BigDag
11-17-2009, 02:45 PM
From this morning's Press-Register:
http://blog.al.com/live/2009/11/could_beach_fest_join_bayfest.html
Could 'beach fest' join BayFest? Promoter envisions 3-day Gulf Shores music festival
By Ryan Dezember
November 17, 2009, 8:30AM
GULF SHORES, Ala. -- Business owner Shaul Zislin has proposed spending $3 million to host a three-day music festival at the city's main public beach in May, an event he envisions someday being the musical equivalent of the Sundance Film Festival, and the City Council has given him the green light to continue planning the event.
That doesn't mean the festival is a sure thing, said Mayor Robert Craft. Rather, the resolution the council approved unanimously Monday evening is intended to portray the city's interest the proposal and give Zislin the comfort level he needs to spend more money planning, Craft said.
Zislin is proprietor of The Hangout, an 18,000-square-foot restaurant and outdoor concert venue at the public beach as well as the Surf Style chain of beach shops, two of which are located at the terminus of Ala. 59 near the public beach.
The Hangout Music Festival is tentatively scheduled for May 14-16, a down time on Baldwin County's beaches that falls between spring break and the start of the summer tourist season. Paid daily attendance will be capped at 35,000. And music would start at noon each day and continue simultaneously on the festival's four stages until each night's headliner, which would occupy one of the large stages that would bookend the public beach.
Zislin told city officials that he envisions an annual event that would become as attached to Gulf Shores as Park City, Utah, is to its renowned Sundance Film Festival.
The announcement comes at a time when other regional music festivals have faltered or needed funding from taxpayers. The nonprofit organization that put on Birmingham's City Stages festival each summer announced in June that it was "irretrievably insolvent" and would not host a show in 2010. Though Mobile's BayFest has fared better than the Birmingham event, taxpayers contributed $243,000 to put it on in October.
But Zislin said that not only would organizers not be asking for public funding, "we intend to pay for all services that are rendered by the city and any financial burden we put on the city."
Zislin said he's prepared to lose money at the onset in the interest of developing a world-class annual event.
"The feel of the festival is going to be sophisticated... it's not a drug fest, it's not a hippy fest."
While he will be heading up the event, Zislin said he's enlisted experienced firms to help. For publicity he said he's hired Mobile's Red Square Agency. To book acts he's turned to Mobile's HUKA Entertainment. Event Operation Group, which manages The Wharf amphitheater in Orange Beach and provides security for races in Talladega and football games in Tuscaloosa and Auburn, is on board. And San Diego-based Optimal Production Services, principals of which have been involved with the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and the Bonnaroo music festival in Manchester, Tenn., will help with logistics.
http://blog.al.com/live/2009/11/could_beach_fest_join_bayfest.html
Could 'beach fest' join BayFest? Promoter envisions 3-day Gulf Shores music festival
By Ryan Dezember
November 17, 2009, 8:30AM
GULF SHORES, Ala. -- Business owner Shaul Zislin has proposed spending $3 million to host a three-day music festival at the city's main public beach in May, an event he envisions someday being the musical equivalent of the Sundance Film Festival, and the City Council has given him the green light to continue planning the event.
That doesn't mean the festival is a sure thing, said Mayor Robert Craft. Rather, the resolution the council approved unanimously Monday evening is intended to portray the city's interest the proposal and give Zislin the comfort level he needs to spend more money planning, Craft said.
Zislin is proprietor of The Hangout, an 18,000-square-foot restaurant and outdoor concert venue at the public beach as well as the Surf Style chain of beach shops, two of which are located at the terminus of Ala. 59 near the public beach.
The Hangout Music Festival is tentatively scheduled for May 14-16, a down time on Baldwin County's beaches that falls between spring break and the start of the summer tourist season. Paid daily attendance will be capped at 35,000. And music would start at noon each day and continue simultaneously on the festival's four stages until each night's headliner, which would occupy one of the large stages that would bookend the public beach.
Zislin told city officials that he envisions an annual event that would become as attached to Gulf Shores as Park City, Utah, is to its renowned Sundance Film Festival.
The announcement comes at a time when other regional music festivals have faltered or needed funding from taxpayers. The nonprofit organization that put on Birmingham's City Stages festival each summer announced in June that it was "irretrievably insolvent" and would not host a show in 2010. Though Mobile's BayFest has fared better than the Birmingham event, taxpayers contributed $243,000 to put it on in October.
But Zislin said that not only would organizers not be asking for public funding, "we intend to pay for all services that are rendered by the city and any financial burden we put on the city."
Zislin said he's prepared to lose money at the onset in the interest of developing a world-class annual event.
"The feel of the festival is going to be sophisticated... it's not a drug fest, it's not a hippy fest."
While he will be heading up the event, Zislin said he's enlisted experienced firms to help. For publicity he said he's hired Mobile's Red Square Agency. To book acts he's turned to Mobile's HUKA Entertainment. Event Operation Group, which manages The Wharf amphitheater in Orange Beach and provides security for races in Talladega and football games in Tuscaloosa and Auburn, is on board. And San Diego-based Optimal Production Services, principals of which have been involved with the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and the Bonnaroo music festival in Manchester, Tenn., will help with logistics.