Wow our economy sucks. Everyone knows how closely I follow the Miami scene, and how envious of it I am. I was shocked to hear about the cancellation of Langerado Music Festival in Miami this year. This event was supposed to be next month in Bayfront Park, the old sight of Ultra Music Festival (pre 2006). The line-up was pretty sick and included Chromeo, Girl Talk, Snoop Dogg, Gym Class Heroes, The Faint, Pepper, and shit tons more. Here is the official story from the Miami Herald:
“The sinking economy is dragging down pop music. The Langerado Music Festival, one of the biggest music events in South Florida, has been canceled due to poor ticket sales. The seventh edition of the festival was scheduled for March 6-8 in downtown Miami’s Bicentennial Park. It would have been the festival’s first time in Miami-Dade County.
Organizers announced the cancellation Tuesday afternoon. A message on the festival’s website, www.langerado.com, said that ticket refunds would be processed within five to seven days. Tickets cost $75 for one day and $120 for a three-day pass.
`SIGNATURE EVENT’
”Unfortunately, during these difficult economic times, and facing a first year in a new venue, it’s become apparent that we cannot execute a production that lives up to the high standards of our past events,” Langerado co-producer Ethan Schwartz said in a statement. “Putting Langerado on hold was the toughest decision we have ever had to make.”
Langerado had become one of South Florida’s most anticipated music events, with a vast selection of contemporary music that balanced cutting edge, popular and classic groups, from jam bands to punk, rock to hip-hop. This year’s lineup included rapper Snoop Dogg, indie rockers Death Cab for Cutie and Modest Mouse, trip-hop group Thievery Corporation and Mexican alternative band Cafe Tacuba. Langerado added a distinctive South Florida flavor by including Latin, world and local acts.
`A HUGE LOSS’
”It’s a huge loss to the music scene,” said concert presenter Laura Quinlan, head of the Rhythm Foundation, which stages world and electronic music shows. “It’s a signature event on the music lover’s calendar here. There’s going to be a big hole.”
Last year’s edition of Langerado, with acts including REM and the Beastie Boys, grossed $3.4 million and drew 25,000 fans each day to the Big Cypress Seminole Indian Reservation in the Everglades, despite logistical problems, cold weather, traffic jams and a traffic accident that killed one fan driving to the show. Previous festivals took place at sites in Broward County.
There was talk last fall on the South Florida music scene that Langerado might be canceled. The urban setting would not allow people to camp overnight, as many did in the Everglades. Some music fans thought this year’s line-up was not as stellar as that of last year, especially compared to the artists appearing at other music festivals like Bonnaroo, which takes place June 11-14 in Tennessee and will feature Bruce Springsteen and TV On The Radio. Southern California’s Coachella Festival boasts Paul McCartney, Amy Winehouse, and The Killers from April 17-19.
Langerado had ”a good line-up, but it’s not the same as having the Dead and REM,” said Gary Bongiovanni, editor-in-chief of Pollstar magazine, which covers the concert business.
ECONOMIC FACTOR
Bongiovanni said the sagging economy could be having an effect on sales, noting that Canada’s Pemberton Festival was recently canceled, and that Coachella and the Stagecoach Festival, a country music event, had instituted layaway plans to pay for tickets. ”People all over the country are having to make those kinds of decisions,” Bongiovanni said. “I think we’re going to see this happening all over.”
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