Texas-based C3 Presents is enjoying a run of success in Chicago. But it found the going tougher when it tried to expand its festival empire to the East Coast.

Late last year, C3 announced they were going to stage a three-day music festival on a 550-acre farm in Vineland, N.J., on Aug. 8-10. A few months later, the festival was postponed till 2009. Now, C3 co-owner Charlie Jones says, Vineland is "dead."

"That particular part of the country got too popular too fast; there are too many festivals in close proximity," he says, citing the emergence of the All Points West festival in northern New Jersey, which will be headlined Aug. 8-10 by Radiohead and Jack Johnson. All Points West is being staged by Goldenvoice, which also promotes the Coachella festival in California. [Chicago Tribune] (via)

(Austin, TX – January 25, 2008) The inaugural Vineland Festival originally scheduled for August 8, 9, and 10 in Vineland, NJ has been moved to early summer 2009. Due to the overall festival traffic in the northeast and big bands touring through this area at the same time, co-producers Festival Republic and C3 Presents have decided to step back and launch Vineland in 2009.

Festival Republic head Melvin Benn and the partners at C3 Presents are spending more time in the city of Vineland, working with the community to address all neighborhood concerns and launch the event in 2009. The co-producers did not want to force music fans to choose between three events on the same weekend. While disappointed with the delay, they believe the overall health of the festival business and the music industry takes precedent over any of their singular objectives.

Both the city of Vineland and the co-producers are committed to working diligently to bring a world class music event to Vineland, one that enhances the community and is a success for years to come.

aka "Coachella East", Aug. 8-10, 2008

In April 2007, Ken Tesler attended the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival in Indio, Calif., and met that event's producer, Paul Tollett, for the first time.

The conversation turned to Liberty State Park in Jersey City, where Tesler's Liberty Event Management company had produced boat shows, the 2006 Cheap Trick-headlined LibertyJAM concert and other events. He said that, historically, immigrants who came to Ellis Island would go to the Central Railroad of New Jersey terminal, which is still on the park's grounds, then board trains for "all points west."

"Paul looked at me and was like, 'What a perfect name for a festival,'" he said.

Tesler, who had been thinking for years about producing a major multi-day rock festival at Liberty State Park, and Tollett, who has had a similar dream of bringing a Coachella-style extravaganza to the East Coast, are now partners. On Aug. 8-10, they, working in conjunction with the New York nightclub the HighLine Ballroom, will mount the first All Points West Music & Arts Festival at Liberty State Park.

Dozens of pop and rock acts will perform on three or four stages, though the co-producers are not ready to announce the lineup. They anticipate crowds of 25,000-30,000 per day.....

.....Tesler said he and his partners had selected Aug. 8-10 as the weekend for All Points West before they knew about Vineland, and that they don't view that festival as competition, even though it's just a few hours away.

"I really think it's two separate markets," he said. "Technically it's in New Jersey, but that's really a Philly market." [NJ.com]

Radiohead @ Liberty State Park & Twin Towers, August 2001 (CRED)

In the latest shift in the competition for music fans this summer, the concert promoters behind the popular Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California will stage a three-day event in Liberty State Park, according to people briefed on the plans. The new festival, tentatively scheduled for Aug. 8 through Aug. 10, is to be presented by the promoter AEG and its Goldenvoice subsidiary. A competing event, the Vineland Music Festival, held by C3 Presents and Festival Republic, a unit of the concert giant Live Nation, is scheduled from Aug. 8 to Aug. 10 in Vineland, N.J. The band Radiohead and the singer-songwriter Jack Johnson have been mentioned as headliners at the Liberty State Park event, though a lineup has not been announced. Representatives for AEG declined to comment. [NY Times]

Radiohead (also) played Liberty State Park in 2001.

Continue reading "Radiohead & Jack Johnson to headline "Coachella East" in Liberty State Park, Jersey City, NJ?"

I'm using a question mark in the title of this post, but I'm actually sort of positive that the festival Perez Hilton posted about is being planned for NJ...

Sources reveal exclusively to PerezHilton.com that the Coachella Music Festival is heading east this year!

"In addition having the festival outside of Palm Springs, like they do every year, this year they're mounting an east coast version of Coachella in New York or possibly New Jersey," an insider tells us.

The East coast version is expected to be a few months after the Cali affair. "It should be in August," we're told.

Roughly 150 people packed the New Italy Club on Panther Road on Thursday night for the first formal meeting of the group, Neighbors Against Rock Concert Site (NARCS)....

Paul Sungenis, former owner of DeMarco Cinemas on Landis Avenue, said he's drafted a "Vineland Festival Regulation Act" that would cap festival attendance at 20,000 as well as limit camping and the festival's hours of operation....

Steenland said the Cumberland County Fairgrounds in Millville would be a more appropriate site for the festival....

The organizers will present their site plan to the city Planning Board for an advisory opinion during a meeting Feb. 13, Tonetta said.Council is expected to vote on a final agreement for the festival by March, he said. [Delaware Online]

the ET gang, Vineland, NJ, 1983 (CRED)

"We're not against having the concert, or doing things for the kids, but don't put it in a residential neighborhood," said Pete Steenland, a Hance Bridge Road resident who helped organize NARCS, in a telephone interview Tuesday. "If they wanted to drop 50,000 people in your neighborhood, you wouldn't like it, either."

"We won't be able to leave our homes that whole weekend because of both the traffic and safety issues," added Steenland. "We have gangs here in Vineland. Are they going to come to the festival to try and compete with the people there? It's possible." [NJ.com]

* Live Nation acquired Heineken Music Hall in Amsterdam
* Group opposed to Vineland Festival meets tonight

More on the anti-Vineland NARCS HERE.

VINELAND -- Members of a group opposed to the Vineland Music Festival -- including a former City Council president -- are mobilizing the troops to try to block the event. Neighbors Against Rock Concert Site (NARCS) will hold an organizational meeting 7:30 p.m. Jan. 10 at the New Italy Club in East Vineland.

The festival is scheduled for Aug. 8-10 on a 570-acre farm near Sherman Avenue and Hance Bridge Road. It is expected to draw 35,000 to 40,000 people over three days, many of whom will camp on-site, festival organizers said.

Local developer Pete Steenland and his daughter, Joy Marion, said they recently formed the group to let residents opposed to the festival have a unified voice. Both Steenland and Marion live next to the festival site. [The Daily Journal] (via)

Vineland Music Festival (CRED)

"It is likely the Vineland Music Festival will feature a number of high profile acts which will then go on to play at Reading and Leeds. Early rumours suggest Rage Against the Machine could be among the headliners." [Virtual Festivals] (thx Hiro)

The Noise Pop Festival returns in 2008 from February 26 to March 2. Over six nights, Noise Pop 16 will take over the best-loved venues in San Francisco, to host unforgettable performances by Magnetic Fields, The Mountain Goats, The Gutter Twins, Cursive and dozens of other important indie rock, electronic, punk and cutting edge musical artists, transforming the city into an almost week-long celebration of the finest that the underground and not-so-underground has to offer, nationally and locally.

Not confirmed at all is this letter Bob Lefsetz sent out from someone he purposely left anonymous....

Zeppelin just confirmed for Bonnaroo. They can't officially announce until after the London gig so pass it on! Also Metallica is confirmed on the bill too!

Like Bonnaroo, the new Vineland Music Festival in NJ will offer 3 days of music and camping (but much closer to home - my home anyway). I hope Led Zeppelin plays that too.

Magnetic Fields are also playing four NYC shows and have a new album coming out soon. The Mountain Goats just played NYU and also have a new album coming out soon. Robert Plant has a new album out, and it's selling really well.

Lollapalooza promoters to stage 3-day New Jersey festival next summer

The promoters of Lollapalooza are going into competition with themselves by staging a three-day music festival in New Jersey next summer the weekend after Lollapalooza plays Grant Park.

C3 Presents, the Texas-based company that brought Lollapalooza to the Chicago lakefront in 2005, announced Tuesday that it would partner with Festival Republic, the company behind several huge European festivals, to stage the Vineland Music Festival in Vineland, N.J., on Aug. 8-10, 2008. The festival will be held on a 550-acre private farm within an hour’s driving distance of New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C.

Lollapalooza is scheduled to return for its fourth year at Grant Park on Aug. 1-3.....C3 now annually books three major summer festivals: Lollapalooza, Vineland and the Austin City Limits Festival in Texas. Jones said he had no additional festival plans in the works for 2008. [Chicago Tribune] (via)