Kevin Barnes Will Not Perform at Lake Worth-It Festival

By Reed Fischer Tue., Jul. 27 2010 at 4:58 PM

Categories: Local Music, News

Of Montreal frontman Kevin Barnes will not perform at Lake Worth-It on August 7 due to the economic climate and low sponsorship, according to organizer Cecil Lunsford. Barnes was previously slated as the headliner for the daylong festival in Lake Worth's Bryant Park. In connection with the announcement, Lunsford adds that the two-stage event has been condensed to one stage. "This still provides ample room for our bands to perform an amazing show and will in no way affect the production quality of the festival," Lunsford says. "We are still expecting a big turnout on August 7 and look forward to seeing you all there."

As the lineup currently stands, John Ralston & Invisible Music are set to headline. The rest of the bill includes: Black Weather Shaman, Black Finger, the Jameses, Guy Harvey, Jesse Baumann, the Dewars, Everymen, Kill Now?!, Sweet Bronco, Yellow #6, Bladesong, the People Upstairs, Angry Pudding, Fire Zuave, Leading the Heroes, the Ridicules, Blond Fuzz, the Hard Richards, and Wayside Flyer.

Based upon County Grind's conversations with multiple sources, there is a slim possibility that Kevin Barnes will still perform in Palm Beach County sometime during the weekend. As we have more information, we will update this posting.

Read the full press release below.

The First Annual Lake Worth-It Music and Art Festival is approaching, and we at Shaman Stick Productions are counting down the days to celebrate Lake Worth, its musicians, and the promise of an excellent day of fun and music. However, due to the condition of the economy, and low sponsorship, the scope of the inaugural festival has been changed slightly. Firstly, Kevin Barnes will not be appearing at Lake Worth-It; in keeping with the spirit and essence of the festival as an exciting showcase of our eclectic and talent-filled city, we felt it best to put our available finances into production. Moreover, in an effort to limit the costs associated with putting the festival together we are not building a second stage. Instead, we are dividing the main-stage in half. This still provides ample room for our bands to perform an amazing show and will in no way affect the production quality of the festival. We are still expecting a big turnout on August 7 and look forward to seeing you all there.

10 a.m. Saturday, August 7, at Bryant Park, Golfview and Lake Avenue, Lake Worth. Tickets cost $20 in advance, $30 at the door. Visit lakeworthit.org.

Tags:

Cecil Lunsford, Kevin Barnes, Lake Worth-It

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now you can pay $15.00 to see Kevin Barns at respectable st the day after fest. Isnt that funny?
No, Reed. You took the word local as offensive. I spent 22 years in Hotlanta and really enjoyed the local music scene. On any given weekend night, you had a choice of ~ 60 to 70 mainly local acts playing around town. I wasn't knocking local acts by any means. Very few big acts are selling out. STP tix went on sale today at Hard Rock and there are still great seats available. Yet, Lady Gaga continues to sell out and according to Rolling Stone, has made almost $62M in touring this year alone.
Freakerdude: It's a moot point now that the tickets cost $10. However, I must add that although there is technically "music" being played at a Jonas Bros show at Cruzan, there is (thankfully) nothing else similar in that scenario to a day outside in Bryant Park. The money for any day-long festival in a public space (as opposed to a concert venue) has to offset the costs of setting up (and cleaning up afterwords) in a spot that isn't expressly made to hold large crowds of people like this. And you say "local" like it's a dirty word. Even the Jonas Brothers (love that we're using them as a comparison here) was once a local band. Anthony and Zachary Dewar (the Dewars) are twin brothers, so there's definitely some "boy band" potential at this event -- if you don't mind that their songs are organic and heartfelt and aren't about Taylor Swift.
Reed's 4th point is probably the most important, continuing the endless work of promoting Lake Worth as a destination for music and the arts means we all need to invest in it.
$20 for a small, all local band concert is overpriced period! Even big name acts like The Eagles and The Lilith Fair have cancelled many shows this year due to lack of sales. The Jonas Brothers have cancelled 29 US shows this year. It's simple....people just don't have the money to spend.
Look, all I'm saying who the helll cares about Kevin Barnes, there are so many good bands and artists at this festival. Pay the fee, enjoy live music, get some cool art, drink, and chill!
Sorry, but $20 is nuts for a small local festival in Lake Worth with mostly local bands playing. $10 is more reasonable. It does stink that Barnes won't play to support the scene where he got his start though.
Who cares? It'll still be a fun festival! This is blown way out of proportion! Support the scene. With or without Kevin Barnes.
kevin barnes has obviously become an analcentric bloated egotistical moron, and his new albums are getting crappier and crappier as the titles get more contrived and longer. the fact that he can't even lend his 'charity' to a flourishing scene makes us all very sad.
It's disappointing to hear the negativity coming from some of you. This is sure to be a nice event with a great cause. This shouldn't be about "who's the main act" it's about supporting the artists involved and each other.
tickets are on sale for $10,00 now !!!
well said reed!
Anonymous (if that's really you and not someone else): We're comparing apples to oranges here. 1. Orlando is enormous population-wise in comparison to Lake Worth. There are scads more local music fans in the area to buy those $8 tickets. 2.In spite of the low prices, the Orlando festival has only announced nine artists participating on its official site (http://indiesummer.net/artists.html). I'm not saying that there won't be more added, I'm also not convinced they'll fill seven stages with 70 artists quite yet either. I might check in with the Solliloquists of Sound (the organizers, who have a bit of a national following and drawing power) after the fact to see how they fare. 3. This article (http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2010-07-15/entertainment/os-cal-abbott-indie-summer-fest-0716120100715_1_ticket-kaleigh-baker-mind-set) says that one of the stages is set up in the back of a U-Haul. Not the same atmosphere in the least. 4. Even if you don't like the ticket price that much, does it ultimately mean that the IDEA of the festival "hurts the scene more than it helps"? If we agree that the basic premise of a day in Bryant Park with music, beer, food and art is a good one, the $20 is an investment in building up the prominence of local acts so that there are actual music-loving strangers in the crowd -- and not just the friends of the bands. An ambitious effort on behalf of the local music scene is the only way to make it grow.
I disagree Reed. $20 ($30 at the door) is to way much money for this and hurts the scene more than it helps. For comparison, Orlando is doing an $8 fest of local bands http://events.myspace.com/Event/5551118/Indie-Summer-Fest No knock on the bands, but perhaps a bit to ambitious on the creators part.
A few thoughts... To Anonymous: Really? With or without Kevin Barnes as part of Lake-Worth It, a $20 ticket (less than $1 per act performing) is completely reasonable. Compare this price to any other live music event of this size and scope, and you'll likely pay a lot more. To Michael: I have not seen 100 percent of the acts perform before, but several of them are amazing live -- some markedly better than lots of those bands that NPR and Pitchfork tell us about.
Well there goes any reason to go at all.
do the absurd ticket prices go down now?
This is sad news. I wonder to what extent pigeon shit influenced this decision.