Venue Views

CATERING TO KIDS: The Radio Disney Live tour, now going into its fifth year, is experiencing a growth spurt. Even before the headliners have been named, the event is set to play 25-30 markets this year (compared with eight last year) in 10,000- to 15,000-seat venues and possibly arenas, as well as amphitheaters. It will have a promoter, a ticket price tentatively set as "low," and a large festival component. Making this growth possible is Radio Disney Live's new partner, Creative Artists Agency (CAA), which will book the acts and route the tour.

Radio Disney VP of sales and marketing Jim Pastor says, "Everything we've come to learn about event marketing is that the one segment that is underserved is families. This creates cross-promotional opportunities for our clients—sponsors who are looking for nontraditional ways to communicate their message in front of a key target. We also want to allow listeners to experience the brand Radio Disney in a new way that we can't fulfill on-air. This is the opportunity for some of our listeners to have their first live-concert experience."

Pastor believes Radio Disney, an ABC-owned radio network targeted at children, has a music-centered brand that is unmatched in the industry. Combining the main-stage music with a second stage and a festival area results in a "well-rounded experience for kids to get involved with sponsors and their products as well," he says. He also predicts a lot more growth. "We think this is just the beginning of Radio Disney Live."

CAA music agent Jeff Frasco says that the festival will have three or four second-stage acts, as well as four to six on the main stage. It kicks off after the July 4 holiday weekend and runs through the end of August. Frasco says, "We'll sell it to whomever we think can do the best job promotion-wise."

GEORGIA LAWNS: Ron Simpson, owner of Atlanta-based RCSProductions.com, is consulting on several small, all-lawn amphitheaters to be built in Georgia. The ground will be broken Feb. 28 for the Fayetteville Amphitheater, under the auspices of the Main Street Organization, a national group with member cities that meet historic criteria. The shed, located south of Atlanta, is expected to open in August. Simpson says it will be a 2,500-capacity venue and will cost about $3 million to construct.

Simpson is also consulting on sheds for Georgia towns Mableton and Calhoun. A fourth one—in Rome, Ga.—is in the beginning phase. Simpsons says it will be "2003 before it gets stirring."

He adds, "We're concert producers who have found another little niche in consulting, since we're the guys who are using these amphitheaters all the time."



HE SINGS THE SONGS: Barry Manilow is halfway through his 40-city tour, promoted by Concerts West, and he's doing gangbusters. The results are all over the Billboard Boxscore this issue. Manilow will perform five sellout shows at Radio City Music Hall in New York during the Feb. 8-10 weekend. Most of his bookings are multiple gigs, although he is returning to one arena, MCI Center in Washington, D.C., where he played the venue's grand-opening.



ROCKIN' IN PA.: Andy Long, GM for SMG at First Union Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., is having a great first quarter, despite the poor state of the economy and the dearth of concert tours. Long tells Billboard that during the week of Feb. 4, he had a sellout Linkin Park concert (Feb. 7), with 8,000 fans attending; Janet Jackson sold out a show (Feb. 8); and a Weezer show (Feb. 9) was 60% sold a week out. A March 3 Neil Diamond concert sold out at 9,500 capacity, so Long added a March 4 date.

Long says he budgeted for 12 concerts for the year, and now it looks as though he will have eight or nine in the spring. "My February and March are slammed, which is great."

Neighboring First Union Center in Philadelphia has a similarly upbeat story to tell. Comcast-Spectacor senior VP John Page says that in a 12-day span—Feb. 13-24—the building complex, which also includes the First Union Spectrum, hosted 21 events, including six sellout Billy Joel/Elton John shows, and Linkin Park (Feb. 13). Page estimates that close to 200,000 people will attend those arena events, 110,000 of them for the Joel/ John Face to Face tour.