Tom Petty performing at last year's Outside Lands Music and Arts Festival.
The planning for the 2009 Outside Lands Music and Arts festival hit a major stumbling block in the last months of last year.
Negotiations with the City and County of San Francisco to hold the festival have just been finalized, with the City and County's Recreation and Park Commission approving a three-year lease on the Golden Gate Park land serving as the venue of the festival.
However, the process to gain the lease entailed that Another Planet win a bidding war set up by the Commission in October, which they did not expect to encounter in negotiating a new lease. Expecting a swifter contract, the promoter had drawn up plans to start getting its lineup together months earlier than it eventually will this year.
With major live rock acts such as Coldplay and a reunited Phish set for summer touring in the U.S. this year, the pressure to beat the sopohmore slump is especially heavy on Another Planet. The bidding thus threatens to derail the ascent of Outside Lands to status as a premier rock festival along the lines of Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza.
In an interview with the San Francisco Examiner, a spokesman said, "By last January, we had all the talent booked. [Headlining acts] make their summer plans a year in advance, so right now we're behind."
The new competitive bidding process was introduced by the Recreation and Park Commission in order to capitalize off of the success of the first festival last year, which sparked the interest of several organizations that could have produced the next one. The conditions of the new lease dictate that the commission will receive at least $950,000 for 2009, plus $1 for every ticket that is sold, compared to total revenue of $800,000 that it received last year.
According to Another Planet, the new terms will likely not affect ticket prices.
Stay tuned to FP for more updates on Outside Lands.