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Old 05-12-2017, 07:42 AM
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Desert Trip 2017 won't happen, promoter says

There won't be a Desert Trip festival in 2017, the festival's promoter told Billboard.

Goldenvoice President and CEO Paul Tollett was quoted in the music trade publication as saying, “We're not doing Desert Trip this year. We loved 2016 Desert Trip -- that was a special moment in time. Maybe someday in the future we'll do something similar."

Tollett didn’t immediately return telephone, text and e-mail inquiries from The Desert Sun. His chief operating officer, Skip Paige, posted a sad face on the Desert Trip Facebook page with the comment, "Awwwww."

Tollett's promotion partner for the Stagecoach country music festival, Louie Messina Sr., added in a comment to Paige's post, "Paul T is the smartest person in the business... unless it right he's not doing anything... not just for $$$."

Desert Trip last year was the highest grossing concert of 2016, yielding a record $160 million over two weekends for a bill headlined by the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney and Roger Waters. The three-day lineup, presented twice in October, also featured Bob Dylan, Neil Young and The Who.

Desert Trip also beat out the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival to rank as the number one major music festival of the year by the industry watchdog, Pollstar. Coachella also was founded by Tollett, who retained a managing ownership of Coachella, Desert Trip and the Stagecoach country music festival even though Goldenvoice operated under the auspices of the Los Angeles-based AEG Live.

Tollett last year called it “a miracle” that all of those artists were available to play at the Empire Polo Club in Indio during a period before the polo season began and after the peak of the summer heat.

In an interview about Coachella in late March, Tollett said he did not want to talk about any other festivals.

The city of Indio had long sought a major fall festival at the Empire Polo Club to generate more revenue for city coffers. The economist Michael Bracken of the Development Management Group said in March of last year that the two weekends of Coachella, followed by the three-day Stagecoach festival, was responsible for at least $106 million in business in Indio. It generated more than $403 million throughout the Coachella Valley and $704 million for the global economy.

The city of Indio received $3.18 million in ticket taxes just from those two festivals, representing about 5 percent of its total general fund.

Indio Mayor Glenn Miller was unavailable for comment, but Mayor Pro Tem Mike Wilson said the city council did not have advance notice that the music event was not going to happen. He didn't cite any official sources as informing him either way.

"I was told probably three weeks ago there was a 60 percent chance of it happening," Wilson said. "Then, about a week ago I was having a conversation with somebody and they said it's probably better than that. So, that's the last information I had, that it was better than 50-50 that it was going to happen."

He said the city had hoped for a follow-up festival, but hadn't planned on more Desert Trip revenue.

"Obviously, it would be a disappointment to us," he said. "We had wanted Goldenvoice to host the fall festival and make it an annual event. It means an additional million dollars-plus for city revenues. Obviously not knowing if it was going to happen again or not, we haven't planned on any of those revenues in the city budget, but it's nice when we do have it. We put all of it into roads and road repairs last year. So it helped tremendously."

Classic rock stars, including members of Led Zeppelin, Mick Fleetwood of Fleetwood Mac and Yusuf “Cat Stevens” Islam were reportedly seen at last year’s Desert Trip, leading to speculation that they might be invited to perform at a follow-up Desert Trip in 2017.

Fleetwood, however, was instrumental in launching a new bi-coastal summer festival called The Classic East and The Classic West festivals. The Classic West takes place July 15-16 at Dodger Stadium featuring The Eagles in their first public performance since the death of Glenn Frey, Steely Dan and the Doobie Brothers on the first night. Fleetwood Mac, Journey and Earth, Wind & Fire will play the second night. The same lineup will appear at The Classic East festival July 29 and 30 at Citi Field in New York.

Fleetwood was quoted as saying he was in the stands at Desert Trip and “It was emotionally charged.” Most of the acts in the two classic festivals are represented by Irving Azoff, who has a home at the Madison Club in Indio, not far from Tollett’s.

One of the biggest differences between The Classic festivals and Desert Trip is the vibe of the music venue. Tollett has always credited Empire Polo Club owner Alex Haagan III's care of the polo field landscaping for creating a vibe for Tollett and his art curator, Paul Clemente, to enhance.

But the music industry also has been abuzz about the disastrous Fyre Festival in the Bahamas, which was marketed on Instagram as "the next Coachella." It was planned for late April and early May as a high end music event with celebrity chef catering, luxury cabanas and ticket prices over $1,000. But the luxury accoutrements didn't materialize, bands and employees didn't get paid and the promoters have been hit with numerous law suits. It created a taint on the festival market and one of the benefits Indio felt from its three Goldenvoice festivals was the positive media impressions.

"Last year's (Desert Trip) was an incredible event," said Wilson. "It certainly exceeded my expectations. I don't think I talked to anybody that was there that didn't think they hit it out of the ballpark."

This story will be updated. Check back for more details.


http://www.desertsun.com/story/life/...ing/319080001/
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