I hadn’t made it to the first 2 rounds of Rothbury Music Festival in western Michigan, but I heard many great things about this new fest. Not only was it another multi-day music event for Mid-westerners to choose from, but it brought tourists to a beautiful part of my home state. In a statement from fest organizers, AEG Live, Rothbury 2010 was cancelled because they were “not able to move forward with the integrity and high standards that we demand.”
Jen of one of my favorite blogs, Talkin’ Bout My Jeneration, was naturally bummed about the absence of Rothbury this summer:
I think it’s a huge bummer for Midwesterns that don’t want to add two days to their festival travel to get down to TN for bonnaroo or CA for Coachella. i also think rothbury was a breathe of fresh air for jam festivals. Jam festivals like 10,000 lakes and summer camp pull in the same lineup every year (umphreys mcgee, moe). rothbury had some variety, like thievery corporation and michael franti.
I heard that they canceled because they couldn’t put together a cutting-edge enough lineup to compete with other festivals. i guess its good to not just saturate the festival circuit if you don’t have anything different to offer…i worry more that bands aren’t doing as many festivals this summer and if they have to say no to one they’re going to say no to the youngest one….should be interesting as line-ups roll out. so far i think coachella is a clusterfuck of whoever needs the publicity the most (at least the headliners….)
Be sure to check out Jen’s 2008 adventure at the inaugural Rothbury here.
The AEG Live statement further reads, “Despite the 2010 postponement, we intend to move toward continuing Rothbury in 2011.” Lets hope so.
See below for a great video from friend Adam Bradway’s experience at Rothbury 2008. His own track “Wetware” provides the epic backing at what looks like a surreal event. Look for a post featuring Adam’s music soon, until then check out his other music here.
Click here to view the embedded video.
UPDATE: 10,000 Lakes festival is also on “hiatus” for this summer. Is this a case of festival saturation?
