West Texas Will Have to Wait a Little Longer for Another Big Festival

The possibility for a big May festival seems to look dim to poor. Two main factors are at play.

We were very close to two different lineups for a possible party (that I know of, there may have been more).  At this time, everything has fallen apart leaving Lubbock high and dry for another year.

We went from having two giant festivals to zero and you can blame two things. The first one is the mega-festivals going on all around us. Generally when a band signs onto these things they are prohibited from playing smaller surrounding towns for a certain period of time. We actually used to benefit from these festivals with bands playing before or after them, then the promoters wised up and started locking bands out. The promoters also pay the bands an inflated price for festivals, so they don't take the smaller gigs.

The second thing that ruined us for a bit was the ZZ Top accident. Only time and lawyers will decide who was at fault for Dusty's spill. What you need to keep in mind is that until it's sorted out, ZZ Top's booking company, which represents tons of acts and celebrities doesn't really want its clients booking the Amp (or so I was told).

I am confident that time will make both of these issues go away. Even the biggest bands are going to want to play more that 20 gigs a year in the U.S. and that will eventually trickle down to us.  In the meantime, we'll keep working behind the scenes to make things happen.  Just keep going to club shows and those bands will eventually show their loyalty as well.

Let's also not undersell the impact of this upcoming blink show either. This is going to be a BIG, BIG show. For many of you, this will be the largest turnout you've ever seen at the Amp.  It could be that some bands just don't want to compete with this show.