There is a lot of criticism against Ozzy lately. After some bad ideas like the Osbournes it is time for a historic announcement from Ozzy and his manager, his wife Sharon."This will change everybody's impression of the way touring in the summer in America should be."
2007 will forever mark the year Ozzfest spiked the concert industry's punch and gave every head-banging American kid a reason to strap on an air guitar with the historic announcement that tickets to the summer's premiere touring concert festival won't cost fans a dime.
That's right, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne and tour producer Live Nation broke the news today at the Concert Industry Consortium in Los Angeles that their 12th annual hard rock spectacular — a 25-date extravaganza launching July 7 in Los Angeles — is pulling the plug on ticket prices and giving the power back to the fans calling this summer's Ozzfest "FreeFest." The other Ozzfestcities as of now are San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Denver, Albuquerque, Phoenix, Dallas, San Antonio, Kansas City, St Louis, Chicago, Indianapolis, Columbus, Pittsburgh, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Hartford, Charlotte, Atlanta, West Palm Beach, Nashville. Note: a final confirmed list of cities and dates is forthcoming.
"For the last few years," says Sharon, "ticket prices have steadily climbed as artists demand more and more money for summer tours. We certainly want everybody to make money, however we also want the kids to be able to afford to come out and have an incredible experience. If we continued with the traditional touring festival model, we would have no choice but to raise ticket prices again this year."
"We're reaching the same point we did years ago when kids no longer wanted to pay for overpriced CDs. As a result, they found alternative ways of getting music. That's what's happening with summer touring in this country, it's out-pricing itself. We started this and we want to keep it and we want to make it bigger and bigger each year by getting bigger sponsors to be involved with the festival and underwriting the festival. That's what it's about."
"For the past 11 years, music fans have made Ozzfest the most successful and enduring rock music festival in the United States," said Jason Garner, Live Nation President of North American Concerts. "What better way to say 'Thank You' to the music fans who have made this possible than inviting them to attend Ozzfest for free."
To gain entry into the event, fans will go to www.ozzfest.com or www.livenation.com to find links that will direct them to special sponsor sites where tickets can be secured. More details regarding the process are forthcoming.
As Ozzfest's founder and namesake, Ozzy will make his triumphant return to the headlining position on this year's mainstage after surprising fans last year by performing on the down-and-dirty second stage at a handful of dates. Audiences can expect the Prince of Darkness to unveil new songs from his forthcoming studio album, Ozzy's first disc of new material since 2001. While the rest of the in-progress bill is under wraps, Sharon points out, "we have bands committed, but we're hoping that after today's announcement we'll have a whole influx of artists who want to be a part of something this ground breaking. We know there aren't any major headlining acts that would tour all summer for nothing, but we're confident we can turn some of the genre's biggest bands on to what we're doing and have them come out to play a date or two. If they're in town and want the rush of performing in front of 20,000 frenzied kids, they're more than welcome to join us. They can sell their t-shirts, CDs and whatever else they've got. They're also welcome to book their own shows in local venues on the day of Ozzfest. I'm not stopping them. People have to be creative and think of alternatives."
"Ozzfest was created to keep this genre of music alive by showcasing new talent. You better believe we're going to keep perpetuating that by hand-picking compelling new bands that are hungry for Ozzfest's career-making exposure."
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I am doing a revamp for my exchanged blog section. Can you please reply in any way your country as soon as possible to me, the owner of Simple Life of YP.
When I heard that it was free, I was kind of like, 'Weird.' Then they said that none of the bands are going to get paid either, which I'm like, 'That's fine.' It's tough for a band; it costs a band $100,000 to do an Ozzfest, when you have a bus or whatever you're touring in, and a crew. With all the off dates, you play three or four days a week, and staying in hotels, it all adds up. It could cost a lot. So I don't know how bands are going to do it without any sort of compensation whatsoever. . . We'd be able to [play]. Our off dates would provide us with sufficient amount of income where we'd able to maintain everything like that. We know it's an opportunity as well; it isn't about getting paid. Bands on the second stage don't get paid anyways, unless you're a headliner. But a band like KORN or MARILYN MANSON, they could afford it, but would they? Would they go out for nothing every day? They don't need any exposure. For young bands it's tough. It's definitely something that we'd have to go over if we got the opportunity.
Rob Arnold - Chimaira