Opinion: We Need To Party, Dallas!
DALLAS (CBS 11 NEWS) - Spring is around the corner. What to do? What to do?
I know. A festival. A music festival. A big music festival. I'm not talking about some mom & pop street carnival. I'm talking about a massive, four-day blowout.
Now, where to put it? Got it; Fair Park. Yeah, I know, I know. That's where the State Fair is held. But this is different. The State Fair is, for the most part, a kid event. Don't get me wrong. I loves me some State Fair (excuse the grammar). Every year, my wife and I lace up the Chuck Taylors, cruise the fair grounds and deep fry ourselves into a coma. I wouldn't miss it for the world.
The festival I'm envisioning is for the adults. Okay, get your mind out of the gutter. I'm talking about a music fest that rivals New Orleans Jazz Fest, Austin's SXSW and the Coachella Music and Arts Festival. Why are they successful? Because they're sensory-overload extravaganzas; ear and eye candy for the music and art lover.
There's two ways to do this. We can keep the festival "genre-specific." Not sure if that's a word, but stay with me folks. In other words; a jazz fest features jazz music, a blues fest showcases blues and an indie fest features indie and alternative music. You get the picture.
Each one has their time and place, but why not have a festival that caters to all types of musical tastes: rock, blues, jazz, alternative, country, folk, hip-hop, soul, pop and so on and so on. And by the way, I'm not talking about Paul's Polka Posse or Susie's Salsa Serenaders or some other obscure band. Then again, who doesn't like a good polka?
Instead, I say we go big, real big. Let's go for big-name acts. Usher, Pearl Jam, Arcade Fire, Keith Urban, Wynton Marsalis, Lady Gaga and the Black Eyed Peas. Oh, wait. They already played the Superbowl. Meh.
We can throw in a ton of up and coming bands as well, so when they hit it big years down the road, they'll come back again and again.
What else do we need? Stages and lots of them. I say ten. That's a nice round number. Each stage will play host to six or seven bands every day and every night.
Now the big question. How do we pay for this? It's bound to be expensive. Got it. Sponsors. Giant corporate sponsors with big fat checkbooks willing to write big fat checks. For every stage, there's a sponsor; perhaps even two sponsors.
I know what you're saying. "Jay, Jay. You're an idiot. It'll never work." That may be true; the idiot part. But it can work.
How do I know? Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I know there's a million reasons not to step one foot in Milwaukee. But after living there for a brief time in the mid 90s, I can tell you those folks know how to throw a festival.
Keep in mind, they freeze their tails off for nearly eight months. So when spring finally springs into summer, it's party time in the Beer City. Their festivals are so popular, that the city built fairgrounds along Lake Michigan just to hold the large crowds drawn to them nearly every weekend in the summer. And when I say large crowds, I'm talking 100,000 people.
The crown jewel comes in the middle of the summer, aptly named, Summer Fest. Not a terribly original name, but let me tell you, Summer Fest runs 11 straight days and nights and when it's over, they get nearly a million people to walk through the gates. 11 days, 11 stages and the musical acts are unreal. Don't believe me? Check it out for yourself.
If Milwaukee can do it, surely we can pull it off. Look at all of our Fortune 500 companies. How about the State Fair? And correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't we just land the Superbowl? Wait a minute. Scratch that last one. The point is, North Texas needs to let loose and what better time than in the spring time.
I realize it's too late for this spring, so let's shoot for next year. If not then, the year after that. Whatever it takes, Big D needs to think Big. So come on Dallas. Let's polka!
The opinions expressed here are solely those of Jay Gormley.
