great bands, the tour was only able to get midlevel bands," he said. "Also, the entire personality of the event changed once we took it out of the open air and into the four walls of the venues."

While the Rolling Rock Town Fair, sponsored by Latrobe Brewing Co.'s flagship beer brand, averaged 28,000 in attendance, the tour dates saw 820 people per show, according to Billboard Boxscore.

Sponsorship was also a problem, Heiman said. He found that as the tour itinerary branched out nationally, sponsorship dwindled to regional companies, cutting into revenue. "The festival has the ability to bring in huge national sponsors because it draws attendees from all over the U.S.; the tour did not have that pull," Heiman said.

Zooma had not announced any sponsorship deals despite its big-name headliners, and a setting that was to include "villages" on the grounds.

Sponsorship has meant a great deal to the Vans Warped Tour, now heading into its 11th edition, with the first of an expected 50 dates set for June 18 at the Germain Amphitheater in Columbus, Ohio. In addition to the popular footwear-maker, on board since the tour's inception, brands such as Dodge, MasterCard, Samsung, Cingular, PlayStation and Virgin Records are also attached, with the Offspring and My Chemical Romance among the acts.

The tour also stages some offbeat and occasionally oddball attractions, among them 2001's Incredibly Strange Wrestling -- a hybrid of punk rock and hardcore wrestling featuring wrestlers El Pollo Diablo, Macho Sasquatcho, Chupa Suave and El Homo Loco that drew huge crowds. Another big draw is the John Lennon Songwriting Contest, which rewards a local band the opportunity to perform on the next edition of the tour.

"What you need is to have enough on tour so that a kid can spend the whole day at the festival and not see everything," Heiman said. "The fest is only there one day, so the kids make sure to come back the next year."

Poor word-of-mouth and unexciting headliners doomed Lollapalooza last season -- it piled up millions in losses before it even began. Now the event takes a step back this summer. Although still organized by founder Perry Farrell, it's a two-day fest set for July 23-24 at Chicago's Grant Park. The bill includes the Pixies, Weezer, Billy Idol, Widespread Panic, Cake and Dinosaur Jr.

- REUTERS