Running big festivals in Austin and Chicago

This is a really good article on the team that created the Austin City Limits Festival in Austin and what has and has not worked for them in creating a big festival in Chicago (including the difficulties coming in as outsiders, and underestimating "the amount of time, money and bureaucratic wrangling it would take to secure city approval.")

7/30/2006 Chicago Sun Times: Charlies in charge at Lollapalooza "Although many Chicagoans think of Austin as a Mecca for live music, thanks to the annual South by Southwest Music Conference, for much of the rest of the year, the city is a backwater that attracts a mere fraction of the touring acts that play Chicago. ...

"In 2002, hoping to create an event similar to New Orleans' Jazz and Heritage Festival, [Capital Sports & Entertainment co-owner Charlie] Jones approached the long-running PBS concert showcase 'Austin City Limits' to lend its name to a massive concert in Austin's Zilker Park. He tapped [Charles] Attal to book the talent, which was a tall order, since the first ACL Fest was thrown together in two months. ...

"From the beginning of the ACL Fest, they weren't unduly concerned with booking the kind of rootsy artists regularly seen on 'Austin City Limits'; they just thought it would help to add the TV show's name to their festival, and they simply booked as many popular big-name acts as they could. They now are bringing that same approach to the TV show itself.

"In 2003, the show's home base of KLRU-TV struck a five-year deal with Capital Sports to co-produce and fund the broadcast. ...

"Capital Sports has floated nebulous plans to further expand into broadcast with a reality TV show, as well as issuing CDs and making movies. (Stapleton is producing an Armstrong biopic.) It is involved in artist management -- clients include Ben Kweller, Jack Ingram and Blues Traveler -- and it's building the sports agency beyond Armstrong: It now represents 10 NFL stars, including Delanie Walker, Brian Carter and Willie Andrews."