Heads and tales: Let’s rock and/or roll
By Wade KwonA round-up of City Stages 2008 infotainment …
Money to burn: Should the City of Birmingham hand over $700,000 in taxpayer money to a 20-year-old event, one that has been in debt for years (especially when the mayor’s pending budget is a mess)? What’s president George McMillan doing with a $68,000 expense account? These and other questions loom as the three-day downtown music festival launches Friday. An even better question: Why didn’t the reporter ask festival officials for comment, and what would they have said?
• Hat in Hand [Black and White]
Wrist-takers: Tickets are $50 for advance three-day passes, $28 per day. Headliners include Diana Ross (pictured), Old Crow Medicine Show, the Flaming Lips, Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals and Robert Earl Keen. The weather: highs in the low 80s, lows in the low 70s, with possible thunderstorms Friday and Saturday nights and Sunday afternoon.
And while in past years, visitors could re-enter with stamped hands or wristbands, this year’s scheme is different. Friday: no re-entry. Saturday and Sunday: re-entry with wristband, which must be requested before 6:30 p.m. each day. And no white shoes after Labor Day. (That last one is more of a suggestion than a rule.)
• City Stages explains gate policies, wristbands [Birmingham News]
We repost, you decide: Still can’t decide who to see this weekend? Allow us to help …
- Our video preview of the lineup
- Our 20th anniversary playlist
- The Birmingham News’ clever database of performers
- Picks and capsules:
- Lee E. Bains III, Thicket magazine
- Black and White
- Mary Colurso, Birmingham News
- Chip Frazier, Amber Waves of Twang
- David Gutowski, Largehearted Boy
- Chris Pow, Alabama Live
- Scott Register, Reg’s Coffee House
- Caleb White, The Crimson White (Tuscaloosa)
Also:
- Costumed characters scheduled to pass out on 20th Street
- Vendors offer organic funnel cakes, tofu gyros
- Cops to monitor vomiting all along the watchtower
• • •
Complete City Stages 2008 coverage.
Friday, June 13, 2008, 12:31 am
$68k? I guess Ryan Idol just doubled his salary.