Lush
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RE: Midpoint Music Festival
(09-27-2009 03:08 PM)oleskl Wrote: Not a good sign for the MPMF:
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090.../309260054
Quote:Cadillac Ranch pulls MPMF acts
By Emily Wendler and Harrison Kreimer • Enquirer contributors • September 26, 2009
DOWNTOWN -- Cadillac Ranch pulled its Saturday night lineup of MidPoint Music Festival acts, replacing them with a DJ around 9 p.m.
The bar, at 38 Fountain Square Plaza, made the decision citing a lack of profit.
Matt Arnott, regional manager for Cadillac Ranch Group, said the decision was made after the bar experienced a 71 percent drop in sales as the first band played.
“There were probably 150 to 170 people in the bar,” he said, “and by the third song there were only 25 people.”
A Cadillac Ranch bartender agreed:
“It was horrible,” said Brian Krekeler. “It would have been fine for a different establishment, like a Sunday morning coffeehouse-type band.
“I lost half my clientele at my bar,'' he added. "I’ve never heard anything clear out a bar so fast.”
This year's festival hosted nearly 277 bands playing in 20 venues between downtown Cincinnati and Over-the-Rhine. Dan McCabe, the executive producer of the three-day fest, called this year's festival a success late Friday.
“Every venue is spilling,” McCabe was quoted as saying. “It’s just a huge success.”
He declined to discuss Cadillac Ranch's decision late Saturday, the final night of the festival.
Gordy Fitzwater, Cadillac Ranch general manager, said the venue had no control over the bands selected to play there.
“They sent me the lineup,” he said. “You’d think somebody would go through them and go, ‘well, this probably wouldn’t be a very good fit for Cadillac Ranch.’”
The band, Mean Tambourines, from Nashville, Tenn., were scheduled to play Cadillac Ranch at 11 p.m. But when their show was canceled, their show was moved to the Mainstay Rock Bar, 301 W. 5th St., in Downtown.
Ryan Truso, the band's lead singer and a guitarist, said he was worried that some of the band's fans would be confused by a change in venue. So, he called 20 to 30 people to alert them to the new location. Despite the inconvenience, he said he was pleased with the new location.
"The type of crowd that came out to the Cadillac Ranch probably would not have liked the Mean Tambourines,'' Truso said. "We didn't have to compete with football and a mechanical bull."
Benita Woodall, stage manager at Mainstay Rock Bar, said the bar had two cancellations for MidPoint bands Saturday.
"Well, to be quite honest ... adding the Mean Tambourines worked out for us,'' Woodall said.
Patrons at Cadillac Ranch were surprised and disappointed by the bar's decision.
"I don't appreciate a bar if they were supposed to let a band play and they kicked them out," said Dina Shields, who was at Cadillac Ranch when the show was halted.
Elizabeth Tigges said The Lighthouse and The Whaler, which completed its set before the show was halted, "were very good actually."
"Some of the songs were a little slow,'' she said of the Cleveland-based band. "Some of the songs were great."
Christian Knausa said he felt bad for the band In Cadeo, which was to play next, "because they had to drive 13 hours to get here,'' he said. The band is based in New York City.
Fitzwater said the decision to cancel the acts was not taken well by Midpoint Music Festival's McCabe.
“I was going to approach him, try to talk to him, went to put my hand on his shoulder. He looked at me and said, ‘don’t you touch me. I’m getting them out of here.’”
“He didn’t want to hear our justification about why we were doing it,” said Arnott.
While he declined to comment about the situation, he noted that the incident did not dampen his enthusiasm for the festival.
“This was a very, very successful MidPoint Music Festival this year,” McCabe said. “It’s a reverberation we will ride to 2010.”
Elise Manahan, Lauren Justice and Kevin Doyle contributed to this report.
It's not really a bad sign for MPMF. It's just a horrible venue for it. I wanted to check out Lighthouse and the Whaler, but my buddies didn't want to go to Cadillac Ranch. We were there on Friday night briefly, to check out My My My, but they were running behind and we didn't want to be there. Oh, and they place was pretty packed and that was at about 10 o'clock.
(This post was last modified: 09-29-2009 10:32 PM by Lush.)
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