Indy's massive "Hopscotch" musicfest skips over Durham for Raleigh -- here's 3 reasons why

 When our inbox here at BCR went a-buzzing last week with news of the Hopscotch music festival bound for the Triangle this September, two thoughts entered my mind.

My first thought: what a great lineup, a sign that the event's organizers at the Independent Weekly really have in mind a top-shelf collection of performances for this three-day program. Headlining acts include Public Enemy, Panda Bear, and Broken Social Scene -- and that's just three of a total of over 120 bands coming this fall. See beyond the jump for more on who's appearing.

My second thought: what I'll confess was a mild surprise to see the event based squarely in our neighbors to the east, the City of Oaks. Not for any reason of parochialism per se, but out of the seeming incongruity between the sponsor and the location -- especially for an event taking place just two months before Durham's own Troika festival.

I mean, you know, this is the Independent. Durham-based, with coverage of the whole region -- but a tricky history all its own within our Triangle region. The Indy in 2002 absorbed Raleigh's Spectator alt-weekly from the Creative Loafing chain, but its history was decidedly Raleighite. The Spectator was founded and long run by the indefatigable Bernie Reeves, whose Metro Magazine mixes arts, culture, and its publisher's interesting political leanings, as one who could fairly be said to have been heating a teapot before the idea of the "Tea Party" was a gleam in anyone's eyes.

With the purchase, the Spectator disappeared as all but the name of the arts calendar. And while writers like Bob Geary do a nice job on the Wake County end of the region, when you talk to Raleighites you can't help but notice a certain wary eye at times towards the Indy, always carrying the label of that Durham publication.

It's a hidden-in-plain-sight challenge that doesn't seem to have escaped the notice of the good folks at the Indy -- certainly not owner Steve Schewel, who cited a desire to strengthen the paper's "brand" in Raleigh as one reason for the location pick.

But it's only one out of several reasons. And the rationale writ large is one that Durham boosters should keep in mind as new entertainment options beckon in our own city center.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

First, make no mistake about it: Hopscotch is planned to be big. Really big. As the press release notes:

Carefully assembled by Hopscotch Director Greg Lowenhagen and Curator and Independent Weekly Music Editor Grayson Currin, the lineup spotlights the core of the Triangle’s rich music scene by putting it on the same stages as some of the world’s best bands.

“Several music festivals in the Triangle make it clear how strong the talent in North Carolina is, and they do it better and better each year,” Currin says. “We don’t want to replace that. Rather, we want to expand on it by showing that this area has the caliber of bands and listeners that can support a big music festival.”

Lowenhagen hatched the idea for Hopscotch after moving to Raleigh following stints in Austin and Chicago, cities known for their support of live music festivals. He was surprised that no events in the Triangle regularly brought in a fleet of bands from outside of town.

“When I returned from being away, I realized the Triangle, with its strong music heritage and abundance of local talent, seemed ready for a different, more nationally recognizable festival to call its own,” he says.

The total size: 120 bands, in more than ten venues, including highlight shows in downtown Raleigh's new crown jewel, Raleigh City Plaza.

And while some of the challenges in hosting such a big event led to a Raleigh selection, it was a decision that also factored in the Independent's desire to be seen as a whole-region asset, especially in populous Wake County, the Indy's Schewel told BCR in an interview last week.

"Definitely one reason [for the selection] is that we want to strengthen our brand in Raleigh, for sure," Schewel said. 

But while Schewel cited the Raleigh-side brand positioning of the Indy as one of three reasons for selecting downtown Raleigh, two other important elements -- venues and transit -- were just as important, he added, especially for an event that the Indy owner hopes will grow over time to have a national profile with plenty of attendees from out of town.

"We had to pick one city, because we feel like people from out of town won't easily be able to get around" across the urbs of our spread-out Triangle, Schewel told BCR.

And if you're going to pick one place for a festival of this size, right now, that seems to be Raleigh.

"There are going to be nine different clubs we're having our shows in," Schewel said, "including the Lincoln Theatre, which is large -- it holds 800, maybe a little bit more."

And just how do you get people around all those different venues, to be able to show-hop in the way that festivals like Austin's South By Southwest do?

Factor in one R-Line, Raleigh's free downtown circulator bus system.

"Every single venue that we have is right on the R-Line, so people will be able to get free transportation all around Raleigh during the nights of the festival," Schewel said.

And there's City Plaza, for which Hopscotch will be the first ticketed event; it allows a fenced-in configuration suitable for crowd control (e.g., making sure you paid your fee to get in) while allowing up to 7,000 people to squeeze in for an outdoor concert.

Schewel notes that all those crowds and attendees are all part of the festivals goals of drawing national attention to the Triangle -- and its bands to boot.

"One way [to build a national profile] is to draw people from all over the place to come to Raleigh," Schewel said. "The second is to showcase a lot of local musicians as well. The majority of bands will be national... but we have a lot of Durham bands, Chapel Hill bands, and Raleigh bands that are playing. Hopefully they'll also get some national exposure."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Speaking of exposure, the September presence of Hopscotch raises a second question: will such a large festival overexpose the local music scene, taking some of the energy away from other festivals?

Raleigh's Cherry Bounce festival, for instance, hit the stage in the City of Oaks last year in mid-October. Durham's own Troika Music Festival -- which itself resettled on the downtown Durham scene after a brief mid-decade play at adding Raleigh and Chapel Hill venues -- is set for the November timeframe.

Does the September of timing suggest that local music fans might be tempted to hop, skip and jump over other festivals?

Neither the Indy nor Troika festival organizer-in-chief Melissa Thomas seem to think so.

Thomas tells BCR that the Indy's Lowenhagen reached out to Troika well in advance to make sure that her crew wouldn't have any worries. "And immediately it occurred to me, we won't," Thomas says.

Using the analogy of Troika as a bakery, she described a scenario in which suddenly all kinds of other great bakeries start opening up for business on your street. "You know what happens, that becomes the place everyone goes to get baked goods."

For Thomas, that could be the impact that Hopscotch has on the reputation of the Triangle music scene, helping to enrich the region's music profile in a way that helps all players.

Thomas, who also runs indie label 307 Knox Records in addition to a non-musical career, notes that the two festivals are vastly different in their resources, from a volunteer-run, barter-centric festival in Troika's case to Hopscotch's model, where paid staff will plan and execute the event.

"I feel we're in two different leagues," Thomas said, adding that she thinks the larger stage Hopscotch offers could over time see bands having "moved up" from fests like Troika to the national-stage exposure of Hopscotch.

In that cooperative spirit, Lowenhagen will be attending planning meetings for Troika as scheduling permits, for instance.

The Indy's Schewel added that the Indy had been and remained a "big supporter" of Troika, Cherry Bounce, SparkCon and other local events, and adding that Lowenhagen and Currin had been coordinating with other festivals.

"I think we were especially concerned about the Raleigh ones," Schewel said. "Obviously it's important for Troika as well, but we were especially concerned about coordinating with the Raleigh groups, because we support what they do and always have."

"This is going to be on a larger scale, and of course we are also bringing in a lot of national acts that they don't," he added. "I know there has been contact with those other groups."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hopscotch makes its way to downtown Raleigh this fall -- Sept. 9-11, 2010. Among the Durham bands: Megafaun, 9th Wonder, Hammer No More The Fingers, Luego, Midtown Dickens, and Ryan Gustafson.

Among the sponsors: the R-Line circulator, Larry's Beans, Edward McKay Used Books, Peace Camera, the downtown Raleigh Sheraton, and City of Oaks bloggers extraordinaire NewRaleigh.com.

For more details and a full line-up of acts, see hopscotchmusicfest.com.

Comments

[LD]

Maybe next year it can hopscotch it over here to Durham, when the Geer, the new Golden Belt venue, and the new Main Street venue (among others) are open for business.

[Tar Heelz]

Let's see how long it is before Raleigh's Planning Director, Mitchell Silver, uses this decision by the Indy to bolster his contention that Raleigh is region's centerpiece city surrounded by supporting, lesser cities and burbs.

[GreenLantern]

Raleigh must be WAY cooler than Durm. Why would so many pay to park on the street if it weren't true? That must be why the R Circulator is running for free.

If we could just run that old Ford/Kia dealer out of downtown, bulldoze the site, and put up an even bigger amphitheatre than Raleigh's, then Durham can be the centerpiece city!

[Retro-Grouch]

Raleigh is nice,
Durham is too,
now can we just get a train running
to connect the two?

I don't think it matters much whether is is light rail or not, but VERY IMPORTANT it needs to run all day and into the evening and not just at peak 9-5 commuter hours. In the meantime an HOV bus lane with express downtown to downtown service would be a nice placeholder.

seriously, how fricking long is it gonna be? This good looking festival is a perfect example. I sure as hell don't want to drive from Durham to Raleigh to go see the shows, I'm sure there are Raleigh folk who feel the same way about TROIKA or Bulls games, etc.

[tm]

+1 Retro-Grouch

[Merry]

Same weekend as the Blues Festival? Different kind of music I know but I for one would typically be interested in both,

[Stockard Channing]

It's still better planning than my most hated double-booking of Durham's CenterFest and Raleigh's sparkcon. Though sparkcon now blows CenterFest out of the water.

[Bill]

Gonna be a good summer in DTR. As a relative new comer to DTR, it was interesting to hear a little history into why the Indy is Durham centric. Glad to see that Kings is opening back up.... the Raleigh "boutique" amphitheater is well underway, 15 - 20 Live Nation shows a year there with 5000 ppl capacity ...parking here is a breeze, so is traffic. I say this a someone who has lived places it's Not! Course I'll be walking from Oakwood. :-) I hope this doesn't hopscotch anywhere. Raleigh totally needs and deserves this.

[Bill]

BTW: "Let's see how long it is before Raleigh's Planning Director, Mitchell Silver, uses this decision by the Indy to bolster his contention that Raleigh is region's centerpiece city surrounded by supporting, lesser cities and burbs." hmmmm, lets see...what's the state capital 'round here? D-town...hmm next to Raleigh isn't it? This is a widely held view by the rest of the country too.