Moonrise Festival Cancelled - What It Means
So news broke yesterday about the cancellation of Moonrise Festival scheduled for June 8 and June 9 in Baltimore. Its a big disappointment for fans but is also a tough blow to the industry - even as an isolated event.
Moonrise - A Great Idea
Moonrise partially grew out of the Starscape Festival previously held in Baltimore which was a Dubstep/DnB festival held at another Baltimore city park. It grew each year and eventually became a notable festival - particularly in the sub-genre. Moonrise as a festival was a much larger proposition - because it was two days, in a different venue, had a much larger attendance expectation, and had true top industry talent scheduled to appear including Avicii, Pretty Lights, Krewella and more.
It can't be underscored enough that the Mid-Atlantic has not had a truly large EDM festival to-date and this was going to be it. Moonrise had the potential to grow into a top US event if managed well. The industry, scene and fan base is growing rapidly and DC is a hotbed of talent and fans. This was it, we were all excited.
What Happened?
The Baltimore Sun had a great article about what supposedly went down. What it ultimately came down to was the city not approving final permits for the event. I am sure there is a lot of blame to go around and inevitable he said - she said. Large events like this require months and months of planning and true cross-functional teams to pull off - from event planners, to marketers/promoters, to venue technicians, to lawyers and many more. Based on our experience, its inevitable that things will go wrong - most go unnoticed or don't cause significant disruptions. However, permits are a fundamental requirement for something like this when held on public land. You just can't wait until the last minute - all stakeholders need to be on board. If there was concern from the city - it should have been vetted early on and the Moonrise team should have done everything possible to appease concerns.
Its likely the city wasn't happy with organizers or there was internal pressure from city government (probably via local citizens) to nix this. Last year's event was not without incident and this scale was going to be larger. In fact on the Baltimore Sun's own page about the cancellation there is an article from last year with the mug shots of the arrested from Starscape. Not good PR to battle off the bat.
We will chalk it up to probably a mix of factors - the city being inflexible or changing requirements, poor communication between the festival management and the city, possible lack of appropriate advisors on all sides and certainly lack of foresight.
The Big Picture - Fans, City and Industry Lose
There will be a lot of blame going around - rightfully so. But the big picture is that fans lose. No matter what gets pulled together last minute (and I am sure Glow will put together one hell of a lineup), its not the same. As veterans of many festivals, nothing beats the daytime experience. Nothing beats an all day festival. Nothing beats multiple stages and act after act of epic talent. And nothing certainly beats 20-30,000+ fans all there experiencing the joy of EDM
But its also bigger than the fans - these events can be economic engines for a community - people travel and spend money. Baltimore will lose - not just this year but probably from not having an EDM festival in the future. Organizer and promoters won't work with a city if they are even partly at fault. DC will likely step in.
Of course the artists lose. Hopefully the lawyers got upfronts, guarantees or at least minimums for this type of occurrence but our guess is probably not (unless top names). However, they are unlikely to get paid in most situations no matter what the contract says. This will not only leave a bad taste in some of their mouths - it creates a second class perception of the city and the US with regard to EDM.
The biggest loser is the industry which continues to be dogged with negative associations of "drug culture" "raves" "teens gone wild" and more. Sure it happens on some level, but the Electronic Dance Music experience is one that the world has embraced. It unites more than any other type of music. The PLUR culture is not lost on virtually all fans (certainly outside of the US it is healthy). We can't have festivals taken away from us - we can't have these once a year events teased. They need to be executed perfectly until there is wider acceptance of the genre and what EDM has to offer. It will take time until the current EDM generation is in a position to effect change themselves. Until then, the stewards, need to keep the torch burning.
What's Next?
Who knows? There will be some spin offs I am sure and Baltimore and DC should see some epic shows over June 8th and 9th. But long term, this needs to be done again and done right. We have ideas, other smart folks have them too. DC is ripe for a major festival and we are sure there will be even more focus on it now. Until then though - its still a plane flight to EDC or train to Electric Zoo. Or for the lucky - TomorrowLand.
We are certainly ready to help make that happen and know the community is as well. Let's get this right - its our scene!