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The Music Community Weighs In
fter 14 years, Athfest has established itself as a more
than respectable Southern summer musk and arts festival.
The event continues to expand its scope, attract larger
crowds and book bigger acts. Given this obvious ascending
trajectory—and because it's a celebration of the best our city's
art community has to offer—the average person on the street
has to wonder, "Is AthFest ready for R.E.M. and/or Widespread
Pank to headliner Flagpole posed the question to a few folks
around town. To hear from our mayor, go to www.fTagpole.com.
Bqi'LeY
Executive Director. Athfest and Candidate for ACC District 5
Commissioner
"Oh, I think we've been ready for years. And we have asked,
but it just hasn't worked out. There is some concern, of course,
that there would be too many people
in the street, but when we've asked
the management of both bands usu
ally both those bands are busy in the
summer. Usually R.E.M. is recording or
doing stuff in Europe, and Widespread
Panic tours non-stop, so it just hasn't
worked out as far as the timing goes.
We do have another problem if we
ever did do that, in that the police
department of Athens is still reeling
from when we did the free Widespread
Panic show in 1998—and I actually
worked on that—and every time I
see the police chief he gives me a
hard time about it. It was bigger than
they expected and it took up a lot of
resources, and they're just very fearful
that there would be something that
big again. I mean, there weren't any
major problems, it came off pretty
well... The police department is very
wary about large outdoor events."
Professor, UGA Law School and Manager, R.E.M.
'Anything is possible if the stars align just right—pulling
off a major outdoor event takes many factors coming together,
and there are obvious logistical security and related concerns.
Then you get around to issues like scheduling and availability
and so forth, not to mention economics. So, while anything is
possible, these are formidable challenges for any presenter to
pull off. The simple answer is really... it depends.'
TK°rnu6R«r
Booking Chair, Alhfest and Owner, Nomad Artists
"We've always tried to grow AthFest at a slow rate, because
we never wanted to jump in from being this localized festival
celebrating art and the local scene to, like, a huge—what was
the big festival in Atlanta?—Musk Midtown, with big national
acts, tons of stages and corporate sponsors and all that stuff.
So, this year we've actually expanded it The past 13 years
we've had a main stage and a smaller stage; this year we're
going to two main stages, two equal-sized stages—one at
Lumpkin facing down Washington and one at Pulaski, where
the main stage used to be, facing up. So, we're constantly
looking at expanding the festival, not only [from a] booking
[aspect but also] the footprint of it throughout the city, and I
think eventually we can get to something...
Now, talking specifically about R.E.M. and Widespread
Pank, I doubt something like that would ever happen because
I don't think we have the facilities. I don't think Athens has
a big enough facility to host a show like that and if we did it
outdoors there would be no way we could have a free show. It
would be turned into a gated, paid ticket* we'd have to have
a paid ticket So, are we ready? No, I don't think in my eyes
we re ready to make that jump [chuckles]. Now eventually,
yeah, I see something like that happening, but we'd have to
figure out how to make it happen economically. As far as the
production side of things—because that's way beyond the level
we're at right now... the bands would have to make more of
a concession than AthFest would because of the sizes of the
places they're used to playing...'
poMjNS° >uNhfT offTIZ
Percussionist. Widespread Pamc
"Awesome question! Right now at this particular time
and date I would say, no. You ask me—you ask us—maybe a
couple years from now I think it possibly could happen. Right
now, you know our aspects, and I don't mean to say this in a
negative way, but for both bands to perform on the same stage
with each other, you know it [would
be] such a phenomenon that I think
there isn't a venue right now that
could hold the magnitude of people
that would come to the show...
Here's my vision, and it's a vision
that's well deserved, in Athens: You
know how Austin has SXSW? I think
AthFest could, and has the potential
to be, the next SXSE because of all
of the great talent that comes with
AthFest—a lot of bands, a lot of
entertainment and, plus, you also
have all the arts and crafts, and it's
great for the community...
I've always pushed for an R.E.M.-
Widespread Pank show close to
Athens or in Athens, but every time
it's brought up the question is, 'Where
would you play?' And if you try to do
something free, who's going to pkk
up the tab for all that expense—for .
the security, police, for the trash
pkk-up and everything else that was
involved when we did Pank in the Streets...?"
JtTF MONTGOMERY
ACC Public Information Officer and Co-owner Athensmusic net
"Well [10-second pause], I don't know that AthFest is ready
now for that but that doesn't mean that AthFest couldn't be
ready for that should it possibly occur. I don't know that it
ever will I don't know that it ever makes—I don't know if say
ing, 1 don't know if it makes sense' is the right thing, or not—
but you know AthFest from the beginning was really designed
to showcase up-and-coming bands and give an opportunity to
a lot of folks to see these bands, who may not otherwise...
It's one of those things where, you know, if they ever
wanted to play I'm sure we would find a way to make it hap
pen. But there are a lot of logistical issues that go into it. I
mean the Widespread Pank thing [Pank in the Streets] was—
were you here when that went on?—well, logistkaUy that was
a big thing, and that was the only thing going on, was the
Pank show that day. And Athfest is. more than one band play
ing, so the coordination for four days worth of festival plus a
band like that is a lot of effort So, it would be a challenge...
Now, would it be a lot of fun if, not even from a standpoint
of them headlining, but if they did a secret show at Athfest?
That would be fun. That would be manageable, especially if
you were able to keep things relatively quiet.. It would be fun
if at some point The B-52s played—it wouldn't necessarily be
as gigantic of a crowd to deal with, but would be a great fun
atmosphere. I think Athfest year-to-year, goes by what makes
sense to do, and the first year we started we had six weeks to
prepare, and it took place on a block. We've sort of figured it
out over the years and made it work, whatever happens..."
■ Ontt Eduardo
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