New Cincy festival just announced:

http://www.donewaiting.com/2012/03/29/b ... es-lineup/

Columbus music festivals (from Comfest through all the smaller ones recently founded) seem to emphasize local bands vs. national. I've always been surprised no one in Columbus has ever tried to step up and do something, even similar to this Bunbury one.

It's great that Columbus has so many local bands that can support all of them, but it still seems like such a hugely untapped area that could be a big win (and big $$$$).

Thoughts?

Whatever became of that "D.I." festival that was in the works? Wasn't that supposed to be a mix of local and national acts?

Don't forget about Golftoberfest, when all of the famous golf-oriented bands from the area get together to sing songs about golf to golfers.

The startup economics suck. You need some amount of scale to get larger advertisers/sponsorship. You aren't going to fund much at 250 or 500 bucks a pop from local businesses for "logo placement" -- local businesses which rarely have marketing budgets.

So essentially you're facing a pretty substantial upfront capital investment (any of you wanna drop 50k?). Also, who's going to do the work? At best someone has to manage volunteers-at some point you're going to have to pay somebody. You'll also need a person(s) with booking connections (and good taste) to book people.

plus:

Columbus' mediocre (at best) venue situation
Generally lackluster live music support
Poor media environment

-and that's just off the top of my head.

Cincinnati has a history of doing these kinds of shows for as long as I can remember. 12 years ago, Jamming on Main was sponsored by Pepsi. So, I'm guessing the city has the infrastructure in place to set something like this up.

I'd say the infrastructure and the reason Cincinnati can put on these festivals is because of the resilience of the guys running these festivals down there. The Midpoint festival started small and pretty local 11 years ago, and it only became what it is now a few years ago. I'm sure there was plenty of mistakes in those early years, but they always came back the next year and fixed them. A good example is the venue situation. From what I can tell, it's very much like Columbus. Very spread out, decentralized, and probably more smaller ones with shitty sound than there needs to be. Midpoint started out all over the city, transportation sucked, and no one really ventured around to multiple venues to check things out. Now it's pretty much 16 or so venues within a mile or two radius in downtown Cincinnati, and most of the venues aren't bars or traditional music venues. They're art spaces, media centers, middle school auditoriums, outdoor spaces, etc. Anywhere they can set up a stage, they do it, and they're great unique set-ups that stand true to their venue. The time I spent down there last year was awesome because there was just people walking around everywhere in downtown Cincinnati checking out new and awesome music. Now that festival is where it is, they've got a crap ton of sponsorship, and it's allowed pretty much the same team to take the next step and do something like Bunbury, which is awesome. I can't really blame anyone for not wanting to put in the initial leg work in Columbus though. It's hard, takes a long time, and you get criticized by a lot of people who think they can do a better job, but never will. So far no one's been able to get past those excuses and just do it. And those who do keep on insisting on using "Columbus" in the festival name or mantra, which just puts you back at the local focus.

Hmmm... I wonder... Nah, I happen to know; P&G has a big hand in the MPMF and that's a whole lotta
weight and cash. Local radio does a fabulous job of promoting local talent as well... ahem...
Venues in Cincy are spread out but the MP festival doesn't really worry about 'venue' as much as focusing on centrality (as stated) and that seems to work much better. There is a lot more 'local' financial support and a willingness on the part of the city to promote the live-music-arts than we have in C-bus. (sorry but it's true).
C-bus 'allows' or should I say tolerates (barely) Comfest. Now that the local govt has got the green light to set up DUI checkpoints on any street, you can bet they'll be anxious for Comfest this year. I think they did a fair amount of revenue generating last year. They may have checkpoints in every direction this year.
Face it, it takes local government cooperation, and businesses friendly to live music, as well as local residents who are also tolerant and supportive of the arts. Columbus, OH simply isn't that city. Parking sucks; hotel accommodations are pretty slim as well. I can't imagine a lot of out-of-towners champing at the bit to come to Columbus for a fest and being happy with the lack of necessary amenities. Timing is everything also. When does it go down? May? Golf tourney... June? Comfest... July? too close to Comfest. August? OSU is empty and September is football and I doubt the city would sit for the competition or the traffic. March? Weather would be a nightmare.
I do, on the other hand, think it would be a noble undertaking and I would be most happy to be proven wrong. Maybe we could get a big donation from the GCAC as seed money?

Isnt there a pretty big college around here with a whole buncha money?

Totally agree mushroom; I do, however, believe Columbus would have a big problem with getting approval and assistance from government, police, and health officials. This is where the snags would rear their head. Permits, space, etc.. I don't want to sound 'agin it' because I'm all for the whole notion.
Location is everything and I just don't see it flying in Downtown or even Campus, even though those would be the ideal places (even the arena district) as far as venue availability. But-that's where the good stuff pretty much ends. I can't see the city blocking off more than a couple of streets like Independents Day and that's all outdoors.
There's almost no good parking and there's what(?) two hotels. That sucks. The brewery district is good, because it's dead down there, and there's lotsa space, but no flop houses or again, limited parking. I don't know... between the residents bitching about the traffic, the parking and the drunks; the police being a nuisance rather than a help I wonder. Maybe we should form an exploratory committee with a few more experienced planners and give it a blackboard try. Throw a bunch of spaghetti at it and see what sticks. That always works for the real thinkers. If we don't like what we see we just eat the leftovers.
No pain-no gain! Fisher isn't doing anything let's call him.

Bunbury added 20 more bands on Friday including one of my favorites (Alberta Cross) and Neon Trees, UME, The Henry Clap People, Crash Kings, The Black Owls.

http://www.donewaiting.com/2012/04/15/b ... rta-cross/

While they don't have a TON of hugely popular/well-known bands on this festival, I'm super excited to see a lot of these smaller bands.

While I'm looking forward to the headliners there are a bunch of smaller bands I like including Capital Cities, Tristen, Madi Diaz, Ra Ra Riot, Jukebox the Ghost, Imagine Dragons, Bright Light Social Hour and Maps & Atlases.