For the most part, concert promoters operate behind the scenes. Fans don’t care who promotes the show. They care about the people on stage.
But sometimes the stars care about the promoter. While talking about his band’s headlining appearance at this weekend’s Mile High Music Festival, Fray frontman Isaac Slade kept dropping names like “AEG” and “Anschutz.”
“We believe in AEG and what they’re doing with the festival,” Slade said, talking about the festival’s promoter, AEG Live, owned by Denver businessman Philip Anschutz.
That’s a ringing artist endorsement for AEG Live and the Mile High-producing Rocky Mountain division, fronted by longtime promoter Chuck Morris.
The Denver Post spoke with Morris about the state of the festival economy.
Q: AEG handles some of the nation’s largest festivals. How are they faring compared with last summer?
A: Our company has done four festivals so far (this summer), and in their last week of sales, they’ve done three times as much business as last year. People are buying late. Coachella had the biggest door they’d ever had, and Palm Springs isn’t 4 miles away from L.A. or San Francisco.
Q: So you’re feeling good about the Mile High numbers?A: We feel very strongly that we’re going to be fine.
Q: You guys produce the Rothbury Festival in Michigan out of your Denver office. How did that do this summer?A: I saw a huge increase. We don’t like to give numbers out, but it was dramatic — we were up a good 20-25 percent in ticket sales this year. We’re definitely going to move ahead with it next year.
Q:And yet after two years of losing money with the Monolith Festival, you ended that partnership. A: We have to really choose what we’re going to do. Those guys do a really good job, but the people didn’t come out in enough numbers for us to make it work. But we wish them the best, and are helping them with production this year. Ricardo Baca
