Last weekend’s disappointing ticket sales leave event $1 million plus in red
The Birmingham News reported via e-mail and Twitter that “Music festival organizers say City Stages will not return.”
And according to the News’ site:
The Birmingham Cultural and Heritage Foundation, the nonprofit organization behind City Stages, is “irretrievably insolvent,” and intends to go out of business, according to a statement released today by festival organizers.
City Stages can’t pay its expenses from this year’s festival, because revenue was “drastically below expected levels,” the statement says. Organizers pointed to the economic crunch, hot weather and low attendance, among other factors.
The downtown summer music festival, started in 1989, featured a wide variety of musical acts and quickly became Alabama’s largest music event. In recent years, the festival has been plagued by recurring debt, asking for and receiving $250,000 last week from the City of Birmingham. Last weekend marked an all-time low in day passes sold in the festival’s 21-year history.
Updated June 26: The final debt tally? More than $1 million, leaving vendors high and dry.
Also:
Could the festival have been saved?
What are your favorite City Stages memories?
Should festival president George McMillan have stepped aside sooner?
How will this impact Birmingham culturally and financially?
Sound off in the comments.
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City Stages officials released this statement [original PDF]:
City Stages Statement of Intent to Go Out of Business
For 21 years, the Birmingham Cultural and Heritage Foundation, Inc., a nonprofit organization, has been producing the annual City Stages Music Festival, which has consistently drawn hundreds of thousands of attendees from all backgrounds and cultures to downtown Birmingham to enjoy three days of live entertainment from national and local artists, a children’s festival, arts and crafts, and a festive atmosphere, all in a family friendly event
The Foundation has given back to the City of Birmingham and the state with an economic impact in the tens of millions of dollars and has provided scholarships, music camps, and other valuable benefits to the City and the region. Most of all, City Stages changed the landscape of downtown Birmingham’s Linn Park and the surrounding area for one weekend during the year, in a way that helped to unite the community. We are proud of our heritage and the long-term success of the festival and what the Foundation has been able to accomplish over the last two decades.
However, due to the recent economic downturn, weather challenges, low attendance, low ticket sales, and other factors, revenue from this year’s Festival was drastically below expected levels and insufficient to pay the expenses of the Festival. Coupled with the substantial debt the Foundation has carried from previous years, the inability to meet the expenses of this year’s event cannot be overcome. Therefore, we regret to inform the community, our loyal sponsors and vendors, and the many volunteers who have lent their time, talent and effort to this endeavor that it is no longer viable to continue this Festival.
The Foundation is now irretrievably insolvent. With great sadness, pursuant to a resolution adopted by its Board of Directors, the Foundation is in the process of officially going out of business and legally terminating its existence. City Stages has come to an end.
We would like to thank all of the artists, corporate sponsors, vendors, festival attendees, the City of Birmingham, Jefferson County, State of Alabama, local small businesses, board members, community organizations and all of the other many volunteers and partners who have worked with City Stages over the past 21 years. The Foundation would also like to express its regret that the drastic reduction in revenue from this year’s event has made it impossible for the Foundation to satisfy its debts.
It appears vendors such as Bottletree Cafe, which provided catering and shut down its restaurant/bar for five days, will not be fully reimbursed.
Rebecca Davis, promoter for the club, mentioned via Twitter:
“PLEASE come out and support Bottletree!! We won’t be getting paid what we were owed for the catering and hospitality we did for City Stages.”
(Hat tip: Bham.fm.)
More from Bottletree Cafe on its blog:
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A few more updates:
- ABC 33/40: “Some vendors say they were paid but their checks bounced. Others, like Bottletree, only got half of their money and don’t know how they are going to pay their staff.”
- The Terminal: Scott Schablow’s musical tribute to City Stages’ passing
- Black and White (published before festival’s termination): McMillan “makes perhaps his boldest and most repugnant claim, i.e. that his efforts with the festival were done ‘for this city.’ “
- Black and White (published before festival’s termination): “With all of the financial problems this event has suffered over the past nine years, somewhere, somebody should have put a stop to the idea that City Stages had to compete with every other festival in the region.”
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Complete City Stages coverage.
The free event includes music performances, kids’ activities, even a high-gravity beer tasting (for $10 extra).
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Position held: state judge, attorney
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Here lies Jefferson County, the biggest county in Alabama, once home to the once biggest city in the state.
