Bonnaroo buying its site

Most festival promoters don't try to own the venues they use, but Bonnaroo plans to.

Billboard, 1/4/07 - Bonnaroo Organizers Purchasing Festival Site: "Superfly Productions and A.C. Entertainment, producers of the annual Bonnaroo Music Festival, are finalizing the purchase of the bulk of the festival site land near Manchester in Coffee County, Tenn.

"The festival will end up owning about 530 acres alongside Interstate 24 purchased from landowner Sam McAlister. Bonnaroo has long-term leases with owners of 300 additional acres at the site. ...

"'We always felt the land would be a good long term investment for us,' [Superfly president Jonathan] Mayers says. 'It's a big investment for us, but we believe in the long term of the festival and other events we can create on the property, and the fact that we're going to be able to put permanent infrastructure there. We're really excited about that.' ...

"'A lot of the infrastructure that we've brought in temporarily, whether it's power, water throughout the facility, permanent bathrooms, roads, even some of the actual staging, we're definitely planning to put in permanently,' he says. 'We're going to plan it very carefully to give us the flexibility to host several events out there. We want to make it one of the premier venues in the world.'

"Mayers says the rural Bonnaroo site would work for a wide range of events, large and small, 'whether it's a country event or a Christian music festival, or just a stand-alone concert out there, with us producing it, someone else, or us partnering with someone. We're totally open-minded.'

"Bonnaroo is the top-grossing event of its kind in the world, capturing the Top Festival award at the Billboard Touring Awards for three consecutive years. Last year's event grossed $14.7 million ..."

music festival
live music
Bonnaroo