Looks as if the planned $1 million Eclipse Street Festival has hit a snag as the promoters have not been able to arrange for the level of talent they had promised and have pulled out of the promotion. Maybe the city will contact the Carbondale Music Coalition regarding taking over the festival.
The problem with attracting "top tier" acts to Carbondale is the city's location. We can get them, but not at a desirable time for attendees. Much like Cape Girardeau, Carbondale is located roughly halfway between two major metropolitan centers, so a major act can play one weekend in Indianapolis, load up the bus(es) and head to St. Louis for the next weekend's set of shows. If the performer wants to pick up an extra paycheck, they can swing off the interstate for a weeknight performance in Springfield or Carbondale. According to the director of Cape's Show Me Center, this is how the Center books a lot of its big name shows as the performers are traveling from St. Louis to Memphis and stop for one night in Cape.
The problem with attracting "top tier" acts to Carbondale is the city's location. We can get them, but not at a desirable time for attendees. Much like Cape Girardeau, Carbondale is located roughly halfway between two major metropolitan centers, so a major act can play one weekend in Indianapolis, load up the bus(es) and head to St. Louis for the next weekend's set of shows. If the performer wants to pick up an extra paycheck, they can swing off the interstate for a weeknight performance in Springfield or Carbondale. According to the director of Cape's Show Me Center, this is how the Center books a lot of its big name shows as the performers are traveling from St. Louis to Memphis and stop for one night in Cape.
Location is always the lame excuse that SIU and the city uses but from the mid 1960's through the early 2000's the caliber of bands and events that came to SIU was phenomenal. Carbondale hasn't moved itself and no new roads have been built that make Cape Girardeau or Evansville better options. The reality is that the leadership simply isn't here. If SIU hired a full time event coordinator they could snag national acts frequently as the arena is now very well equipped for large shows (after the renovations in the late 2000's). Carbondale isn't winning the competition between Cape, Evansville and Paducah because it has no leadership - despite having an arguably better facility than those cities. The Carbondale Music Coalition does a great job but it doesn't have the budget to consistently compete. The organizers of the Eclipse Street Festival started waaaaay too late. They needed to start booking bands 18 months ago 0 but they started in December with $50,000 and no leadership. If location was truly the issue then Walkers Bluff could not have booked bands that have sold over 10 million albums combined in the last 10 years. But they did - despite the location. Walkers Bluff did this because they were well funded and organized.
ReplyDeleteVery good points.
DeleteI should have said "one problem"
DeleteICP is still available.
ReplyDelete