The Music Midtown Festival in Atlanta drew lots of people, and lots of musicians

Music Midtown hits a high note with fans

From Donna Freydkin
Special to CNN Interactive

ATLANTA (CNN) -- In terms of sheer numbers, Atlanta's Music Midtown is one massive music festival.

With more than 100 bands performing on seven stages across six city blocks for three days, the festival has become somewhat of a rite of spring for the city. Every year, throngs of sweaty music fans from around the country transform this chunk of Atlanta's business district into a euphoric, massively crowded outdoor party.

"We love it! There's no better place to be," raved Steve Welch of Athens, Georgia. "You meet people from all over the country, which is great because you don't think of all these people coming here to Atlanta to see these bands."

Also: Nationwide, music fests deliver sounds of summer to your door

With the blue sky overhead and the crunch of empty beer cans underfoot, hundreds of thousands of music fans turned to see an eclectic mix of performers, including Paula Cole, Cracker, the Austin Lounge Lizards, the Robert Cray Band, Morphine and Tito Puente.

Couple the nationally known bands with emerging local performers, more than 50 food vendors, a kids' stage and an artisans' market, and you get one of the Southeast's fastest growing and better-known music festivals. Event organizers say that this year brought in 180,000 people, with 73,000 turning out Saturday to hear headlining bands the Foo Fighters and Kool & The Gang.

Foo Fighters (pictured) and Kool & the Gang were the main attractions

Burgeoning attendance since inception

Since its inception four years ago, attendance at Music Midtown has more than doubled, with 82,000 people attending the first festival and more than 200,000 showing up last year. Previous lineups have included Eddie Money, Matthew Sweet, Bob Dylan and the Squirrel Nut Zippers.

Music Midtown producers Peter Conlon and Alex Cooley of Concert/Southern Promotions thought up the festival as a way to bring a musically and culturally diverse event to one of the nation's fastest growing cities.

"Festivals drive excitement and create acts," said Conlon. "I lived in Washington, D.C., and every weekend there was some cultural activity going on at the Mall. I wanted to bring that same sort of cultural activity to Atlanta, because every city needs it to thrive. Atlanta did not have a music-based festival, so we decided to put one together."

See a photo gallery of sights from Music Midtown

Location, location, location

For Conlon, when it comes to the festival, location really means everything.

"We bring people into Midtown in a safe, comfortable and fun atmosphere and it educates them about what Atlanta is capable of downtown," he explained. "The first thing we wanted to do was make sure the festival is presented in an urban setting, because the cityscape is an important part of the entire experience."

The Arts and Business Council of Atlanta, an affiliate of the city's Chamber of Commerce, says that the arts had an impact of more than $700 million on the city of Atlanta last year alone.

Although Music Midtown is a for-profit event, the organizers point out that part of the proceeds go to the Midtown Alliance, an organization representing the downtown Atlanta neighborhood. The majority of the beer stands are staffed by non-profit organizations, who then take home 100 percent of the tips and a portion of the proceeds. Non-profit organizations get free exhibit space as well.

Cheerful despite rain, crowds

Despite the heavy crowds on the first and second night of the festivals, the scantily clad and often inebriated attendees remained cheerful, friendly and largely peaceful. And in spite of jammed crowds at the main stages, bands at every stage got their fair share of large audiences.

"I'm happy to see that so many young people turned out to see us, because this will only get better," said Duke Ellington Orchestra bandleader and conductor Paul Mercer Ellington.

Local bands, too, were happy about the exposure they received at the festival.

"Playing in front of this many people is exciting and we hope to be back next year," said Michael Geier, the lead singer of Atlanta's Kingsized. "My favorite part of the whole event is that all these people get together at the same place, at the same time, without an agenda, and anything goes."

Sure, the lines for the portable toilets may have stretched for miles and a late downpour may have signaled the premature end of the festival, but the crowds remained resoundingly good-natured.

"The crowds were more than I expected, but it was still manageable with the kids," said Beth White of Atlanta, whose 8-year-old twin boys wanted to see the "adult bands."

"Where else can you check out rock, blues, salsa, jazz and swing - in three days and for 30 bucks?" concluded Atlantan Fonda Berosini.

Related stories:

• Lilith Fair to kick off June 19; Lollapalooza takes a break - April 17, 1998
• Bonnie Raitt feels good about singing the blues - April 18, 1998

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