by Tim McMahan, Lazy-i.com

Goodbye Red Sky…

There were two bits of news that came to my attention this weekend. The demise of the Red Sky Music Festival was the least important of the two.

Red Sky has been a failure as a festival from Day 1 (though you could argue that its individual concerts have generated some cash). By unshackling themselves from a festival concept, MECA can now be more flexible with how it books its stadium, focusing on touring mega concerts on the artists’ schedules rather than MECA’s.

If MECA ever was willing to speak publicly about Red Sky, I think it would admit that the board never fully embraced a festival concept sold to them by the suits at Live Nation, whose job it was to book the acts in some sort of thematic, coherent fashion rather than the hodge-podge throw-shit-at-the-wall-and-see-what-sticks who’s-free-this-weekend lazy-ass approach they ultimately took.

Make no mistake about it. MECA had the money and facilities to do this right. It simply lacked the vision. Imagine what the Maha team could do with Red Sky’s budget?

Anyway, with Red Sky behind them, MECA can now consider booking mega tours whenever they become available, because Lord knows that white elephant of a stadium is being woefully underutilized.

So what was the other news I picked up over the weekend? Well, you’ll just have to wait on that as I continue to get confirmation from one of the parties involved. Here’s a hint: It’s good news for people who like to get stinking drunk.

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