Madison Square Garden Entertainment has made moves to purchase 910 acres in rural Springfield, N.Y., with plans to spend $15 million launching a three-day, multi-genre music festival in 2010.
MSGE senior VP, business development Don Simpson tells Billboard.biz the site was chosen for its proximity to highways, size, and aesthetics.
“The actual site, the rolling hills, green fields, farmlands, it just has a very beautiful vibe to it, which is obviously a very important aspect when you’re looking at festival sites,” he says.
The event will be a camping festival like Bonnaroo in Manchester, Tenn., as opposed to an urban festival like Lollapalooza in Chicago. Simpson says the $15 million startup costs are for infrastructure and capital costs, unrelated to any sort of annual budget or talent costs.
“We plan to do things right,” Simpson says. “We’re probably going to spend a few more dollars than some other folks might, but we want to make it a great experience and the best [festival] in North America.”
While MSGE has already met with local officials, the project still has a number of hurdles to clear before it comes to fruition, including the long process of the New York State Environmental Quality Review.
While the launch is set for summer 2010, no date or month has settled upon.
“We won’t get narrowed down to an actual date until we get closer,” says Simpson. “We want to review what’s in the marketplace, what’s in the area to compete with in regard to any other local attractions. And it’s also a function of when you’re ready to go.”
Musically, Simpson says the as-yet-unnamed festival will host “contemporary popular music, which is going to be a broad scale.”
While some festivals have experienced a bit of a downturn this year, MSGE is clearly bullish on the fest market. “I don’t see that the market is softening or getting weaker,” says Simpson. “Obviously, we’re looking at an area in the Northeast where there isn’t one of these large, three-day festivals, and we feel with the population base within that vicinity we have a lot of people to draw from.”
Asked if MSGE might launch another festival, Simpson says, “You never know.”
