After a year off due to construction at its venue, the Kansas City, Kan., festival Kanrocksas is back for a second go-round. The inaugural 2011 two-day Midwestern camping gathering at the Kansas Speedway featured headliners such as Eminem, Bassnectar, the Flaming Lips and Muse and the 2013 edition has a similarly eclectic and impressive roster.
This year's event (June 28-29) will host Tiësto, fun., Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Passion Pit, MGMT, Kendrick Lamar, The Avett Brothers, Pretty Lights, Imagine Dragons, Miguel, She & Him and Empire of the Sun.
"This is the only major Midwest music festival aside from Lollapalooza," said co-founder Bill Brandmeyer of an event he thinks of as the Coachella of the Midwest. "I fell in love with the venue, which is a world-class NASCAR speedway that allows for incredible infrastructure and spectacular backdrop for a very sophisticated music festival."
One of the selling points for Brandmeyer, and a big reason he stuck with Kansas Speedway during its renovations is that it has such amenities as plenty of built-in bathrooms, lots of space, and good ingress and egress thanks to its placement at the crossroads of two major highways.
The inaugural 2011 show drew 50,000 fans with a promise of free camping and parking and no service fees but, due to the construction projects at the track, it was put on hold in 2012.
"We definitely lost momentum, but we picked up a lot of experience that served us well to plan better and manage the expense line," he said. "We're in year one and a half, not year two mode. Everything will be alright if we pull off another great experience. We can get our momentum back if we get the same kind of fan reviews we got the last time. Once you experience it, you can walk away saying how great Muse was, but really about how it was a world-class event with great sound at a great venue that's easy to get in and out of."
Single day tickets for the show ($99) went on sale this week, while weekend tickets ($175) can be paired with a $25 camping package. A limited amount of VIP tickets ($390) include a private parking area and entry into the festival, a locker to store valuables and access to exclusive, elevated viewing areas with perfect sightlines at two main stages, as well as the "Chill Lounge" with a shaded seating area with private bar, air-conditioned premium restrooms and a VIP food program.
Whereas Lollapalooza has a large urban footprint hemmed in by the lake on one side and downtown Chicago on the other, Brandmeyer said the 1,200-acre speedway site allows for an 8-acre infield with plush grass between the main stages, as well as another 1,000 acres outside the main bowl for camping, parking and other activities. The large footprint allows for hot air balloon rides, a Ferris wheel, live painting and art installations from well-known artists, as well as a giant inflatable water slide, Bungee jumping trampolines, fire-tossers, burlesque performers and a big selection of microbrews and gourmet food trucks.
One of Brandmeyer's passions is the art experience, for which he will bring in 60 artists who will paint live during the festival. "I'm convinced it starts with the lineup and the music you curate, but that's closely followed by the experience you provide for people," he said. "Festivals are a journey and an adventure and this is a way of experiencing life and music that's different from a concert."
Brandmeyer has tapped into veteran consultant Philip Blaine to help reboot Kanrocksas. Blaine, who worked for Goldenvoice for nine years on such festivals as Coachella, All Points West and Stagecoach, as well as with EDM promoter Insomniac for two decades, said festivals are his core business and when he got the call from a friend to meet with Brandmeyer he was intrigued.
Though he'd not heard of the festival, he talked on-and-off with Brandmeyer for nearly nine months before he came on board. "I told him that certain talent really connect with a festival crowd and I thought we could bring the talent spend down maybe by half," he said, noting that some of the first year's headliners brought brand name recognition, but weren't necessarily big draws outside of major cities. "The component he had is the creative and visual side, which creates another dimension to the experience. When you go to a festival you're there to discover new music and hear the hits, but also to meet people and explore things. Having other environments to explore and to participate in art and ride rides … it makes it a different experience. It's a festival of the senses."
Attendance expectations for this year have been scaled back to 20,000 or so a day, with Brandmeyer confident that they'll hit that goal and miss profitability again this year, but hopefully get into the black by year five.
The festival, funded by private investors as well as members of Brandmeyer's family is an independent affair, booked, produced and promoted by a team assembled by Brandmeyer and Blaine. Production is handled by Kansas City's Russ Martin and Brandmeyer has a carefully selected team of full- and part-time employees and vendors who work on everything from logistics to sponsorships, with ticketing handled by Sacramento's Ground(ctrl). By the time the festival is in full gear, more than 1,000 staffers and volunteers will be on board.
At present there is no title sponsor, though Brandmeyer is looking for one and has 15-20 local and regional businesses in line for sponsorships.
As for how the teams plan to get fans back on board after a year off the map, Brandmeyer said social media is "critically" important, as are such old-school methods as TV, print, radio and street teaming. Brandmeyer has hired street teamers who will hit shows across the Midwest in cities such as St. Louis and Columbia, Missouri, Des Moines, Wichita, Lawrence and Topeka and he plans to use Facebook and Twitter heavily as well. The hope is to draw about 50 percent of the audience from the Kansas City area and the rest from a 500-mile radius around the city, which is why billboards are up or going up everywhere from Tulsa to Omaha and St. Louis.
"Using social media to promote a festival is a more real-time experience and it's less expensive," said Blaine, who noted that a third-party company, CitizenNet, has been hired to optimize online audience targeting. "We'll use YouTube promotional videos, which gives more dimension to the festival. And on Facebook and other platforms we can say, 'If you live within 500 miles of Kansas City and you like these artists … come to our show!'"
Contacted for this story: Bill Brandmeyer and Philip Blaine, (913) 956-3711