Pete Freedman
Live Nation and Plano Have Agreed To Terms On a Large-Scale Music Festival For The Dallas Suburb.
For the mere starting cost of $625,000, Live Nation will put an Austin City Limits-styled music festival in your suburb.
Or at least that seems to be the big takeaway in Bill Conrad's Plano Star-Courier piece from earlier this week, which details a new agreement between the City of Plano and the massive event promotions conglomerate, which has now agreed to bring a two-day music festival to the Dallas suburb's Oak Point Park and Nature Preserve in 2014 and, possibly, into years beyond.
It all boils down to this: Plano is paying Live Nation $500,000 for the festival's first year of talent booking, plus an annual fee of $125,000 for in-kind services; in exchange, the company promises some 20,000 attendees per day in the as-yet-unnamed — or really even announced — festival's first year, plus as many as 70,000 attendees per day in future years.
Live Nation will keep all revenue generated by the event itself. Plano, meanwhile, estimates that it could earn anywhere between $1.5 and $7.5 million as a result of the added economic benefits surrounding the fest. No surprise, then, that city manager Bruce Glasscock describes the now-promised festival a potential “signature destination event” for his city.
But what can we really expect of the fest? Amy Fortenberry, director of parks and recreation for Plano, expects the event to kick off at a comparable size to Richardson's Wildflower Festival, but anticipates that the event will grow in future years. We also know the festival is set to take place in May.
That's all we really know for now, though. No name has been announced yet for the festival and there have been no indications on the types of acts that will be booked to play.
Danny Eaton, senior vice president of Live Nation's Dallas offices, does however offer up the following in an emailed statement to the Star-Courier: “Our planning will commence immediately [and] we look forward to sharing more details about the 2014 festival later this year.”
So word is coming, we can rest assured about that.
But more important? Plano just stepped its music game.
Cover photo by David R. Tribble, via WikiCommons.
