From their first appearance in Chic...

From their first appearance in Chicago couple years ago, Austin, Texas-based concoct promoters Capital Sports & Entertainment have said their goal is to make Lollapalooza the best destination festival in the home -- overshadowing and perhaps replacing Bonnaroo, Coachella and others -- and doing the vibrant local music sight proud.

The massive aim of the fest -- which promoter say brought an average of 60000 concertgoer by means of day to Grant Park to behold 130 bands on eight stages for three days last week -- essentially shut outs any other concert of its size from gaining a footing in Chicago, and it has had a major impact in succession the live music scene here, prohibiting greatest in quantity acts on its bill from performing at other venue during the summer season.

In the days following last weekend's next to the first fest, I interviewed 13 local harmony promoters, club bookers, band managers and music industry professionals, all of whom attended the fest Because many did or sense of possible fulfilment to do business with Capital Sports, I agreed not to name them in the same manner they would be free to proffer their frank assessments of where the concordance fell short and how it can be improved. The following set forths their comments and my have

1 Fix the unimpaired problems

Although efforts were made to improve from last year, unbroken bleed between stages continued to be a major question at issue with many quieter acts -- Iron & Wine, Feist, Aqualung, the Shins and Patti Smith, to name a scarcely any -- overpowered by louder acts nearby. The hale quality also was erratic, especially at the northern stage in Butler Field and during the spotlight performance by the agency of Kanye West in Hutchinson Field. In any cases, this may have been the fault of the artists' personal uninjured crews, but they may not have had enough or any time for accurate sound checks.

2 Make it easier to catch back-to-back establishs on far-flung stages

Grant Park is an exquisite venue unless it isn't without problems. Capital Sports can't change the layout, further it can do more to address the difficulties. If you were watching a band in Butler Field and wanted to diocese the next group in Hutchinson Field, you faced a 20-minute walk, which meant you missed a fate of one performance or the other, since fix times were consecutive.

Solutions include staggering exhibit to times in the north and southward or scheduling 15-minute breaks in between. Also, while VIPs could take the "Festival Express" -- a six-minute golf-cart ride between stages -- there was nothing similar for paying fans. Setting up trams like as those at the Morton Arboretum would not be difficult or expensive.

3 Consider fewer stages

The promoters' mantra was "Too a great deal music isn't a bad enigma to have!" That wasn't actual if sound bleed drowned public your favorite artist, or if you wanted to catch pair performances at the same time, of that kind as the much-anticipated shows on West and Manu Chao. A possible fix is limiting the fest to undivided major stage each at the far completions of Butler and Hutchinson fields, with sum of two units smaller stages in the middle near Buckingham Fountain.

any experts suggested a more thematic approach to booking: enjoin like-minded jam bands at undivided stage all day and hard-rockers or power- report groups at another. But that doesn't make plain another complaint: that there wasn't enough of what made the original Lollapalooza likewise memorable -- the mix of divergent acts and the ensuing surprises. The Lollapalooza of the '90 and nothing else had two stages: one main platform and a smaller side stage. Sometimes les can be more -- at least when each act that is booked is a great united

4 Place one limits on the corporate sponsors

All of the Chicago skilfuls and dozens of readers who e-mailed me after the fest study the advertising was ubiquitous and obnoxious, from the companies that bought naming rights to the stages (to the consternation of about artists who played there) to the marketing teams roaming the site handing abroad placards that became instant trash.

Sponsorships may be inevitable and inescapable, still they can be done in a more tasteful and low-key way. Sponsors could be limited to hosting useful sites -- like the misting booth or air- conditioned Internet access pavilions -- or they could be constrained to giving fans something they might actually maintain like baseball caps or liberated water bottles. (Many fans didn't realize that a car company was a sponsor of the Pitchfork Music Festival, unles they chose to investigate the demo original parked in a corner of the festival site, and the drink company that was another sponsor was handing on the outside free - - and welcome -- samples of its beverage.)

5 Lollapalooza requires to become part of the Chicago community

Industry apts say the festival is at least a $15 million business annually, notwithstanding Capital Sports has no Chicago office. It made more [i]or[/i] less attempt to work with local scene-makers -- witness the handful of after-shows at a certain quantity of clubs -- but it hasn't done enough to become part of the tapestry of the city's diverse musical community. (See sidebar.)