Music Midtown

Coldplay Music Midtown

Music Midtown was a large music festival held in Atlanta, Georgia from 1994 to 2005. It is once again resurrected for 2011.

The festival ran on one weekend each year from 1994 to 2005. The event drew in excess of 300,000 attendees per year during its peak years. Music Midtown started as a two-day event with three stages. It later grew to three-day event. During the years that Music Midtown had a three-day run, the event had six main stages, each typically were sponsored by a local radio station that were used to present dozens of bands playing a wide variety of musical genres.

Promoters placed the festival on hiatus in 2006 which ran through 2010. This was due to a decline in attendance and rising expenses after the 2005 Music Midtown.

On July 6, 2011, it was announced that Music Midtown would return for 2011. This incarnation will only be a one-day event with only two stages.

History

Crowdsurfer at Music Midtown 1997

Origins

The festival was conceived by Atlanta-based music promoters Alex Cooley and Peter Conlon who sought to create an event similar to the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and which would present the wide variety of music they both had come to enjoy during their careers in the music industry.

In 1994, the festival launched on a parcel of undeveloped land at Peachtree St. and Tenth St. in the heart of Midtown's business district. After a few years at this site, the festival was forced to move to make way for the construction of the new Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. The new festival site chosen was in downtown just north of Centennial Olympic Park and consisted mainly of closed-off streets and surface parking lots which made for a hot and somewhat unpleasant daytime concert-going experience. This site is now home to the new Georgia Aquarium and the new World of Coca-Cola museum. This led to a brief stay of two years after which the festival moved to the current 42 acre (170,000 m²) location adjacent to the Atlanta Civic Center and SciTrek. After finding this new home, the festival grew dramatically and attracted around 300,000 attendees in its peak years.

Changes, 2005 and decline

2005 Music Midtown logo

Although independent promoters when the festival was created, Cooley and Conlon sold their company, Concert/Southern Promotions, to Clear Channel Communications' subsidiary SFX Entertainment in 1998. In November 2004, Alex Cooley was released by Clear Channel Entertainment in part due to his unsuccessful assimilation into the corporate culture. His age and health problems (diabetes) prevented him from working full-time which also played a role.

Crowd at Music Midtown 2005

Traditionally on the first weekend in May, the 2005 festival was moved to June 10–12. This was supposedly done for better weather, though this was counterproductive, as it put the festival into even more heat and humidity and at a greater risk for thunderstorms with dangerous lightning. Most of the 2005 festival was rained on by remnants of Tropical Storm Arlene, repeating many of the May rains it was rescheduled to avoid. Special outdoor tiles were put down in front of the stages to protect the grass and keep it from turning to mud.

The 2005 festival also doubled the talent budget and raised 3-day ticket prices from $45 to $75. Conlon cited media reports of potential traffic problems from Music Midtown and the concurrent Vibe MusicFest at downtown's Georgia Dome as "killing" advance ticket sales in the week before the event. Others believe the higher ticket pricing may have exceeded the ability to pay of younger concert-goers. The slated 2005 dates were also concurrent with the increasingly popular Bonnaroo music and arts festival in neighboring Tennessee, which may have had an impact on both attendance and artist booking.

Hiatus and resurrection

On January 5, 2006, Conlon announced that there would be no Music Midtown in 2006 due to the growing expenses of the festival in its current form and location. Although Conlon left open the possibility of a return at a different location in the future, this ultimately left Music Midtown in limbo and on hiatus through 2010.

On July 6, 2011, Mayor Kasim Reed and Conlon announced that the festival will return for 2011. The 2011 incarnation of Music Midtown will only be a one-day event on September 24, 2011. The new location will be at Piedmont Park with only two stages book ending the park. Ticket prices for the event will cost $55. The headliners are Coldplay and The Black Keys.^[1] Additional acts include Cage the Elephant, Manchester Orchestra, Young the Giant, The Joy Formidable and others. ^[2]

On September 21, 2011, Conlon said due to the success of advance ticket sales for 2011, he is already planning for a 2012 version of the festival. “Next year will definitely be two days, a little more diverse,” he said. “I felt that getting something [produced] this year was important. It’s gotten people focused again. But I’ll start thinking about next year the week after this one. It takes a year to plan these things right.” ^[3]

References

1. ^ http://www.accessatlanta.com/atlanta-music/music-midtown-to-return-1001901.html
2. ^ http://lineup.musicmidtown.com/
3. ^ http://www.accessatlanta.com/AccessAtlanta-sharing_/music-midtown-what-you-1184139.html

• Marino, Nick (January 6, 2006), "Music Midtown canceled for '06; promoters cite expense", Atlanta Journal-Constitution, archived from the original on January 10, 2006, http://web.archive.org/web/20060110055027/http://www.accessatlanta.com/music/content/music/0106/06midtown.html 

External links

• Music Midtown Webpage - parked domain notice, no info