Rumors are spreading throughout the music festival world about the three-day music festival announced by Mayor Lorenzo Langford, which is set to take place in June at Bader Field.
Phish in Atlantic City at Boardwalk Hall over Halloween 2010 weekend.
The three Phish shows over Halloween weekend 2010 at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City were all sold out. The three-day residency for the kings of the "jam band" scene, carrying a torch that the Grateful Dead lit decades ago, was a huge success — not only for the band and its huge and very loyal fan base, but also for Atlantic City.
There could be a link with the success of that Phish residency in Atlantic City — where the band's Trey Anastasio recorded a live album a few years back at the House of Blues at Showboat — and the three-day music festival that is expectd to take place in June 2011 at Bader Field in Atlantic City.
On Friday, Jan. 28, a music blog called livemusicblog.com has a new post quoting Atlantic City Weekly with regard to the three-day music festival Mayor Lorenzo Langford announced recently at the MBCA Winter Luncheon at Resorts, which some in the room believed would be of the "jam-band" variety.
The post, entitled "Festival Rumor Mill: Phish, DMB, Atlantic City, Watkins Glen, and More" also refers to a stream of rumors spreading throughout the popular jam-band Web sites and blogs, regarding several jam bands and festivals that are supposedly in the works for 2011.
Here is an excerpt.
“Over the last week or so, we’ve been hearing a slew of new rumors about potential new festivals in 2011. Some involve Phish, some Dave Matthews Band, some include both bands, while others sound like they’ll be multi-band events in the traditional festival style (e.g. Bonnaroo, Coachella, etc…).
“The two most credible rumors are for multi-day events at: Watkins Glen Motor Speedway, July 4th Weekend and Bader Field, a site near Atlantic City, NJ, some time in June.”
The post also points to other Web sightings regarding these rumors, including a Twitter on Friday from the Dave Matthews Band's (DMB) bass player Stefan Lassard.
"And today, DMB bassist Stefan Lassard chimed in with some serious fuel for the fire with a single Tweet asking: 'DMB & Pearl Jam or DMB & Phish?'"
Now that the DMB has officially announced "about doing their own festivals in 2011," according to livemusicblog.com, the band's itinerary "might match up nicely with the newly-proposed spot outside of A.C."
Bader Field is in Atlantic City, by the way. Just not on the Boardwalk. However, the huge field could be perfect for such a festival, with camping allowed, and this is likely why a certain "big-time festival promoter" came to Mayor Langford with the idea.
AC Weekly reached out to the mayor for a comment earlier today, but he wasn't able to speak about the festival as he said arrangements for it are still in the process of being finalized, but should be put in place soon.
Meanwhile, the aforementioned blog post also refers to a post on the glidemagazine.com blog "Hidden Track." The post alludes to a piece on the Dave Matthews Band site DMBNews.net, that links the DMB to the Atlantic City Festival:
"The summer festival field may become even more crowded this June with a proposed three-day event at Bader Field in Atlantic City. AC mayor Lorenzo Langford spoke about the festival earlier this month at a luncheon and according to an Atlantic City Weekly report, mentioned that a big-time promoter is putting said festival together.
"To be clear, the only confirmed news is that Langford is in negotiations with the promoter. There’s no official word yet on who will take part in the planned event, though DMBNews.net has linked the festival to the Dave Matthews Band – a group that recently announced it will throw a few multi-day, multi-band events in 2011. Bader Field is a long walk from the 'strip,' where fans would most likely stay."
But then again, maybe they'll be able to set up camp at the 140-acre Bader Field, America's first "airport," which opened in 1919 and closed in 2006. Another possibility for the festival, according to those tuned in to DMB news, is that Phish may be on the bills of some of the planned DMB fests.
Which would make Stefan Lassard's aforementioned tweet more sense.
Finally, let's not forget about other big-time festivals in Atlantic City, such as the former annual jazz festival that one year featured Art Blakey — who lived in the Atlantic City region for several years and loved to walk both the Atlantic City and Ocean City boardwalks — and the Atlantic City Pop Festival, which took place just before Woodstock from Aug. 1-3, 1969, at the Atlantic City Race Track in Mays Landing. Although it had a lot of the best artists of the time — CSN&Y, Little Richard, Dr. John, Carlos Santana, Frank Zappa, Joni Mitchell, CCR, B.B. King, and the list goes on and on — it was overshadowed by the cultural phenomenon that Woodstock became later that month.
So far, although nothing has been completely confirmed, this three-day festival planned for June 2011 will certainly not be forgotten.
To camp or not to camp ... the promoter says there is no room for camping at Bader Field. Meanwhile, an authority on such music fests says camping really isn't the norm anymore.
The city has committed to a one-year deal with Starr Hill Presents to put on this festival in June at Bader Field, the city's old municipal airport (and the first one in the world). However, said Mayor Langford, "We've signed a one-year contract with the hope of a long-term relationship." The mayor added that he thinks this is a great use of Bader Field, a large stretch of city-owned land that has been on the market since it closed a few years ago.
Ever since Atlantic City Mayor Lorenzo Langford stated in early January that his office was working on a deal with a "big-time" national promoter to bring a three-day music festival to Atlantic City this June, the Web has been bubbling with rumors about the possibilities. Will Phish return? Could the Dave Matthews Band make its Atlantic City debut? How about Robert Plant and his Band of Joy? Will it be along the lines of an Atlantic City version of Memphis' Bonaroo or Chicago's Lollapalooza, where there are multiple bands, stages and performance areas, and fans camping out? Web sites and blogs such as Hidden Track, Jambands.com and the Dave Matthews fan site, DMBNews.net, have been following the story closely as their users are very interested in any jam-band festival news that is revealed throughout the year, throughout the country. Many fans of certain jam-bands — a moniker that has become popular since the death of Jerry Garcia and the end of the orginal Grateful Dead more than 15 years ago — such as Phish heads, follow the bands across the country and see every show they can get into. This would mean that Bader Field, the intended site of the three-day music festival, could...
As in previous years, the Metropolitan Business & Citizens Association (MBCA) Winter luncheon kickoff event at Resorts in Atlantic City featured a keynote address — an unofficial state of the city address — by Atlantic City Mayor Lorenzo Langford.
Acclaimed jam band Phish has played 10 Halloween shows over the course of its career, which are known in the Phish camp as “Musical Costume” concerts, during its well-chronicled history.
I have no idea if Gov. Christie is a Phish fan. But even if he’s not, it’s time for him to go trolling for some money so that the world knows that Phish, which could have played its Halloween shows anywhere, decided to take Atlantic City’s bait.
When the band Phish first started its rise to fame, its cross-genre blend of styles and its sort of lack of widespread, mainstream appeal eventually earned it the de facto title of America’s premier jam band — a title that for years belonged to the Grateful Dead.
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1. PhishPhu_K said... on Jan 28, 2011 at 08:28PM
“this could be amazing..sweet!”