All Dressed Up (in hemp clothing) and Nowhere to Go: Bonnaroo-Inspired 'Zooma Tour' Cancelled
Apparently the folks at Superfly Productions overestimated the marketability of their wildly successful summer Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. After three years of producing the most economically prosperous music festival in America, Jonathan Mayers, producer of the Zooma Tour, felt that they had produced a synergy and a brand that would be able to draw fans from across the country to individual concerts. And thus was born The Zooma Tour.
Apparently they thought wrong, as the plug has officially been pulled on the summer tour.
Speaking in platitudes about “community,” “good vibes,” etc., Mayers seems to try and come across as just another good soul trying to do something for the collective artistic consciousness of the country. But, we imagine that the decision to fire-up a tour and piggy-back on the success of Bonnaroo spawned from the idea that there was even more money to be made. I guess the producers will have to settle for the paltry $15 million they stand to profit at this year’s Tennessee festival.
The Zooma Tour was conceived as a tour with a couple of heavy-hitting headliners and rotating musical guests. Former Phish frontman, Trey Anastasio, and his big band were to headline, along with Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals. Acts such as Jurassic 5, Galactic and Gomez were to rotate in and out of the tour, with no one band to play more than five shows. But, if a bunch of hippies gather to play music and nobody shows up dot they still make a sound? Guess not. Ticket sales were marginal at best, without any of the shows actually selling out. So, it is back to the drawing board for Trey and Co. Anastasio reports that he is currently in the process of putting together a summer tour of his own. We guess that with the Festival Culture becoming more and more pervasive during the summers, that the jam-band synergy circuit is getting a little smaller. The Zoom Tour had to compete with quality festivals like Wakarusa , Coachella, High Sierra , and, of course, the best festival of the summer, The Austin City Limits Festival. I guess the marketplace has reached its supersaturation point.
