Orlando Calling, a new festival in 2011, won’t be back for 2012 according to the website. The stadium style festival featured a diverse lineup like Bob Seger, Kid Rock and The Killers for its first year. For Festival Republic, a producer of Europe’s largest concerts, this was their first foray into the US market.
From the official site:
Unfortunately Orlando Calling won’t be happening in 2012 but we are continuing to have discussions in the city to see if there is an opportunity to bring it back in 2013.
Festival Republic is no stranger to massive festivals. They produce the famous Reading & Leeds Festivals, Latitude, Hove, Electric Picnic, The Big Chill (also cancelled due to the Olympics), and The Berlin Festival. So what happened in the Orlando market? It’s easy to place to the blame on the economy, but the overall Florida market last year saw outstanding turnouts for festivals around the region. Ultra in Miami, Hangout in Alabama, and DeLuna in Pensacola Beach are just a few that come to mind.
The lineup for Orlando Calling was stellar with a deep lineup that most festivals would envy. Single day tickets were priced high at about $100 per day, but if we have learned nothing from this site, it is that fans will shell out cash for more mediocre lineups than this. That leaves us the venue as the culprit. Sure, you might pay $100. But at a college football stadium? In Orlando?
Not going to happen.
In the end, we do hope that Orlando Calling hasn’t soured Festival Republic on the US and hope they try again to bring us an epic Europe style festival. Just not in Orlando.