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Rock tours still thriving
from: music.monstersandcritics.com
by Ray Waddell
While successful festivals like Coachella and Bonnaroo diversify their lineups to maintain relevance, the two longest-running touring fests - Ozzfest and Vans Warped tour - have survived and thrived by keeping their focus narrow.
Ozzfest and Warped are in their 11th and 12th editions, respectively, and while some of the names have changed in their recently announced lineups, the musical styles remain largely the same. For Ozzfest, that is the hardest of rock; for Warped, it is variations of punk.
'You stay within your niche, but you have to explore and understand how a marketplace changes,' Warped founder Kevin Lyman explains. 'I have to pay attention now to all the little subgenres of punk rock, like emo, screamo, post-hardcore and ska. You have to make sure you have everything covered.'
Jane Holman, touring VP for Ozzfest producer Live Nation, adds, 'Any marketing person will tell you the first thing you need to do is understand who you`re selling to. At Ozzfest, we`ve been very careful with that, and we know exactly who we`re selling to and what they want.'
For Ozzfest, that means hard and current. 'We actually send out a questionnaire to the ozzfest.com database, and we ask them who they want to see,' Holman says. 'We definitely take that into consideration.'
The main stage lineup for Ozzfest 2006 will boast founder/namesake Ozzy Osbourne, along with System of a Down, Disturbed, Hatebreed and Lacuna Coil. The second stage features Black Label Society, Atreyu and others.
Holman says it is hard to satisfy everyone. 'We always get people saying,`Why don`t you have Goatwhore?` ' she says. 'You know what? If Goatwhore ever gets 20,000-40,000 votes on ozzfest.com, you`d see `em on the next Ozzfest.'
Ozzfest 2006, booked by MVO, will begin July 1 in San Francisco and will play 20 cities. Since it debuted in 1996, Ozzfest has grossed $186.2 million and drawn 4.7 million headbangers to 287 shows, according to Billboard Boxscore.
While its numbers are not in the Ozzfest stratosphere because of its value-priced ticket, on many levels the Vans Warped tour, which will start June 15 in Columbia, Md., is a much more massive undertaking than Ozzfest.
Between the 150 acts that will play main and secondary stages, as well as a battle of the bands, some 600 acts will play Warped during the summer. That is a testament to the depth of the scene and Warped`s commitment to showcasing it.
Among the 64 acts confirmed to date are AFI, Against Me, Anti Flag, Bouncing Souls, Buzzcocks, Every Time I Die, Helmet, JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS, Less Than Jake, Motion City Soundtrack, NOFX, Rise Against, Saves the Day and Senses Fail.
Juggling schedules on Warped is 'definitely labor-intensive and very confusing for someone such as myself who is borderline senile as it is, trying to keep track of all the grids and graphs of who`s on what stages, where, doing that schedule each morning,' Lyman admits.
Warped will play 49 dates this year, the most ever for the tour. 'It`s hard to stop this machine when it`s going down the road,' Lyman says. 'There will be over 800 people on the road with Warped this summer.'
Last year Warped sold more than 702,000 tickets and grossed $17.5 million from a $25 ticket. According to Billboard Boxscore, since 1997 Warped has grossed $65.5 million and sold 2.7 million tickets to 230 shows. 'Not bad for punk rock,' Lyman says.
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