By Jim Stanford on January 12, 2009
Updated with Phish, Led Zep news after jump
Burning one down: Ben Harper's set may have been the highest point of the Jackson Hole Music Fest. Photo by David Stubbs. Click to enlarge.
Festival Network, the New York-based company that promoted the inaugural Jackson Hole Music Festival in August, is cutting back after millions in losses, according to industry sources, and the future of the Jackson Hole event has been cast into doubt.
From Ticket News:
- Concert and festival promoter Festival Network LLC is in financial straits and is believed to have lost $5 million to $6 million in 2008, TicketNews has learned. The company, which hosts festivals in upscale locales such as Newport, RI, Saratoga, NY and Jackson Hole, WY, has closed offices, laid off an undisclosed number of employees and may shut down several of its signature festivals due in part to difficulty in raising new capital and a cutback in funding from JVC for jazz shows.
The news is not entirely surprising, given the wreckage of the economic landscape. A source tells JH Underground that Festival Network lost $1 million on the Jackson Hole event alone.
The festival was staged on the Eagle’s Rest slope at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort. Attendance was strong (about 8,000 for two days), but not as robust as the company had hoped for. Also, sponsorship money did not pan out, the source said.
Festival Network appeared committed to building the Jackson Hole fest over several years. When I asked promoter Dave Margulies last summer whether he and his company would be back, he replied, “Absolutely.”
Now, not so sure.
When it comes to music production, the good times don’t come cheap.
Thanks to reader MP for the heads-up.
•
Trey Anastasio still wields the hammer of the gods. © JH Underground
In other music news:
• Hopes for a Led Zeppelin reunion tour, kindled by last winter’s benefit show in London, appear dead. The song doesn’t remain the same without Robert Plant.
• Phish has announced more tour dates to follow its three-night reunion run in Hampton. The summer tour starts at Jones Beach in New York and only heads as far west as Alpine Valley in Wisconsin. Rolling Stone reports that the band likely will play Bonnaroo in June, and Neil Albert, host of the Phish show on Jackson Hole Community Radio, says a Red Rocks run is in the works. Click here for tour dates, and here to watch a cool video from the band.
No bailout for the concert industry?
There will still be be two great festivals at Targhee this year-we aren’t going anywhere! In some cases, smaller is actually better!