Music fest Vegoose is one cooked goose

Attendance at Halloween event was uneven

Tuesday, April 29, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Something old, something new (10-30-2007)
Nowhere but up for Vegoose (10-31-2006)
'Vegoose' festival seems close to taking flight (6-17-2005)

Make other plans for Halloween in Las Vegas: The annual Vegoose Music Festival will not be presented this year. Not at the end of October or any other time. (See the latest update on Wednesday's Culture blog. )

“We’re not doing it,” Daren Libonati, director of UNLV’s Thomas & Mack Center and Sam Boyd Stadium, said Monday. “(Vegoose producers) are still trying to figure out what we’re going to do or not do, but it doesn’t look like we’re going in that direction.” The event still appears on the roster of upcoming events at LasVegasEvents.com; the Vegoose.com Web site has not been updated with information for 2008.

Libonati and Pat Christenson, president of Las Vegas Events, were instrumental in the creation of the two-day festival, which since 2005 has brought such artists as the Killers, Iggy Pop and the Stooges, Dave Matthews, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Rage Against the Machine, Daft Punk, Cat Power and Jack Johnson to Vegas for daytime shows at Sam Boyd Stadium and the adjacent Star Nursery Field. These were followed by evening shows and after-parties at various Vegas venues, including the Aladdin Theater, the Orleans Arena, The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel and the House of Blues at Mandalay Bay.

The autumn event extended the traditional summer concert season, with the added novelty of a Halloween-in-Vegas atmosphere — past activities and attractions included costumed concertgoers, an Impersonators Cafe, a wedding chapel and the festival’s signature, the Great Evil Pumpkin.

But the fundamental goal of Vegoose was to boost tourism and business during a traditionally flat period for gaming properties in Las Vegas. Libonati and Christenson were optimistic about the music festival they hoped would become an annual signature event for the city.

It seemed to work at first. According to a post-event analysis compiled by R&R Partners, a Las Vegas-based advertising and public relations company, the first Vegoose brought 36,825 visitors to the city, with an estimated economic impact of $37.3 million, $30.4 million of which came from nongaming revenue. The report noted that 16 percent of the out-of-state attendees made their first trip to Las Vegas for Vegoose.

Two-day attendance in 2006 was down more than 50 percent, with a gate of 30,625, from 72,400 in 2005. Attendance in 2007 was 46,200, according to Las Vegas Events.

Vegoose is co-produced by New York-based Superfly Productions and Knoxville, Tenn.-based A.C. Entertainment, the partnership behind Tennessee’s annual four-day Bonnaroo Music Festival, which was approached by Libonati and Christenson to customize Bonnaroo for Vegas. The producers did not return phone calls by press time.

Discussion: 7 comments so far…

By Westerly8

4/29/08 at 11:50 a.m.

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There isn't much good music out these days. If you got a bunch of 70's and 80's bands together for the show, people would come out in droves. Modern rock is horrible for the most part!
By horse

4/30/08 at 2:40 p.m.

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Um, don't really see where Mr. Weinstein confirms it's not going to happen in the above comment. He says it's a great event and they are always looking for ways to improve it.

All he does commit to is that there have been no firm decisions. So basically you have the promoters saying no decision has been made and the LV Events folks saying that it won't be at Sam Boyd.

I would agree that it doesn't look good at this point that it will return, but to say it is gone on the info you have printed is a bit premature.
By Joe Brown (Staff)

4/30/08 at 4:09 p.m.

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Hey, thanks, horse:

I rewrote today's blog post (link below) to clarify that the Vegoose cancellation was confirmed to me by Weinstein, and that the prepared statement provided was a standard press handout.

Joe

www.lasvegassun.com/blogs/culture/2008/a...
By Joe Brown (Staff)

4/30/08 at 4:33 p.m.

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Just received an e-mail from Vegoose spokesman Ken Weinstein:

"You can write this as stated by festival organizers: It is confirmed that it is unlikely that Vegoose will happen in 2008."
By RPJ

5/5/08 at 11:12 a.m.

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"If you got a bunch of 70's and 80's bands together for the show, people would come out in droves."

(a) If that was true, then JuneFest would still be kicking. Trouble is, most folks who grew up listening to music in those eras are no longer into hanging out in a festival atmosphere.

As a music lover whose collection spans every modern decade from the 1920s on, IMHO there is plenty of great current music out there and plenty of people who would go to a music festival (ummmm, Bumbershoot? Coachella?) you just cannot tie the "success" of the festival to the number of tourists it brings to the valley. The festival need only be looked at from the terms of its individual event success, both financial and artistic.
By larsdenmark

6/15/08 at 7:28 a.m.

Suggest removal

hello
My name is Lars and we went from Denmark to Las Vegas only for the Vegoose (Rage against the machine) and I have to say it was the greatest experience in my festival story- sorry to here its over:-(
it was great surroundings an locations, but compered to and festival in Denmark you could do alot to make it run financial and so
sorry for my english...
/Lars Denmark
By kushmaster420

8/2/08 at 3:56 p.m.

Comment removed by staff.

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