We’d like to welcome back Jon McLennand to the HT family. Jon, who puts together Umphrey’s McGee Podcasts, lays out the facts behind the demise of Vegoose. Without further ado, here’s the first Mind of McL…

The super-saturated festival market has taken another victim, as it looks like there won’t be a Vegoose Festival in 2008.

As the post-millennial music festival explosion rocked music fans from Manchester to the middle of the ocean, the promoters have been happy to provide us with ever expanding opportunities to spend a weekend watching music, at times with a new twist — the destination. The ripples of the Phish hiatus, which forced untold thousands of kids to search for something else to listen to, brought a desire for new acts to be introduced into the fold of the jam rock festival.

Following Bonnaroo’s lead, many jamband festivals began looking less like jamband festivals as the lineups diversified to incorporate acts from across all genres. The growing myriad of festival options, all seeking variations on the same formula, started looking the same. The ubiquitous Flaming Lips were earlier pegged on HT as a harbinger of the ill effects of the festival circuit. Who hasn’t seen Wayne Coyne’s white suit in three time zones?

READ ON for more of McL’s thoughts about the possible death of Vegoose…

It seemed to work at first, as the first Vegoose brought 36,825 visitors to the city. The report noted that 16 percent of the out-of-state attendees made their first trip to Las Vegas for Vegoose. Two-day attendance in 2006 was down more than 50 percent, with a gate of 30,625, from 72,400 in 2005. Attendance in 2007 was 46,200, according to Las Vegas Events.

When it was announced in 2005, Vegoose seemed like a ballsy way to corner the market on an unofficial jamband holiday. It quickly diversified to include acts like Tom Petty and Daft Punk, leaving little traces of 2005 in the makeover (outside of the late-nights). But that wasn’t enough, as Vegoose became the victim of an influx of new festivals from all corners of
the country drawing from a limited pool of headliners and concert goers. With these other festivals taking place closer to home, during the summer months, and with the same acts, making return trips to Vegas just weren’t as enticing. The destination lost its appeal. If every festival is bringing you the same product, do you really need to lose at the blackjack table again?

Could this mean the death of the destination festival?

No.

Jamcruise, Jam in the Dam, and Caribbean Holidaze are holding on strong (though there wasn’t any room for Xingolati). Vegoose just couldn’t up the ante once the pool of competitors got too big.