Rocklahoma Preparations Underway
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KOTV - 7/11/2007 10:34 AM - Updated 7/11/2007 8:33 PM
Country Fever is apparently contagious. It's spread to rock-n-roll. The same group that's put on the Country Fever event in Pryor the past few years is kicking off Rocklahoma, a four-day rock-n-roll festival that starts Thursday. The News On 6's Steve Berg reports they've made a lot of changes just in the few weeks since Country Fever, and now they're ready to rock the house.
The fever is spreading. Promoter Mark Nuessle says they've expanded the grounds about 300 feet further back.
"We can put about 65,000 people in here now," said Nuessle. "We're expecting a big crowd."
STORY------> http://www.kotv.com/news/local/story/?id=131256
Rocklahoma Site------> http://www.rockfeverfest.com/
What a great lineup!
I wish I was twenty years younger. Going to a four day music festival would kill most people my age.
quote:
Originally posted by recyclemichael
What a great lineup!
I wish I was twenty years younger. Going to a four day music festival would kill most people my age.
That's why I'm only going on Saturday. [}:)]
It'll be a hoot, it's been a long time since we all went to the Fairgrounds for an outdoor concert. So Pryor shouldn't be that long of a drive. [;)]
Thankfully this time they don't have Leon Russel on the ticket, so we won't have to stand for hours in the heat until he is ready to get on stage for 15 minutes....... anyone else remember that July 4th?
Got a good feel'in about this one.... I think everyone should check it out if they can. [:)]
I plan on going!
This is why it would've been nice if they had actually built the outdoor ampitheater west of downtown and why I think we still need a large outdoor venue.
A large outdoor venue just WEST of Tulsa would make more sense. Closer to OKC that way. Something entirely cool overlooking Keystone or something... think Red Rock. Well, as that venue improves in popularity the need for another one is limited.
Anyway, my wife is all over this for the next 3 days. I hope she doesnt come home with a barbed wire tattoo on her arm...
I've had my fill of large concerts. Especially with hair bands: "Are we load enough for ya'?"
I remember going to the Peter Frampton, Gary Wright concert in the 70s at the fairgrounds race track.
Between beer, heat, humidity and the humility of being a teeneager wiped me out.
I walked home and as I entered the house, my mother said I looked like I was coming home from the war in Vietnam.
I've been told the stores around Pryor are out of aquanet and there is a hole in the ozone developing over East Oklahoma.
It's great this is so successful. We can use all the cool publicity we can get.
I will be interested to see what the head count is.
at least the weather will be nice.
looking @ the lineup. the only band i'd even remotely want to see is twisted sister and that's for one song.
YOU'RE GONNA BURN IN HELL!
AHHHH BURN IN HELLLLLLLL!
quote:
Originally posted by cannon_fodder
A large outdoor venue just WEST of Tulsa would make more sense. Closer to OKC that way. Something entirely cool overlooking Keystone or something... think Red Rock. Well, as that venue improves in popularity the need for another one is limited.
Anyway, my wife is all over this for the next 3 days. I hope she doesnt come home with a barbed wire tattoo on her arm...
I've had my fill of large concerts. Especially with hair bands: "Are we load enough for ya'?"
The one they were supposed to build west of downtown was going to use the red rocks architects. I think this would be great on the side of lookout mountain or turkey mountain.
Yah mon, I'm all primped & ready. Rock on!
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Perhaps if this is going to be an anual event, I may just fly back to T-Town next summer and check it out. I grew up with that stuff!
Thought about it until I read how few of the original members are still in any of the groups. I believe I read only 9 total original members will be there for all the groups.
So, those bands aren't those bands anymore except in name only. The songs will still be great though.
An interesting point, but I'm hard-pressed to think of *any* bands from 20-30 years ago that have their "heyday" members.
Most of the ones that stick together are -- surprise -- the highly successful ones over the long term. The hair bands of the 1980s saw their fortunes take a steep downturn during the 1990s, and none of them really sells many CDs now.
Another attrition factor is drug and alcohol abuse, which was rife, but not exclusively to, the hair bands. Nothing like addiction to thoroughly derail a career.
quote:
Originally posted by Wilbur
Thought about it until I read how few of the original members are still in any of the groups. I believe I read only 9 total original members will be there for all the groups.
I hired the Mamas and the Papas once and I got the Aunts and the Uncles.
Here's some pictures of the stage area.
CLICK HERE------> http://tinyurl.com/2zjdv7
I've got some pictures of the crowd as well but I best not post them here, some of the pics are pretty ......... outrageous, one might say. lol I've got them on my website however if any wants to see them.
I can't say enough good about what they have done out there. I went this morning for a couple of hours and ended up spending 6 hours out there. I'd still be there if the heat hadn't roasted me.
quote:
Originally posted by Porky
Here's some pictures of the stage area.
CLICK HERE------> http://tinyurl.com/2zjdv7
I've got some pictures of the crowd as well but I best not post them here, some of the pics are pretty ......... outrageous, one might say. lol I've got them on my website however if any wants to see them.
I can't say enough good about what they have done out there. I went this morning for a couple of hours and ended up spending 6 hours out there. I'd still be there if the heat hadn't roasted me.
You know, when you say "outrageous" I wasn't expecting the only bare body part to be a middle aged guy's butt.
quote:
Originally posted by sgrizzle
quote:
Originally posted by Porky
Here's some pictures of the stage area.
CLICK HERE------> http://tinyurl.com/2zjdv7
I've got some pictures of the crowd as well but I best not post them here, some of the pics are pretty ......... outrageous, one might say. lol I've got them on my website however if any wants to see them.
I can't say enough good about what they have done out there. I went this morning for a couple of hours and ended up spending 6 hours out there. I'd still be there if the heat hadn't roasted me.
You know, when you say "outrageous" I wasn't expecting the only bare body part to be a middle aged guy's butt.
lol.....I thought the gal in the white panties rated #1. [}:)]
Here's somebodies Blog that is covering it. She said they had 35,000 on Friday and could of been much more:Click Here------> http://tinyurl.com/2y38ue
I wish I could have made it, but I had to settle for renting heavy metal parking lot and watching that instead. I am bummed I missed this, but I am stoked because I am going to witness the triumphant return of the Lips to Tulsa at DFest, not to mention MC Chris(Nerdcore rules! Geeksta in da house).
quote:
Originally posted by Double A
I wish I could have made it, but I had to settle for renting heavy metal parking lot and watching that instead. I am bummed I missed this, but I am stoked because I am going to witness the triumphant return of the Lips to Tulsa at DFest, not to mention MC Chris(Nerdcore rules! Geeksta in da house).
Tulsa is now on the nerdcore map?
I am both impressed and depressed by this.
quote:
Originally posted by Double A
I wish I could have made it, but I had to settle for renting heavy metal parking lot and watching that instead. I am bummed I missed this, but I am stoked because I am going to witness the triumphant return of the Lips to Tulsa at DFest, not to mention MC Chris(Nerdcore rules! Geeksta in da house).
Nerdcore, as in the instant classic "Lazy Sunday," perhaps?
Rocklahoma, Revenge of the Mullets!
quote:
Originally posted by rwarn17588
An interesting point, but I'm hard-pressed to think of *any* bands from 20-30 years ago that have their "heyday" members.
Most of the ones that stick together are -- surprise -- the highly successful ones over the long term. The hair bands of the 1980s saw their fortunes take a steep downturn during the 1990s, and none of them really sells many CDs now.
Another attrition factor is drug and alcohol abuse, which was rife, but not exclusively to, the hair bands. Nothing like addiction to thoroughly derail a career.
Evenso, it was a big cultural influence in my Cosmetology career!
They just reported on the news that attendance estimates for the concert were around 110,000 people. They estimated 15,000 people attended Reggaefest at the Jenks Riverwalk. Nobody went downtown.
There were people downtown.
The car show had decent crowds, the new Jazz Hall of Fame had their first public event, and the Tulsa PAC had five almost sold out shows of "Spamalot".
bickering removed
Promoter Mark Nuessle says..."We can put about 65,000 people in here now," said Nuessle. "We're expecting a big crowd."
Are the numbers that difficult to determine. Don't we typically know the outcome of a local or state election before the 10-oclock news.
Any ariel views of the number of vehicles parked on the festival grounds. That is a good indicator of what type of attendance an event has.
Organizers actually used to announce over the PA system, the attendance at many sporting events back in the day. Never really knew if the numbers were accurate or embellished to make you feel better about spending your hard-earned cash to be a part of that big crowd at the event. "Oh yeah it was packed, shoulda been there." Don't usually hear folks saying there were not many people there, guess I was a fool for going. More like, "we were lucky, we got right up in front, it was awesome dude!"
The announcer would state something like "Tonight's attendance, a new all time record, five thousand six hundred and twenty two."
Of course numbers of tickets sold or people attending can be manipulated as well to boost sponsor interest for the following year, or to boost ticket sales. Savvy record producers back in the day of vinyl used to hire people that would bring in cash to retail record stores and purchase records to drive the numbers up. They would then mail those same records, unopened, back to the distributor warehouse where they were run through the system and the retail stores cash register a number of times. Saved the record producer from having to press more vinyl, while appearing to of sold many more times the actual number of records. Plus they made additional profits off the retial stores when the real buyers made their way in to clean off the shelves when the song went to the top of the charts. Genius form of marketing.
Those reports would hit the charts, and a new hit single was born. Then the radio DJ would announcee "Setting an all time record for one-week sales and going to the top of the charts, here is the new hit single blah by the XYZ group."
I'm just glad I didnt see my wife topless in any of those photos with a healthy wad of beads around her neck. It doesnt sound like something she would do, but throw someone back into 1986 and you never know. [:O]
Estimated attendance 110,000 people over 3 days:
http://www.fox23.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=0ac61096-a3dd-45dc-83c2-65ea90d8dac4
wOw.
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quote:
Originally posted by recyclemichael
There were people downtown.
The car show had decent crowds, the new Jazz Hall of Fame had their first public event, and the Tulsa PAC had five almost sold out shows of "Spamalot".
I wonder how much sales taxes were generated from those events downtown? I guess we'll find out when Tulsa, Jenks, and Pryor publish their sales tax reports for that period. Sorry if I think the citzens should start seeing a return on the investment of all the taxpayer money that has gone downtown. If we are reliant on sales taxes to fund this city, is it in our best interest to continue to throw money at an area that fails to produce enough increased sales taxes to see any real return or even enough increased sales taxes generated to pay back the amount of the investment made? For every penny spent downtown how many pennies from sales tax collections are we getting in return? Are we even getting any return back, just breaking even, or worse? I'm not telling you, I'm asking you. Roscoe always says the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Roscoe also says nobody listens to Roscoe, but I've listened and I've learned to ask questions and question the answers.
bickering removed
So all public investments should generate sales tax or we shouldn't do them?
Double A:
How is a major concert, a car show, a jazz show, and a theater performance going on at the same time in Tulsa a bad thing? Certainly you had to admit that more revenue was generate WITH these events than without them. Together they brought tens of thousands of people to Tulsa and surrounding communities.
Certainly they spent money while here that will support both local business and generate local sales tax. Not to mention a dollar in the economy goes around a few times before leaving.
How, for the love of god, is this a negative development?
Rolling Stone review:
http://www.rollingstone.com/rockdaily/index.php/2007/07/16/rocklahoma-report-four-days-of-80s-hair-metal-mania/
I might have gone for a day if the festival had one band -- Cinderella. That was a pretty great group during its prime.
Too bad Motorhead wasn't there, either.
But, hey, it still was an impressive lineup. It goes to show what a festival can do when it:
1) exploits a long-neglected genre
2) gathers nearly all the bands from that genre into one place.
I betcha there's going to be a Rocklahoma II, and it's going to be even bigger.
I saw Motorhead with Black Sabath and ... this was in 1998. They were horrible. *shudders*
Good all around show though:
Black Sabath
Tool
Megadeth
Limp Bizkit (remember when they were in?)
Soulfly
Sevendust
Coal Chamber
Motorhead
System of a Down
Melvins
Incubus
Snot
Life of Agony
Kilgore
Ultraspank
Monster Voodoo Machine
Deftones
Cherry Popin' Daddies
Rancid
NOFX
Frenzal Rhomb
Slip Knot
Ahh, the days when I used to travel around the country to concerts.
quote:
Originally posted by rwarn17588
I might have gone for a day if the festival had one band -- Cinderella. That was a pretty great group during its prime.
Too bad Motorhead wasn't there, either.
But, hey, it still was an impressive lineup. It goes to show what a festival can do when it:
1) exploits a long-neglected genre
2) gathers nearly all the bands from that genre into one place.
I betcha there's going to be a Rocklahoma II, and it's going to be even bigger.
They're already selling tickets. Talking about the event being even longer.
Have you heard anything about Raplahoma?
quote:
Originally posted by cannon_fodder
Double A:
How is a major concert, a car show, a jazz show, and a theater performance going on at the same time in Tulsa a bad thing? Certainly you had to admit that more revenue was generate WITH these events than without them. Together they brought tens of thousands of people to Tulsa and surrounding communities.
Certainly they spent money while here that will support both local business and generate local sales tax. Not to mention a dollar in the economy goes around a few times before leaving.
How, for the love of god, is this a negative development?
My point is that Jenks and Pryor have become musical meccas and they didn't have to build a 200 million dollar icon and hire SMG at a premium. I think it would have been better to have festivals like this going on in downtown. We used to be known as a festival city, but cronyism, nepotism and the good ole' boy network have pretty much killed that. I guess that what happens when you have powerful downtown interests that want a monolpoly for their bland handpicked festival and view any other festivals downtown as competition.
My stepson is a local musician. We were talking about D-Fest last night, he said most people are expecting in the neighborhood of 20K to 30K people a day for that event. That sounds like numbers close to what they got for Rocklahoma.
I don't recall hearing much about music festivals out at Mohawk anymore, but I have to say, Riverwalk Crossing is more inviting than a muddy field up in NoTul. As well an event like that adds money to the Tulsa County tax base which does benefit people in the Tulsa City limits to an extent.
Some things which have grown aren't thought of as festivals, like St. Patrick's day down in the Blue Dome.
I don't think we are losing events to other areas so much as our events are evolving.
Just read the rolling stone article, and had to laugh at the comments, especially this one:
"I cant believe they actually got all of these incredibly in-demand bands to come together in one place. State fairs across the mid-west were probably hurting for musical acts. rocklahoma sounds like the most shi*tastic idea ever."
I was disappointed that I couldn't go, as 20 years ago, I would have killed to see all these bands, but after finding out that very few original members were going to be attending, I decided to skip...not to mention the fact that I was going to be on vacation.
IN all honesty IP, there were MOSTLY original members but few complete bands.
I suppose that's what I really meant. It's not fair to call Skid Row "Skid Row" without Sebastian Bach...
I think Poison was all original, which would have been a good show.
quote:
Originally posted by recyclemichael
So all public investments should generate sales tax or we shouldn't do them?
If they are done in the unholy name of economic development, then yes. They always sell these things as sales tax generators that will increase sales tax collections. I'd like to see some proof of the progress as promised in that regard before any more of my tax dollars are spent on economic development, especially downtown. Downtown economic development should be earning it's keep in Tulsa by starting to see a return on our investment in the form of increased sales tax collections downtown by now. Has it? I would like to know.
Rocklahoma huge but tame
Sommer Woodward
Staff Reporter
Despite the large crowd at Rocklahoma, the event went off without a hitch for organizers, businesses and law enforcement.
Rob Miller, Director of Marketing and Public Relations, said there was some concern about the type of crowd a rock concert would draw when the event was first announced and he is pleased those concerns were laid to rest.
Miller said there were relatively no problems from fans during the four-day event.
He said Rock Fever brought in over 100,000 people during four days.
The event brought in approximately 30,000 more people than Country Fever this year.
The crowd was the largest ever on Saturday with approximately 35,000 people attending the show, with Friday a close second at 30,000 and Sunday with 28,000.
"It was, really, all about the party," Miller said.
Mayes County Sheriff Frank Cantey said everything went fine over the weekend. Law enforcement arrested 12 people for everything from assault and battery to public intoxication.
"The crowd was basically a pretty well-mannered crowd," said Cantey. "We just had an idiot every now and then."
The event staff found people selling T-shirts with the Rocklahoma logo in the parking lots and confiscated the merchandise. Cantey said the sheriff's office did take possession of the shirts at the request of the event staff, but no one was arrested.
Cantey said overall, the weekend went well.
He said what amazed him was the large number of campers parked on the grounds. He estimated there were 10 times as many campers parked on the grounds as during Country Fever.
With the large number of people at the festival, local businesses saw an increase as well.
Local restaurants saw an increase in sales over the weekend. Employees at Taco Bell and Pizza Hut said business was up during Rocklahoma. A manager at McDonalds said she could definitely see an increase over the weekend, especially overnight business.
Wal-Mart Manager Mike Nichols said the store saw a nine to 10 percent increase in sales in the sporting goods department. He said items like tents and camping chairs sold real well over the weekend.
http://www.pryordailytimes.com/local/local_story_199085203.html