Originally posted by PigIron:
Is this one that great? Nice lineup here, but I don't know how much better one festival is from the other because I don't go to all of them. Actually, a lot of them start to look the same and it comes down to nitpicking over bands you like, driving distance, expenses, and the accommodations provided. In any case, its nice to have a crapload of music festivals in the US these days. The choices just weren't there a few years ago and it seems like we are catching up to Europe a little bit.
There's a few things about this festival that make it IMO more appealing than say Vegoose which will likely be the same weekend (and share some acts with VMF) in Las Vegas. NEWS & PROPAGANDA AT THE JUMP
1) It's New Orleans, so post festival activities are o-plenty.
2) It's New Orleans, they need our tourist dollars.
3) Did I say it's New Orleans? Pre-katrina this was an awesome Halloween weekend of debauchery, and for my tastes more palatable than the general debauchery, or the Mardis Gras debauchery.
4) The line-up is good, but diverse in the way I like diverse... jazz vs. country/blue grass (ie. not like ACL diverse).
5) I guess I'm partial to good festivals in urban settings, there aren't that many that don't collapse into the street fair/all family type of affairs...Bumbershoot, that thing in Milwaukee or Detroit, etc.
So it's not the best festival in the world, but it's pretty much the last gasp of the year for outdoor shingdings so it's more of blowout before the sickening holidays, and shitty weather. It's the weekend after Iceland Airwaves and the contrast in temperatures is enough for me so I can thaw out.
Logistic wise this one is pretty good as well, there are a ton of non-stop flights from this area and are relatively inexpensive (South West from BWI nonstop was less than $200 R/T when I booked in April). No need for a car, you can shuttle to downtown/french quarter and then there are shuttles to/from the festival.
I guess the biggest draw is if anyone needs the support that tourist dollars can provide it's those poor bastards.
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The ninth annual Voodoo Music Experience will feature reunion performances by rock bands Rage Against the Machine and the Smashing Pumpkins and the only U.S. festival appearance by Sinéad O??Connor.
Other announced acts today for the Halloween-weekend festival, running Oct. 26-28 at City Park in New Orleans, include Dr. John, Wilco, Kings of Leon, Common and Ben Harper.
??A lot of it is about when things are hitting,? Voodoo Music Experience producer-founder Stephen Rehage said Thursday of this year??s line-up.
??Rage Against the Machine is the voice of a generation,? Rehage, a 1987 graduate of LSU, added. ??Their message and energy are appropriate for what we??re doing in New Orleans. Smashing Pumpkins is one of the greatest bands of all times. Rage Against the Machine, Smashing Pumpkins and Sinéad O??Connor, they??ve all got their place in the history of rock ??n?? roll.?
Last year??s festival drew 93,000 patrons, close to the record 110,000 attendance the year before Katrina. Sixty-eight percent of the 2006 attendees were from out of state.
This year??s Voodoo Music Experience expands to a three-day event. Rehage, a New Orleans native who has operated his company, Rehage Entertainment Inc., from New York City since Hurricane Katrina, compared the added day to a Hail Mary football play.
??It??s a signal that we??re not gonna back down,? he said. ??We didn??t back down after the storm and this year we??re gonna take another step forward. The New Orleans and Louisiana music scene needs to be kept alive.?
The 2007 festival features three performances areas: Le Ritual presents the rock headliners; Le Flambeau features New Orleans and Louisiana acts such as the Hot 8 Brass Band, Henry Butler and the Preservation Hall Jazz Band; Le Carnival features innovative New Orleans acts associated with Frenchmen Street scene and Bywater neighborhood.
The Voodoo Music Experience began in 1999 on a cold and rainy Halloween weekend. Attendance was a mere 8,000.
??It was horrible,? Rehage admitted. ??Made every mistake known to man. I had no idea about the intricacy of the music industry, how competitive the promoters were. We learned some rough lessons that year.?
The 2000 Voodoo festival caught a break by catching a rising star who??d dropped out of the 1999 festival at the last minute.
??We booked Eminem in January, and by October he was the biggest rock star in the world,? Rehage said.
Despite plans to stage the 2005 Voodoo Music Experience in Memphis, a city that offered a site at no cost, the festival returned to New Orleans 60 days after Katrina as a one-day event. A call from Mayor Ray Nagin to Rehage in Memphis and the support of rock star and former New Orleans resident Trent Reznor encouraged the producer to bring Voodoo back to New Orleans.
??Trent Reznor,? Rehage said, ??was the one who said, ??I??m going. I??m bringing my sleeping bag and everybody I can get to come with me. Just have a stage and a P.A. I don??t care what size it is. We??re going to New Orleans and we??re playing.??
??That changed the whole pulse of it,? Rehage said. ??I got on the phone and talked everybody into playing for free. We didn??t put a fence up and didn??t charge for tickets. It was the most-beautiful thing you??d ever seen, not a cloud in the sky. Thirty-thousand people in a city where all they??d done for the past month was clear sheetrock out of their houses. It gave them a 12-hour break from the insanity that happened here.?
