Rhino Retrofest To Hit The Road
Retro specialist Rhino Records will expand its role as a curator of
pop culture with Rhino Retrofest, a multi-act national tour in
development for summer 2001, Billboard Magazine exclusively reports.
Acts, venues, and promotional partners are being lined up for the
tour, which will be produced by Manhattan-based entertainment firm
the John Schreiber Group.
Rhino Retrofest is being billed as a music-driven celebration of pop
culture, featuring multiple stages, headlining artists, and
interactive exhibits. The festival is patterned after the label's
successful 21st anniversary festival held in 1999, which drew more
than 15,000 attendees to the Santa Monica (Calif.) Civic Center. That
event featured some 30 acts on two stages, 30 vendors selling retro
merchandise, and various interactive attractions.
For the 2001 tour, Rhino is looking at about 20 dates in major
markets, with New York, Boston, and Pittsburgh being likely stops.
"Nobody's doing any event like this," says Garson Foos, senior VP of
marketing for Rhino, adding that the market is hot. "Half the movies
out there are remakes of some TV show or movie, and we're hearing so
much music from the '60s-'80s in advertising today. Retrofest takes
what Rhino has built so successfully over the years and translates it
into a live event."
In regard to talent, John Schreiber, president of the John Schreiber
Group, says, "We're looking for classic rock'n'rollers who are
spectacular performers with lots of hits."
Foos adds that pop, disco, soul, R&B, and '80s groups would be part
of the mix. "We're thinking about music that would span the '60s
through the '80s that has a quality of credibility and adds a fun
element to the music."
In addition to headlining artists, Retrofest will feature pop culture
memorabilia, vintage fashion shows, classic cars, a mini-midway,
retro TV shows and personalities, a video game arcade with vintage
games, and the interactive Rhino Musical Aptitude Test pop culture
quiz game.
Fascination with retro is intense right now, Schreiber says, and it
isn't going away. "We feel if we can take nostalgia and bring it to
life in a really fun way, we will have a winner and something we can
recreate on an annual basis with different artists and aspects of pop
culture every year," he says. "We could have a headline package each
year that would speak to a specific generation."
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Yarrow Offers Reward for Guitar
BURBANK, Calif. -- Folk singer Peter Yarrow of the group Peter, Paul
and Mary is offering a $500 reward for the return of his guitar.
Yarrow, 62, said the John Larrivee six-string guitar has
extraordinary sound and is an irreplaceable part of the group's
musical legacy.
He lost the guitar on a Delta Airlines flight from Washington, D.C.
to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. about two weeks ago, said Alisse Kingsly,
spokeswoman for Warner Bros. Records.
The instrument was in a black case with Yarrow's name on the outside,
Kingsly said. |
