Sign of the Times

Event producers and venue managers are facing some competition from what might be considered an unlikely source.

Casinos.

More and more casinos are creating concert venues and booking some pretty heavy-hitting talent. It could prove detrimental to festivals and other concert events as the casino competition could create a circumstance where the performance within a certain radius in a certain number of days clause in many performance agreements kick in.

See, many artists have a clause in their agreements or as a general rule that they will not perform a show at a venue within a certain distance of another venue in a certain number of days. Most of the time, it's 50 miles and 30 days. Sometimes the distance is pushed to 100 miles or so.

What this means is that if a particular artist ... say, Aerosmith ... plays the Superpages.com Center in Dallas Aug. 1, it won't book a show in Fort Worth in 30 to 45 days. It would separate the possible audience ... particularly if there is a discrepancy in ticket prices.

This becomes especially true for festival venues. The community/regional events (not the Bumbershoots, Austin City Limits, Lallapaloozas or Bonnaroos of the world) feature a low ticket price. At the Real. Texas. Festival. it's been $5 to $10.

Well, people will pay $35 or $40 to see Randy Rogers Band at House of Blues (if not more). If they can see RRB for $10 at Real. Texas. Festival., the logic is they won't pay $40 to see RRB at House of Blues two weeks later.

Personally, I don't think that's true. Fans of Randy Rogers Band will go see that group whenever they can wherever they can.

Anyway, with casinos now getting into the concert production game, those distances could encompass yet another series of venues.

The Real. Texas. Festival. could possibly be impacted the Winstar World Casino in Thackerville, Okla. It's 92.2 miles from Mesquite, Texas, the home of the Real. Texas. Festival., to Winstar. If the distance requirement for a certain artist is 100 miles, the RTF might have difficulty booking an artist who plays at Winstar 30-45 days before the festival.

On the other hand, it might be benefit for the festival in that 92.2 miles is an easy travel distance between shows. Tour managers are often looking for routed shows to pick up -- meaning if someone is playing in San Antonio Thursday night and is expected to be in Thackerville at Winstar on Saturday night, the opportunity to play the Real. Texas. Festival. on Friday night would be attractive is it is right on the way ... straight up I-35.

Interesting stuff ... particularly when playing Casinos used to be associated with some kind of cheesy Vegas lounge act -- performing elevator music covers of pop and rock hits.

Not so ... not any more. The August and September concert calendar at Winstar features the likes of Heart, Martina McBride, Billy Squire, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Journey and Kelly Clarkson.