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In recent years, local music fans have enjoyed a surge of summer festivals catering to different tastes. 80/35, Lazerfest, Big Country Bash and Summer Jam have drawn thousands of fans to central Iowa.
But this busy season of festivals is hardly a new phenomenon for Des Moines. In the late 1990s Des Moines radio stations sponsored fests like Dotfest and Mancow's Lazer Luau, each offering a large lineup of bands compressed into a single day and staged on the outskirts of the metro.
The newest festival to spring up in Des Moines is spread across two days and planted squarely in the middle of the downtown business district: the July 3-4 80/35 Music Festival, produced by the nonprofit Greater Des Moines Music Coalition (DMMC).
Last year's inaugural 80/35, headlined by the Flaming Lips and the Roots, drew 30,000 people to Western Gateway Park (About 15,000 paid to see acts on the main stage).
The 15,000 tickets sold last year allowed the festival to break even, and higher prices ($70 for a two-day pass, rather than $50) place the break-even point at 12,000 tickets. So far, sales for this year's festival - with headliners Public Enemy and Ben Harper - are lagging behind last year's pace.
"I think we're in good shape, but people seem to be waiting a little bit," said Amedeo Rossi, the DMMC's project manager. Rossi also said the increase in ticket prices means overall revenue is actually higher at this point than last year.
The DMMC wants 80/35 to become self-sustaining, with the ultimate goal being to turn 80/35 into a summertime tradition in Des Moines, an indie music festival mentioned in the same breath as Pitchfork in Chicago, Rothbury in Michigan and Bonnaroo in Tennessee. Those festivals have flourished in recent years as "indie" music has become more mainstream.
Money from the city, and other grants and sponsorships were pooled to fund the first 80/35. This year, organizers are relying more on grants and sponsorships, and upped the budget for bands by about 25 percent. The overall budget remained about the same.
The Greater Des Moines Community Foundation gave $100,000 to the festival in 2008 and another $50,000 this year. The foundation's chairman, G. David Hurd, said his organization was happy with the first year's results, and he senses a new tradition is being born in downtown Des Moines. "It strikes me as a weekend like the Arts Festival," Hurd said. "It could grow to that size and importance."
One music festival that has remained relevant on the scene is Lazerfest, which caters to the metal and hard rock crowds. The event launched in 1998 as Mancow's Lazer Luau. The festival went on hiatus from 2004 to 2006, but returned in 2007. Last year, there was a pair of Lazerfests, with Kid Rock headlining in May, and Stone Temple Pilots drawing more than 10,000 fans the same weekend as 80/35. This summer's Lazerfest, featuring Korn, attracted a crowd of more than 15,000 in May.
KAZR program director and Lazerfest promoter Ryan Patrick said finding the right headliners can make or break a festival. He points to weak lineups for Lollapalooza (when it was a touring festival) and Ozzfest, which led to the decline of the events. "If you don't have the right lineup it can cause irreparable damage to the brand name of a festival," he said.
The first big music festival in the area was likely Iowa Jam, which attracted bands like The Grateful Dead, The Eagles, Metallica and Mötley Crüe to the Iowa State Fairgrounds from 1973-1989. The fest averaged 28,000 fans, said promoter Steve White, but fizzled out in the '80s, when new amphitheaters started getting built for big acts.
Iowa Jam had a good run, but other fests put on by local radio stations came and went quickly.
Dotfest, produced by alt-rock station "The Dot" 107.5, pulled in more than 15,000 fans in 1997 and 1998. J. Michael McKoy, who promoted the festival the two years and was part-owner of the station, said the goal was to promote the station, not to make money.
"We would reach out to record labels and say, 'Who are your B bands? The up-and-coming who are awesome?'" he said. "We would program the entire station 90 days out and use it as a marketing tool with the artists of Dotfest."
McKoy sold his interest in the station before the 1999 Dotfest, which attracted only 7,000 fans. The station changed formats soon after.
During Lazerfest's hiatus, the Hy-Vee sponsored Waterstock Rock rose to fill the void for rock fans. The festival launched in 2004 with '80s acts Great White, Warrant and others, and hit its peak in 2006 when Poison drew 12,000 fans to Waterworks Park. In 2007, attendance fell after a cancellation by a planned headliner resulted in a weaker lineup topped by Vince Neil of Mötley Crüe. The event hasn't returned.
With 80/35, organizers are looking to festivals like Pitchfork, Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza not only for inspiration, but also for acts. Harper and Public Enemy were both at Bonnaroo earlier this month. The proximity of the July 2-5 Rothbury Festival in Michigan helped bring Man Man, Broken Social Scene, and G. Love & Special Sauce to Des Moines. The acts at the festival, ranging from rap to jam to indie rock, reflect the booking trends of these more established festivals.
Rossi said 80/35 acts being at other festivals is a sign of the quality talent the DMMC's festival is attracting.
"Our organization wants to see the music scene grow," Rossi said. "With venues like the Vaudeville Mews, House of Bricks, People's, Hoyt Sherman Place, the Val Air Ballroom and Wells Fargo Arena, we have a place to put everyone. We want 80/35 to be an announcement to bands passing through to pay attention to us and stop here."
