HFStival Set for Merriweather Debut

By Mark R. Smith

May 2006



Spring has sprung and, in Columbia, that means another season of diverse musical acts gearing up to take the stage at Merriweather Post Pavilion.

But this year, there's an added buzz around the amphitheater after the announcement that the first HFStival to be held outside of Washington or Baltimore will take place at the amphitheater on Memorial Day weekend.

This year's model, to be headlined by Kanye West on day one and Counting Crows the next, will be held on Saturday, May 27, and Sunday, May 28. It will encompass a lineup of about 60 acts between the main stage and others in the west parking lot and in Symphony Woods.

To accommodate the popular festival, which is the largest on the East Coast and drew 53,000 people at Baltimore's M&T Bank Stadium over two days last spring, management will employ an expandable fence -- part of $250,000 in upgrades this year -- to increase its capacity from the normal 20,000 to 27,500 each day.

Now in its 17th year, the HFStival draws music lovers from around the region. "We are thrilled to have the event at Merriweather," said Seth Hurwitz of- promoter I.M.P. "We feel like we have landed a big opportunity for Howard County and Columbia."

Tickets went on sale in April for a festival that will include what Hurwitz called "a real diverse lineup," with such acts as Cypress Hill, Matisyahu and Jimmie's Chicken Shack on Saturday's bill; and Dashboard Confessional, The Strokes, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts and The Fixx on Sunday.

The HFStival has a rich history and is one of the concert industry's original radio station shows. "Initially, there were only a few in the country in the biggest markets, like L.A. and Boston," said Gary Bongiovanni, editor-in-chief forPollstar, an industry trade print and web publication. He noted that, at its height, the show attracted many of the big-name acts of the day.

The record companies would "fly them in to play a few songs. But that would be it," Bongiovanni said, noting that staging such productions can present financial and logistical quagmires, since stations around the country can't route such shows together for a comprehensive tour.

Such festivals started largely as promotional vehicles for stations and the record labels aren't spending as much money on tour support today as they used to, which further limits the pool of bands available.

During the HFStival's heyday (in the early-to-mid '90s), even secondary markets were holding similar events in various musical formats. But today, the tide is turning back.

"I'm not surprised to see the HFStival go to a smaller venue, since the show now costs a lot less to produce. Also, much of the infrastructure, including the main stage, staff and security, is already in place at Merriweather," Bongiovanni said.

"It's designed for that kind of event," he added, unlike RFK Stadium in Washington or M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, which require a considerable amount of configuration and logistical maneuvering to set up the stage, for instance.



Healthy Crowd

That statement is especially timely this year, given the new sectional fencing system that was just installed along Merriweather's west side and "can be pulled out to accommodate larger crowds," said General Manager Jean Parker, noting that it will be used for the Capital Jazz Festival in early June as well.

While the temporarily expanded grounds will also subtract 500 parking spaces from the Broken Land Parkway side of the property and encompass a good portion of Symphony Woods, it will basically double the size of the pavilion grounds.

So, Parker is unconcerned that the larger-than-usual expected crowd will generate any parking or crowd control issues.

"With this type of crowd there are often multiple riders in the car, especially with gas prices so high," she said. "We may need to accommodate fewer cars for the HFStival than we do during the typical jazz or adult contemporary-type show, for instance." Parker also pointed out another key fact concerning the larger crowds at Merriweather. "About 100,000 people come downtown every July 4 for the fireworks display, but we won't have anywhere near that size crowd," she said, noting that the Columbia Association has been "very accommodating in working with us, because this festival has a lot of moving pieces."



New, Improved

The $250,000 in improvements to the pavilion includes three new LED video walls, which boosts the total to five. Two face the pavilion offices (on its east side) with the other new screen nestled behind the 9:32 Club, to the west. They are 13-foot by 10-foot Lighthouse boards that just came off of the Coldplay tour, said Brad Canfield, director of operations for Merriweather.

Another main improvement can be found in the video production suite, with its new Ross Digital Switcher and 360 System media server among the improvements. It will be employed by Canfield with D.C. area indie cult film director Jeff Krulik, who was hired by Hurwitz to produce "visual wall art" for the 2006 season.

For the long term, the staff has added more pop art sculptures and doubled the size of the backstage parking lot to accommodate 16 buses instead of eight, which will allow the pavilion to attract bigger tours.

"We have done a few things that fell outside of the long-term plans that were discussed at length during the Merriweather Citizens Advisory Panel meetings [which were staged at the request of owner General Growth Properties (GGP)]" that were held during the first half of 2005, Canfield said.

Little about the approximately $15 million-plus in renovations suggested for the structure and the grounds has been mentioned by GGP management since the pavilion was deemed economically viable after a study by Baltimore-based consultant Ziger/Snead.

But Doug Godine, the new general manager of Columbia for the Chicago-based corporation, waxed enthusiastic about the pavilion's future. "Merriweather will stay, most definitely," he said.



The Bottom Line

With the throng of 50,000-plus milling around the pavilion and downtown during the two-day event, an ample amount of shopping and dining are expected to take place, said Rachelina Bonacci, executive director of Howard County Tourism.

"We market the county as a destination and the only way to attract that [18-34-year-old] demographic is through Merriweather because it draws national talent to Howard County that might otherwise opt for an urban area," Bonacci said.

"That's very desirable," she noted, "because it enables us to start building a base of future 'customers.'"

Bonacci had numbers that underscored her enthusiasm for the event: Of the 200,000-plus music fans who attended concerts at Merriweather last year, fewer than 10% were county residents.

"That means the economic impact on the local economy is great, because when concertgoers spend money here, the tax revenues go into the general fund and are used for services for county residents," she said.

While Howard County has been recognized as a great place for young adults to live, "they sometimes think that there isn't a whole lot to do here," Bonacci said. "But with Merriweather in their backyard and now the HFStival, what else can they ask for?"

Hurwitz was optimistic for the HFStival and the rest of the season as well. Speaking of the first two shows, he noted that the pavilion was "doing the best [ticket sale] numbers on the tour for the Black Eyed Peas" and Fall Out Boy had already sold out.

Next up is the HFStival. "We see the attendance go up [at Merriweather] every year, along with the improvements," he said, "and it's very gratifying to be part of a place that people love to go to. Our goal is to keep making it better."

According to Bongiovanni, the Merriweather experience has improved in recent years and that is "no small accomplishment, for Seth to have competed successfully against a much bigger promoter [in Live Nation, formerly ClearChannel Entertainment, the major promoter in the market]. He has done what he said he was going to do."