City officials have tried to do their part for the Omaha festival scene with Memorial Park concerts the past few years.
They started strong, with acts such as Bright Eyes and 311 and crowds in the 40,000 range, but they’ve waned in recent years. Some sources say this year’s act, Gomez, brought in only about 1,000 people.
The city uses Contemporary Productions from St. Louis to book artists for the summer concerts. The concerts were former Mayor Mike Fahey’s attempt to reach out to young people.
Gomez was paid $27,750 plus hotel and hospitality expenses. To defray that cost and others, sponsor U.S. Cellular contributed $50,000 and contributing sponsors kicked in smaller amounts, said Joe Gudenrath, Fahey’s former chief of staff.
The only money that came directly from the city went toward such things as police and paramedics and parks department workers for set-up and cleanup, Gudenrath said.
Mayor Jim Suttle plans to continue the youth-oriented concerts.
Local musicians, promoters and fans criticized this year’s small crowd. The city said that 5,000 people visited the concert throughout the day. Several attendees said only about 1,000 were there at any given time.
Some argue that local production companies know the Omaha music scene better than companies based in other cities and could bring in artists more popular with Omaha’s young people.
“They need to talk to someone who’s in the youth world,” said Marc Leibowitz of One Percent Productions. “Contemporary Productions out of St. Louis is not that company. I think it’s a good idea for (the city) to continue doing it. They just need to know who to ask as to what the youth want to see.”
One Percent booked the city-sponsored concert featuring Bright Eyes in 2006.
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444-1557, kevin.coffey@owh.com
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