Music Midtown Cancelled for 2006
The spring music festival that has allowed teenagers an outdoor event to get their drink on for the past twelve years has been cancelled for 2006.
While the organizers of the event said that Music Midtown may be back at one point, it doesn’t look good. Organizers cited the costs of the Civic Center, weather, and the Vibe MusicFest as the reasons they won’t continue the festival.
Perhaps it was the fact that you had to buy a ticket for the entire three days of the festival rather than a one-day pass that slowed down ticket sales? I know that’s what kept me from going. We elected to listen from our porch instead. The acoustics weren’t great, but the price was a bit more reasonable.
I did like having it in the neighborhood, though, even if parking was a nightmare. Despite the problems caused by the festival, I think Midtown is losing a lot with the cancellation. What would be nice to see in its place are more smaller festivals in Piedmont Park, rather than one giant one at the Civic Center.
GAH! That sucks… I had a great time last year despite the rain.
The Vibe MusicFest was a reason for cancellation? Wow…I’m surprised.
Peter Conlon, who ran Music Midtown, didn’t blame Vibe directly. He partly blamed the media (i.e. my newspaper) for scaring people away from downtown in the days before Music Midtown and blunting advance sales by linking the two festivals. Vibe of course had modest attendance and ultimately had minimal impact on access to Music Midtown.
When is the 2006 VIBE MusicFest? I hope it’s not canceled. I really enjoyed it!
I like outdoor music festivals. Can you imagine JazzFest In New Orleans being in a climate controlled, not to mention heavy camera patrolled with lots of eyes on you, being held inside a Civic Center? Icky, pooh, yuck. I wouldn’t go if it was FREE.
This last Midtown MusicFest just had 2 problems: the weather, and the ticket price/structure mentioned above. Of course they lost their shirt last year, but we’ve all lost something even more priceless.
I have attended most of the past Music Midtown festivals in the past, and they all had their issues each year, but I kept buying tickets and obviously a lot of other people did too. I will be looking to spend my concert-dollars elsewhere this year, but I would be willing to come back to Music Midtown in the future… IF it is still held in Atlanta.
This is a serious travesty. I can’t understand how a city of 5 million people can not support a local festival as important to the community as Music Midtown. The primary mistake made by promoters was moving this festival to June. What were they thinking? Why compete with another major festival which usually out draws you because of the make up of the city. They site weather as a problem, but I tell you that the weather is way worse in June than in May. I lived in Atlanta for 26 years, and attended 8 of the 12 Music Midtown festivals, and only remember the weather as being a major factor in 2. Last year and the year before. The whole reason the first weekend in May was chosen was due to not being a heavy rain day on record. Why would you move a festival to the middle of the Hot summer in Atlanta?
Another reason for the down fall is where are the good bands? Music midtown used to get huge acts. Remember Creed, No Doubt, Live, Black Crows, Collective Soul, and not Tom Petty and Def Leopard every year. I know when I go to buy a ticket at a concert I look for the bands, not the atmosphere. If the music is good people will come.
Granted standing on rain soaked concrete with cans and trash everywhere, and not to mention the porta potty situation. NOT ENOUPH of them promoters. Also the 3-day pass thing. That is ridiculous. It’s a festival not Woodstock. People are not camping out. People are not going because the bands are good one day, but not the next, why would you spend $50 on ticket plus another $40/per day on beverage, when you only want to see one good band. Bring back single day tickets at least to be sold a week out. And move this thing to the Spring again. Maybe even find a venue in Midtown or North. Not downtown. It is Music Midtown and Not Music Downtown. After all most of the attendees live in the Burbs.
I think the main problem was the lineup (lots of old has-been bands) and not knowing the lineup early enough. Also changing the dates.
We used to come every year from Orlando. A good year was Stone Temple Pilots headlining, No Doubt, Garbage, etc. The festival was good for a lot of up-and-coming bands too like Evanescence, Jack Johnson, India.Arie, etc.
Hope to see it come back…depends on line-up if I return.
As an attendee of most of the past years’ festivals, I was dismayed to learn it was cancelled this year. No matter where I have lived (currently Raleigh) I almost always made it back for MM. Last year I didn’t go, not because of the ticket structure (I always bought the three day/hotel package anyway), not because of rain (one fond memory is going back to the hotel in disappointment when Sheryl Crow quit playing, then racing back to catch a great Live show 30 minutes later), but because of the weak lineup in recent years. I agree that Def Leopard and Tom Petty are NOT going to get me to shell out $800 for a weekend, while Live, Godsmack, Collective Soul, yes, even Aimee Mann, will! Where are all the great bands from the past (and I don’t mean has-beens). That, in my opinion, spelled the demise of this once great festival. I will definitely miss it.