So the St. Petersburg Times is reporting that the Orlando Calling rock festival did “under 50,000” in attendance, far less than the “over 150,000” that was needed by the British promoters to make the show profitable.
The question remains as to why the show failed. Some thoughts:
Location: Apparently, the British promoters were unaware that the Parramore district in which the Citrus Bowl is located is one of the scariest neighborhoods in the I-4 Corridor. Worse than Nebraska Avenue in Tampa or the Gibbs High area of St. Petersburg, Bob Seger fans would take one look at the neighborhood and turn their car around and head back towards the 408 on-ramp.
Solution: The promoters should have booked either the baseball stadium at Wide World of Sports or Bright House Networks Field.
Line-Up: By all accounts, the vast majority of fans in attendance were there primarily to see a rare Orlando appearance by Bob Seger. That would mean that the average attendee was over the age of 45, far older than the target demo for the other headliners: Kid Rock, The Raconteurs, and The Pixies.
The choice of Kid Rock as the co-headliner is also curious. His top years as a recording artist were from 1999-2002, about eight years removed from his glory days.
The Raconteurs were a real head scratcher. Consolers of the Lonely is over three years old and barely sold 50,000 copies in the U.S. Yet they were booked instead of the promoters shelling out the extra cash to get Meg White to appear as The White Stripes or paying the money to get The Dead Weather to appear. Bottom line: Out of all the Jack White projects the promoters could have booked, The Raconteurs were probably the less commercially viable.
And then there are The Pixies. The Pixies have never been known as stadium-fillers in Florida. While they’re reunion tour from four years ago was sold-out, the band has always played at small venues in Central Florida like Janus Landing or Ruth Eckerd Hall, rather than arenas or stadiums. Looking at the attendance figures for the last Frank Black and the Catholics tour, the promoters should have known that The Pixies were not going to be a huge draw.
So, will there be a Orlando Calling 2? The promoter told the Times “we’ll see.” It’s doubtful, but if there is a second event, they need to find a better location (hint: somewhere where you don’t run a real risk of getting carjacked or mugged by crack heads as you try and park), and a better line-up of more commercially viable acts, rather than a hodge-podge of “names” who really aren’t geared for 60,000 seat stadiums.
The question remains as to why the show failed. Some thoughts:
Location: Apparently, the British promoters were unaware that the Parramore district in which the Citrus Bowl is located is one of the scariest neighborhoods in the I-4 Corridor. Worse than Nebraska Avenue in Tampa or the Gibbs High area of St. Petersburg, Bob Seger fans would take one look at the neighborhood and turn their car around and head back towards the 408 on-ramp.
Solution: The promoters should have booked either the baseball stadium at Wide World of Sports or Bright House Networks Field.
Line-Up: By all accounts, the vast majority of fans in attendance were there primarily to see a rare Orlando appearance by Bob Seger. That would mean that the average attendee was over the age of 45, far older than the target demo for the other headliners: Kid Rock, The Raconteurs, and The Pixies.
The choice of Kid Rock as the co-headliner is also curious. His top years as a recording artist were from 1999-2002, about eight years removed from his glory days.
The Raconteurs were a real head scratcher. Consolers of the Lonely is over three years old and barely sold 50,000 copies in the U.S. Yet they were booked instead of the promoters shelling out the extra cash to get Meg White to appear as The White Stripes or paying the money to get The Dead Weather to appear. Bottom line: Out of all the Jack White projects the promoters could have booked, The Raconteurs were probably the less commercially viable.
And then there are The Pixies. The Pixies have never been known as stadium-fillers in Florida. While they’re reunion tour from four years ago was sold-out, the band has always played at small venues in Central Florida like Janus Landing or Ruth Eckerd Hall, rather than arenas or stadiums. Looking at the attendance figures for the last Frank Black and the Catholics tour, the promoters should have known that The Pixies were not going to be a huge draw.
So, will there be a Orlando Calling 2? The promoter told the Times “we’ll see.” It’s doubtful, but if there is a second event, they need to find a better location (hint: somewhere where you don’t run a real risk of getting carjacked or mugged by crack heads as you try and park), and a better line-up of more commercially viable acts, rather than a hodge-podge of “names” who really aren’t geared for 60,000 seat stadiums.
