Published April 25th, 2011

Local media was summoned to the Media Center at the Kansas Speedway today to receive details about the mysterious Kanrocksas. Here is what I found out:

The festival is being promoted by Brandmeyer Fritz Festivals (that's an intentionally BFF reference). Bill Brandmeyer – an entrepreneur and restauranteur who owns both Wild Bill's and & Los Cabos in The Legends – is excited to be putting on festival and is very excited to create this "Coachella-type experience." Chris Fritz is a long-time promoter. Mammoth Entertainment is responsible for bringing in the acts.

The festival is slated to be an annual event with the inaugural weekend being August 5-6, 2011. It will be held at the Kansas Speedway about 15 miles west of downtown Kansas City. All acts will perform in the infield (inside the mile and a half oval track), with camping and parking on the Speedway grounds. Three stages will be set up in the infield – none of them utilising the grandstands although the grandstands will be open. The large stage will be the actual Coachella main stage used weeks ago, a slightly smaller stage will cater to an audience of 30,000, and a still smaller stage will be for electronic acts and DJs. There will be a "Display village," a "critical mass tent" for international DJs, and an expo area and an area for local non-profits to exhibit. Promoters hope to showcase cutting edge technology with a focus on green technology as well.

Although not all acts have been announced (it is estimated that there will be 30 acts total), the festival has so far announced Eminem, Muse, The Black Keys, A Perfect Circle, The Flaming Lips, Kid Cudi, D12, Girl Talk, Primus, Flogging Molly, Jack's Mannequin, Arctic Monkeys, Fitz & The Tantrums, & Tinie Tempah. The whole weekend (including camping and parking) is $179 on sale this weekend, $159 pre-sale tomorrow, or $329 if you're feeling like a VIP. Visit the event website for more information on that. The organisers expect 100,000 patrons for this event, and while no exact number of available tickets was revealed, they do expect the event to sell out.

While there was no official mention of local acts performing, Bill Brandmeyer did indicate there might be some sort of contest at Wild Bill's to allow local bands and DJs into the festival and onto the stages. Obviously I'll report more on that when I have it.

Aside from those details, we heard from Wyandotte County and the Visitors and Tourism Bureau about the beneficial finacial impact of the event, and we heard from the Speedway president Pat Warren who explained that the Speedway is more than capable of handling the expected crowds and logistics.

So that's the official report. Now for my spin:

I don't care a lick about any of the acts. I like Arctic Monkeys (or rather I did when I saw them in a small club 6 years ago) and Girl Talk would be fun, but festivals aren't my thing. The other acts? Oh gosh some I'd prefer not to see (I did see Primus once with Fishbone in 1991 but they were still remotely relevant then so I stand by that choice) and what fun is it to see a band when you're so far away you can't actually see them? The lack of local acts is disappointing, but hardly a shock seeing the festival organisers. Hopefully that last issue will be resolved soon, as there are lots of local bands that have paid their dues, have national recognition, create life-long music fans, and deserve to be on that stage.

All that said, I'm probably not the target audience. Muse bores me and if I hadn't have watched the Grammy's (to see Arcade Fire and Avett Brothers perform) I might not have known Eminem was still making records. Obviously these bands do have fans, and I'm sure the promoters know who the general public (in the 9-state region they expect to draw from) want to see. I look forward to covering the festival, walking the grounds, reporting on the happenings, shooting the bands through the biggest zoom lens I can find, and experiencing the festival, but the musicians on the stage wont be the highlight of the weekend for me.

This is, however, a good move for Kansas City. We should embrace the festival (however flawed we elitists may find the line up) and wish it the best of luck. The more national acts that find their way through Kansas City the better – even if it is A Perfect Circle.

keywords: festival, Kanrocksas