GREEN BAY, Wis. (WFRV) – Event promoters are getting closer to announcing the Draft City Music Fest performer lineup, but likely won’t until at least early April.
“Over the last six months or so, we’ve been nailing down what the artist lineup will look like,” On Broadway Inc. VP of Marketing & Communications Mary Rhode said. “We have the event on Wednesday night and the event on Saturday, what does that look like? What does that look like from a national artist, to a regional artist and then a local artist?”
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The free concerts will feature at least 10 artists across April 23 and 26 at Leicht Memorial Park. Organizers say it is important to them to have artists from all levels.
“We’re hoping to see a lot of local artist involvement, that’s important to us,” Rhode said. “Having a recognizable, national headliner is important too. It will draw people downtown for the event.”
The interest from artists from the local to the national stage has been high, especially with some of the bigger names after they were approached with the opportunity, according to Rhode.
“We’ve had a ton of interest on all fronts,” she said. “National acts, typically you do need to reach out to them, or you do need to coordinate with them if they’ll be touring in the area. Regional and local acts, we’ve been contacted by so many who want to be a part of the draft and the excitement. They want to play for a big crowd and this is their chance.”
There will likely be at least two stages, maybe even three. The final number of artists will likely depend on the number of sponsors brought on board for the free event.
“We’re still debating whether that’s one stage or if a second stage is added, which could add some additional time slots. We’re still working on many of those logistics,” Rhode said. “We have some amazing sponsors on board already; however, we’re still looking to secure more. This is a free music festival, and I think that speaks to who we are as an organization, we’re in it to give back to the community.”
Contracts can become more competitive, or loftier artists can be pursued as the promoters raise the last sums of money. Ultimately, all artists will be announced at the same time.
“We don’t want to announce before we have everybody. We’re holding off until we finalize some of those last musician contracts,” Rhode said. “As far as the musicians themselves, yes, there’s going to be some back and forth, some negotiations, they have certain things they’re looking for when they come to communities.”
Regardless of music taste or socioeconomic background, the goal is for Green Bay residents and visitors to enjoy the event.
“We’re going across all genres, we’re not sticking to one or the other, understanding that the audience demographic is going to vary,” Rhode said. “We’ll sit down when this is all over and look back, be exhausted and proud.”
Assembling the artists and event itself has been a team effort among the City of Green Bay, Downtown Green Bay Inc., City of Green Bay Parks and Recreation and Tom Johnson, a popular concert promoter across Wisconsin and Green Bay native.
“This is one of the larger events that will ever come to this community,” Rhode said. “Tom Johnson, who many know here as a great booker of entertainment for many different venues, has joined our team to help us solidify and reach out to many of those musician contacts.”
Johnson has been a mainstay in northeast Wisconsin entertainment beyond the past two decades. He started out booking shows for the Lyric Room and Green Bay Distillery, putting shows together in Chicago, Minneapolis and Milwaukee.
“[I’m] trying to bring new acts to Green Bay that I wasn’t seeing here, that I would maybe have to drive to Minneapolis or Chicago to see,” Johnson said. “Whatever is on my plate that I think will appeal to people and do well, I’ll book it.”
Johnson won’t spoil the slew of surprises for the Draft City Music Fest, but anyone with a slice of his comprehensive knowledge of multiple genres across the past couple decades can try to guess at some of them.
“I don’t want to spoil it, but one of my favorites is playing that Saturday, of the festival. I can give you a hint. [They] started in Baltimore and are from Richmond, Virginia now,” Johnson said. “I can say there’s a punk band coming back that fans have been asking for about 15 years for a return. People are going to be pretty surprised at the Wednesday headliner, it’s a band that I didn’t think I’d ever be able to book..”
‘Big gets’ are something that Johnson is happy to lend his time to, in order to bring more vibrancy to his city’s music scene and reputation.
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“The mayor came to me and he said, ‘I want to do this music festival for NFL Draft weekend. Can you help me with this, can you book this?’ He really wanted to take advantage of the opportunity we had and do something cool, kind of out of the box from what we normally see,” Johnson said. “His goal was to create and bring something unique and free to the public, so that any residents in town or visitors can come out and enjoy.”
Johnson has been leveraging his contacts to try to get the most well-known acts possible, and says that there are more possibilities today by far than a decade ago, as the city has experienced a major renaissance since then in its arts scene.
“It just shows you the growth that Green Bay’s had over the last 10 years or so with regards to the arts, music, food and all these cultural additions that are really beneficial to the city,” Johnson said. “It’s been quite the process, it’s the first time I’ve done anything of this scale.”
Prices are higher, up to triple, to book artists for a festival than if they were just on a tour, according to Johnson.
“It’s elevated pricing because a lot of these are fly-ins and it’s a one-off date,” he said. “There are challenges but I’ve built up a lot of connections that have helped ease the process.”
Besides the negotiating process itself, a host of challenges and logistics have presented themselves to the planners, as they try to pull off a music festival unlike any other in Green Bay’s Leicht Memorial Park.
“Where does everything go, how many beer tents, what about security, what about first aid, how do we secure the perimeter? What do we do about green room and VIP, how do we take care of these people?” Johnson said. “The biggest challenges have been figuring out how to finance a free event of this size. Normally, there would be a ticket price associated that would cover a lot of these costs, but we’re doing this as free admission.”
The footprint will expand beyond the borders of Leicht Memorial Park, although details are still being finalized on that.
“I can’t say officially but I know there are some plans for street closures and expanding the footprint of the festival grounds beyond just Leicht Park,” Johnson said. “It’ll be a fully secure site, so we will have either wands or walkthroughs to make sure it is a safe and fun atmosphere.”
According to Johnson, lodging for the artists has been one of the most difficult aspects.
“Everything was locked up with the NFL and everybody securing their spot to come into town, but there’s not a lot of hotels available,” he said. “Some bands require ‘x’ amount of hotels, and they require meals, transport to and from the airports and to and from wherever they’re going.”
Fortunately, sponsors have been coming on board to ensure that this remains a free event to the public, and they have also been donating resources, like RVs for dressing rooms and the Depot’s second floor is set to be used as a green room.
“It’s been a big community effort, a big team effort, and it’s cool to see everyone come together,” Johnson said. “We’re still actively seeking sponsorships, and the more funds we can raise, the cooler this event can be and the more things we can add.”
Overseeing the budget and negotiations is a tedious, usually weeks-long process before the pen hits the paper.
“It can take weeks to hammer out a deal at a reasonable price. My job is to find the talent, find the price and make sure that it’s the best deal that we can make with the funds that we have,” Johnson said. “There’s different price points and tiers when you’re looking at artists, and festival pricing is usually at least three times as if they were on the road touring.”
Johnson says that artists and their agents have wanted to come on board for the free event, but at the end of the day, it’s a fine line as there are still financial expectations they have to hold the organizing committee to.
“Bands and agents are receptive to this idea, and they want to do this event. It just comes down to ‘does it make sense, can they clear their schedule, is travel effective and do we have the money?’” Johnson said. “What makes sense? Does this fit our budget? Can you come down a little bit, or can we come up a little bit if this is something that we’re looking at that we want?”
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Despite all the pressure on him, Johnson is soaking up all the experience across different genres and the assortment of different artists he will land.
“For me, this is the biggest undertaking that I’ve ever done,” he said. “It’s going to be something for everybody, with music from all different genres. There’s going to be something that appeals to you.”
