Plans for Atlanta's marquee neighborhood music festival have emerged, and many significant changes are afoot, according to promoters. Most notably, Music Midtown 2014 will offer four different headliners this year, meaning major acts will play at the same time on different stages to close out the festival, which happens Sept. 19 and 20 at Piedmont Park. Those four headliners — Eminem, Jack White, John Mayer and Zac Brown Band — appeal to vastly different audiences. Each night, one them will headline the traditional main stage, while another plays the third stage at Oak Hill that was added last year, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. This year, the third stage will be moved to the top of that hill and fitted with video screens for easier viewing with larger crowds.
This marks the fourth Music Midtown incarnation since the festival took a long hiatus. As with last year, ancillary acts cover a fairly wide range of tastes. They include: Gregg Allman, Lorde, Lana Del Rey, Iggy Azalea, Bastille, Run-D.M.C., Fitz and the Tantrums, Twenty One Pilots, NeedtoBreathe, B.o.B., Mayer Hawthorne, AER, The Strypes, Banks, Sleeper Agent, Magic Man, Bear Hands, Ron Pope … with more acts to be announced soon, according to the festival website.
Here now, some random tidbits culled from the AJC article and festival site:
· No more single-day tickets. The only option for entry is a two-day pass for $125, up from $110 last year. Sales begin this Saturday.
· For ballers, there's $500 VIP, $1,000 Super VIP tickets and a new option — $30,000 cabanas!
· The time slots for specific acts are expected to be released very early this year. As in, later this week.
· Conlon, who has denied a problem with bathroom accessibility in the past, says more bathrooms will be added this year. Following last year's Saturday entrance debacle, officials promise the festival's four entry points will be "greatly expanded," and a fifth will be added.
· Within two weeks of last year's rains, Live Nation spent "in the six figures" to fix the mudpit that Piedmont Park had become, Conlon told the AJC.
· Eminem apparently hasn't played Atlanta since 2002. Hmm.
· Re-entry is permitted. However, taping whiskey bottles to trees at Grady High School and periodically returning to them is still frowned upon.
· Super VIP ticket holders get golf-cart transportation between stages, avoiding the sweaty plebes. A true festival experience.
· Conlon blames "miscommunication and a comedy of errors" for early talks that fell apart with the Outkast camp and prevented the duo from signing with Music Midtown before selling out a three-day festival at Centennial Olympic Park.
· Conlon tells the AJC he isn't worried about competition from TomorrowWorld and the Outkast homecoming trifecta. Both events happen the weekend after Music Midtown.
· Music Midtown [Website]
· Music Midtown 2014: Peter Conlon talks lineup, tickets and why he's not worried about competition [AJC]
[Image via musicmidtown.com]
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