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Summer music festival preview Ohio ROCKS!
By GUY D’ASTOLFO
The music festivals keep getting closer to Youngstown.
LaureLive – the first major multiday rock ’n’ roll gathering in Northeast Ohio – will have its inaugural festival June 11-12 on the Butler campus of the Laurel School. The private college-prep school for girls is located on a woodsy 140-acre campus near Chesterland in Geauga County.
It will feature headliners Grace Potter, O.A.R. and Michael Franti and Spearhead, plus an undercard of Andy Grammer, X Ambassadors, Elle King, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, Red Wanting Blue, ZZ Ward, Ra Ra Riot and 21 more bands.
Performances will be on four stages. Go to laurelive.com for information and tickets.
LaureLive is being created and managed by the Elevation Group, a Cleveland-based event production and marketing group.
It emerged out of the private school’s desire to expand music programming and blossomed into a full-blown festival.
“The stars aligned over the last 18 months,” said Denny Young, president of the Elevation Group and a veteran of the concert promotion industry who previously worked at IMG and the former Belkin Productions of Cleveland.
“[The Elevation Group] started the Cathedral Concerts series at Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland, and it’s very unique,” said Young. “We earned a little bit of a reputation. Then we got a call from the Laurel School, who were looking to add music programming at their Butler campus. When we met at first, it was just to do a couple of summer shows, but as we went further we envisioned a large-scale music festival.”
The Elevation Group, by the way, also handles concert booking at the new Goodyear Theater and Goodyear Hall in Akron.
Young, who teaches a class at the Laurel School, said the festival is part of the school’s new emphasis on music, which includes both the artistic and business end of the field.
LaureLive has partnered with Red Frog Events to give the festival a top-notch culinary experience. Chicago-based Red Frog owns, operates and curates all culinary aspects for Firefly Music Festival in Delaware, one of the country’s biggest.
LaureLive will be family-friendly, offering a daytime Kid Zone with inflatables, face painting and green-screen technology.
THRIVAL MUSIC FESTIVAL
LaureLive joins Pittsburgh’s Thrival Music Festival, Sept. 23-24, as the only major festivals within an hour or so of the Mahoning Valley.
Thrival’s 2016 lineup will feature the Chainsmokers, Chvrches, Thievery Corporation, Metric, Ty Dolla Sign, Lettuce and 17 more bands on two stages.
Thrival is always located in an interesting place where Pittsburgh’s industrial past meets its high-tech present and future. This year’s event will be at the Carrie Furnaces site, where a hulking blast furnace sits alone in a field that once was a steel mill. It’s part of the Rivers of Steel National Heritage Area.
Go to thrivalfestival.com for information or tickets.
PROMOWEST FEST
Another festival getting started this summer – and just a two- or three-hour drive away, is PromoWest Fest, July 15-17, in Columbus.
As the name suggests, its operated by PromoWest, the concert promotion company based in Columbus and known for its Bunbury and Buckle Up music festivals in Cincinnati, as well as operating Stage AE in Pittsburgh.
PromoWest Fest will feature 41 bands, including the Flaming Lips, Modest Mouse, Snoop Dogg, Brand New, Ryan Adams, LL Cool J, Tears for Fears, Mac Miller, the Decemberists and Fitz and the Tantrums.
Marisa Luther, public relations director for PromoWest, explained the decision to start a new festival in Columbus.
“We have wanted to do a fest here for over three years, but with the purchases of Bunbury and Buckle Up fests in late 2014, it was put on the back burner for a bit,” she said. “Once we got through a very successful Bunbury, we decided it was time to bring a fest back home to Columbus.”
PromoWest Fest will take place in the Arena District in downtown Columbus. For information or tickets, go to promowestfest.com.