Multi-stage concerts with dozens of bands sharing the spotlight are becoming more in vogue than ever before these days. We just learned that the Lillith Fair is coming back (in the UK), Lollapalooza is a big deal again, and Coachella had one if its most attended years yet. Now Kevin Lyman, who co-founded the Vans Warped tour and Rockstar Mayhem tour, has set up shop in Nashville to plan a country music version of his previous traveling festival enterprises.
Billboard reports that pre-sales for Lyman’s Warp and Mayhem tour are skyrocketing (the former is up 48%), so now’s the time to bring the format to the untapped country genre. “We want to customize what we’ve been able to do with Warped [in the punk genre], and last year with Mayhem in metal,” Lyman told Billboard’s Ray Waddell. “We invested a lot of time with the metal labels before we put that tour into motion, and we’ve put a lot of time into this [new] project.” Lyman hopes the countrified tour will kick off in the summer of next year with about a dozen bands and another dozen singer/songwriters.
If these things are such a hit, someone should round up all the actor/rockers of late (Billy Bob, Joaquin, etc.) for their own summer jaunt. Call it the Ray Ban Ego tour.