Vegoose 2008 cancelled
Turns out the rumors were true. Despite an apparent set date, the fourth annual Vegoose Music Festival has been cancelled. In fact, based on the words from Thomas & Mack Center and Sam Boyd Stadium director Daren Libonati, the Las Vegas festival may not be going down anytime ever again.
“We’re not doing it”…
“(Vegoose producers) are still trying to figure out what we’re going to do or not do, but it doesn’t look like we’re going in that direction.”
The recent problems with Vegoose related to a disappointing attendance draw in 2007. Only some 30,000 folks attended last year’s festival, compared to the nearly 72,000 who bought tickets in 2005.
Despite these problems, there was still some hope that the festival would take place in 2008. There was even a date (October 31-November 1) floating around…
Could this be the first of many festival causalities resulting from the over saturation of the market? We shall see…














1st Vegoose will always have a special place in my heart. Best festival I have ever been too, and I have been to a lot. Bummer the 1st Vegoose couldnt be reproduced in subsequent years…
I know this thread is like a million years old, but just wanted to say Vegoose ‘05 was awesome and fun, but at the end of it, I was fucking totally exhausted! Between Vegoose itself, the latenite shows (which were really the highlight of the whole thing) and the final Panic show, I was just spread way too thin. On top of that, I only got to see Las Vegas itself for just a few hours. Being my first time in Vegas, I was ultimately disappointed with that fact. On top of all that, It was one of the most expensive trips I have taken. Things I didn’t like at all: the fucking heat and the overpriced crappy beer and crappy food that were conveniently located in the middle of nowhere. As I drove out of Las Vegas, my only thought was, “That’s the last time I do Vegoose”
I was at the first Vegoose, and I swore I would NEVER go back again. Getting out of there every night and finding a way to get back to the hotel was a nightmare. Any festival where you can’t camp is going to go to shit if you don’t have hotels very close by. The location just sucked. OH. And there was NO Shakedown WHATSOEVER. SUCKED! It won’t be missed.
bye
buh
vip stages were bunk
late night shows rocked
the great evil pumpkin
buffet sucked
t p f l b d m sci t p & f
vegoose was fun 4 a minute
vegoose ???
CALIFORNIA’S WHERE IT’S AT
No surprise. Last year’s line-up sucked. Seriously, the Saturday atmosphere was depressing. So many angry hippies, it would have been funny if not for the crappy music. If they want a gay prog-rock festival, then do it, but don’t mix it with jam bands.
R.I.P. Vegoose
Superfly really does not care what anyone thinks. Thats really too bad. In the end everyone suffers for their greediness. To all of you that thought last year “rocked” take a look at the line ups of the other festivals being thrown by Superfly. They all have similar line ups to the first Vegoose. They got generic as hell in 07. If I wanted to go to a show like that I would have gone to Coachella which still would have been 100 times better. Nothing personal to the “other side” but this was our hippie festival. That was taken away from us and replaced with “your” line up. That is a slap in the face to the people that promoted this festival through word of mouth. I like what someone above wrote “When Phish played the Great Went 100,000 hippies made it. They didn’t have the money but because the draw of the gig they made it.” I don’t think it is the economy or other festivals. It’s just not worth a hippie dollar and it was ours.
all Nevadans know Reno’s the place to be. head north fuckers!!
I attended ‘05 and ‘06. As soon as Panic didn’t headline, the attendance blows! They brought in these trendy new age music that doesn’t have the numbers that the jam scene does. Panic, moe., Phill and Dave have a huge following. They lay out of the festival should have been redesigned too. If you build it they will come…
I attended the festival in 2005 because the line up was awesome…Flaming Lips, Beck, Ryan Admas (who I was actually the most excited to see, but he cancelled!). We had a GREAT time! Although, I would have to agree, the line up got progeressively worse in 2006 and then 2007, so I had no intrest in going. Personally, I am not into the jam bands, but they sure do attract the hippies!
bring that shit to new jersey
The Vegas music scene sucks. I want to give a special f u to Superfly Productions… Money hungry bastards. Whats next
I have to agree with most of what’s been posted. I attended the 05 and 06 shows and was blown away by the line ups. I arrived each day at gate open and left after the last note was played. I came back from the 06 show and immediately put the 07 date on my calendar and stayed on with the email alerts. As soon as tix went on sale I purchased the VIP package,booked my plane tix and hotel room. The original 07 lineup was not as strong as the past and I was optimistic that they would keep adding stronger artisits to the line up. Boy was I screwed. I was so pissed that I put my tix on stubhub to recoup some of the cost only to be skunked! I cancelled my room and luckily received some credit for the flight.I was curious about this year and came across this site only to find I was not the only one upset about the linup but the low attendance. It’s a very simple formula: GET THE TALENT AND THE PEOPLE WILL FOLLOW.
I went to 05, 06 and didn’t want to believe my eyes when the line-up had changed so much. I agree with the jam bands needing to be there for the draw. I also agree with having different genres, ie. hip hop, pop etc, but spread it out. Use the main stadium, allow camping. The venue has ample amounts of parking. With the cost of tix, add in camping. It was a great idea having a festival in Vegas for Halloween, but I think the corporate BS got a hold of it and squeezed all it could out of the fans and bands. 2005 was the shit.
I’m reading last years lineup and wishing I hadn’t missed it. It is insanely awesome….what the hell are people on here smoking when they say last year’s sucked? I didn’t see the lineups of previous years, so maybe 07 sucked IN COMPARISON, but just looking at the list of acts on the 07 lineup and it blows me away.
Iggy and the Stooges performing their 1970 classic album Fun House….are you serious? does anyone realize how fucking awesome and historic this is?????
Daft Punk, MIA, the Shins, Battles, Ghostland Observatory, Rage….i can’t remember the others at the moment, but these are enough… I’m sad to have missed an amazing group of artists.
No kidding, well that’s what happens when you hire a bunch of shitty bands that nobody wants to see. I went in 2006 and it was incredible…..the Phil/Trey/Medeski late night show was one of the best ever….too many good acts to name. Last year, however, I couldn’t find two bands I wanted to see on their whole lineup. Too bad I would have loved to go back if there was something quality happening.
people still listen to jambands?
what the fuck
Jesus, you people must be reading a different lineup than the ones I see on Wikipedia. 2007 had an absurd list of bands, with PLENTY of wanky jammers I might add. By far the strongest one of them all. 2006 was weak, but 2007 was insane. I don’t know what kind of organizational problems they may or may not have had, but it’s sad that a festival has to pander to Jammy fans in order to stay successful. I shudder to think of what is on top of this fictional “musical food chain”.
The lineup got weaker every year. They moved away from the audience that made the concert possible.
I talked to them many times when they announced year three that people would not show up if they continued on their path. They said they were widening the audience but in fact it turned away their most lucrative audience.
If they want to bring this back they need to have the following:
Open the actual stadium up again. Just using the outside for an all day concert with little to no room to sit down is not wise especially if there are no ins and outs. The stadium offered a place for people to sit down and relax to pace themselves.
Use wristbands. Ins and outs are important for a long festival like this.
Find a campsite where people can do car camping and have shuttles to and from there.
Provide more free shuttles for those with wristbands to the strip.
Keep the bands true to what the festival goers want. Most of these festivals survive from innovative music that includes musicianship where the band members know how to jam. Regurgitated music, pop, and rap music are lower in the musical food chain. This is not saying that they have no appeal but the musical talent is usually lacking.
Well, it doesent take a Rocket Scientist to figure this one out! I went the first year, it was a once in a life time event. The line up was great and they used the main stadium. The second year was not even close, they didn’t use the main stadium and the line up was not even close to the first year for the same price. The third year was too main stream and the line up was so/so! NO wonder why sales declined. Shame on you!
bring it to dallas texas or tucson arizona
OF COURSE IT IS THE LINE UP………. come on I went in 06 and it was the best show I had been to. 05 had an amazing lineup but I wasn’t able to attend. I was so looking forward to 07 till I saw the line up. This started off to replace Junefest with the jam bands and such but went totally down hill. Get back to how this all started and bring back the right kind of bands and you will bring the people.
the reason attendance went down was not because of other festivals, it was because, well, the first year they had GOOD BANDS for the right kind of people, us hippies. i went year one & two, but 07 was just lame. good job superfly, i see you moved on to destroying bonnaroo too.
I hear mostly two side here and there is always two sides to every discussion. I have to lean heavily to the 05′ and 06′ side as I and a buddy were fortunate to have attended those two years. I have travelled and seen enough live music in my time that I could probably retire comfortably if I could recoup the money I have spent doing it. The first two years were as good of live events as I had ever attended. With the night shows, we did over 45 hours of music in four days and we were looking forward to doing our 3rd Vegoose event until we saw the line-up. We would have been there had it been anywhere close to the line-up of the first two years. If there is a bright side, I saved a whole pile of loot that I would have otherwise put alot of in the pockets of the promoters. I am hearing a common line here and hopefully the promoters pay attention and listen to the people whom they attracted the first two years. When they are discussing declining ticket sales, I hope they are looking in the mirror and looking at the real reason for the fall.
si, es una terrible lastima que se alla cancelado el vegoose del 08, ya que era para superar la granalineacion del 07.
es una lastima que no vaya a ver un buen halloween musical para la ciudad del pecado.
It could have had something to do with the AMAZING lineup the first year as compared to the good, but not as wonderful past two years…. I went the first year but not the next two personally. I think the lineup played a big factor for me…
serves them right! We went last year and had a horrible time. This event is not planned well. The staff has no idea what is going on at any time. The VIP packages are terrible. They made us pay and extra $200 to get the tickets that we already paid $300 for on Vegoose’s own website. It was horrible.
Uhm. Last years lineup was the best one of the 3. Muse, Daft Punk, and ratm are amazing live. (and daft punk only played like 8 or 9 us shows on ther tour)
unfortunetly I didnt have the funds to go…two day tickets were a bit pricey….
IF it’s supposed to be a hippie jam fest I agree that the lineup last year wasn’t that
HOWEVER
it was creatd to draw toursists to vegas during a down time.
The reasn it didn’t draw last year? I would guess lack of advertising combined with then crashing economy.
How often do you have the chance to see muse, daft, and rage at the same venue? (for anyone who hasn’t given them a chance muse is AMAZING live…i’ve seen hundreds of bands and they are definetly in the top five)
anywho sucks that it aint happeing this year especially cuz I got a comped room for three nights @ the riv I could have used for that time frame..haha.
They should have been keeping it more to the JAM scene… Thats what makes a festival a festival. Bonnaroo type venue in the big city… I like some of the other comments i read like compare year to year and the decline of the crowd is probably based on the music. WITHOUT A DOUBT… Good luck with putting it back together in 2009!!!! I want some WideSpread Panic, STS9, Karl Denson, Ben Harper, Michael Franti, You know the rest….
Look me up lets party in Vegas anyways
Yeah, Vegoose 2007 was terrible. Just look at that line-up.
Daft Punk’s finale of the US leg of arguably the most incredible tour since Pink Floyd’s The Wall.
Rage Against The Machine’s final reunion performance of 2007.
MUSE - Yeah, they play Wembley now
STS9 - nuff said.
Public Enemy - again, nuff said.
M.I.A. before MTV knew about her.
so yeah, you can’t blame it on the line up - Rage headlined a sold out Coachella 07 and a sold out Lolla 08.
and Daft Punk was sampled in the biggest hit of last year (during the time of the festival)
too many festivals with too many bad bands.. people have less cheese to spend and aren’t gonna spend it on sucky bands! bring on a strong line-up and you will bring back the true meaning of festival! vegoose was fun last year … it was nice having less people cos there was more space and less body heat.
my two cents: they should have avoided booking bands that recently played coachella and were already at the tale end of their tours. plus- it’s so simple & true - californians are starved for bonnaroo type crap. we’re forced to compete for tiny venue tickets like HOB in order to see bands like ratdog, yonder, umph, soundtribe etc. while the other half of the country gets them all in one glorious fell swoop at festivals like langarado & bonaroo. vegoose kind of filled that gaping void for like a second.
I went the first year and it was outstanding…rivaled bonnaroo in my opinion. The following year not bad, but still a let down from the event that was the first one. I think they tried to cater to many musical tastes..I love music of all types, but look at the first one you can see what they did. It would have been great if they started out slow and came on strong in subsiquent shows. I think the stared hard and put on such a great event anything after the first one just paled in comparison. Sad to see it go…I think it would have found it’s roots and gone back to the formula that worked.
Vegoose was fantastic last year! I never saw these “angry hippies”. As for the attendance issue I think it was some what due to the fires in southern California.
Bring back the jam bands and Vegoose will be a success once again. For the promoters to try and take a completely different direction and think it was fail-safe regardless of who was on the line-up was a HUGE mistake. Hopefully someone lost their job over that moment of creative thinking. Go with what you know. Leave that ‘07 lineup to the LA’s and Texas’s of the world. Bring back the jam bands to Vegoose.
And if there was any question as to the interest in new festivals and the same ol’ jam band music, just look at the recent success of Denver’s new Mile High Music Festival - 90,000 draw in the first year. That was without night shows, gambling and a strip.
Wow ! I’m sorry to hear the end of VEGOOSE—I thought it was one of Vegas’s best venues ! Everything else in vegas sucks !
the first two years were great I think the veneue is perfect and I cant imagine a better way to experience vegas, I hadnt had tha much fun in vegas since the dead(w mathews opening)I just dont understand how a festival would start with one genre of music one year, mix a little the next, and then go a complete different direction with the festival???????? I have never been to a cleaner concert series, and accommadations(busses and volunteers) were great. I just have to wunder witch management evil doer bungled this one?????? I sure wish they could start over, maybee when phish comes alive once more. tyflmbma
it sucks vegoose isnt going on this year i just came across this site while i was looking for info on it. last year wasawesome fuck what anyone says. Atmosphere was dope, then rage cypress hill, queens of the stoneage, and daft punk! they just needed to promote that shit outside of vegas more so more tourists knew it was going down. This ruins my day.
the majority rules and they say the line up from year one was the best it was hard to pick between the four stages or hit a couple for parts of the sets then year two only three stages jam bands are what makes a festival i saw all three shows did the late nights all three years get back to roots thats all there is to it peace
This is what happens when you try and lure a crowd with good music the first year and then continually decline the quality of the bands and hope people still come.
Compare the lineups year to year and see how it declined.
If they want the concert to come back they would have to go back to the original bands they started and also have camping areas so people can pace themselves and hang out at their campsites. Many people who go to these concerts would rather camp and save the hotel money since the ticket cost is relatively high.
bring back the jam bands
i am disappointed
hope you break your leg
much love and respect
heidi
I attended the first Vegoose in 2005 when I was still in college. I managed to scrape together a plane ticket ($300) and a 3 day pass ($200). Had $400 in my pocket for the trip. Basically mid semester broke my bank roll. The reason being, was the LINE UP!!! Widespread, Dave, Trey, Arcade Fire, String Cheese, MOE - these were the bands everyone came to see. Bands who headline individually at festivals - never together. That’s what was so inticing. Now, I’m 26, I have the funds to go again and do it right, and you shut it down because you had 30k fans show up for Lupe, Moe, and Rage last year. Duh? The bands from 05 bring people far and wide. It’s like the GREAT WENT with Phish. You think those 100,000 hippies had the money to drive across country to see a band. Hell no, but they did it because nothing would stop em from seeing them. Bring the music, and you’ll see the crowd. Also, how can you justify not having this festival? So, 30-40,000 fans would prob buy a 2 day pass this holloween, and spend money on lodging and travel. It’s not worth it. Not to mention the Casino late nights. It’s pretty awful if you can’t make a Vegas festival line your pockets. Who ever let this ball drob should be FIRED!
BRING IT TO SAN DIEGO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bummer. Rage & Daft Punk were great last year. Planning on heading back to New Orleans to check out Voodoo fest.
fuck no vegoose the goddamn border patrol wouldnt let me cross for pemberton now this thanks G.W for ruining all our fun.
IM SOOO SAAAD!!!!
I was counting on Vegoose to have Portishead this year…. I could cry cause I went last year and I really thought it was the most awsome festival… perfect weather and perfect city!!! And it was my birthday celebration too… awww this sucks big time. No cool vacation for me this year
i agree that maybe last year wasnt the best lineup but it was still so cool to be there anyway… all the costumes and the beer and great party….
well… not much i can do but whine and feel sad today.
boooooo…. well im glad i got to experience a bit of it.
rock on.
xo
as soon as you start expanding the lineup to include pop music,real music fans will stay home!!!vegoose 05 rocked but the 07 lineup was a joke-i really hope this dosnt happen to rothbury!!!
Just Like Woodstock, the first Vegoose was by far the best!!!!! 2006 could have been better, but you didn’t get the “bang for your buck” that you did in 2005. When the lineup for 2007 came my first comment was what is this crap. That might explain the angry hippies that were mentioned earlier. I’m still sorry to hear that it has been cancelled this year. I hope Superfly is monitoring these posts.
WTF? No Vegoose? WHat happened to this awesome festival? I realise Rothbury ate all the festivals alive this year, but is that really a reason to quite? It isnt hard to figure out what went wrong…I am a Vegas native and even I didnt attend the 07 show…just late nights. The atmosphere and bands werent worth it to me. 05 and 06 rocked my socks off. I could not believe that type of show was in my home town…it just never happens. So, why the hell ruin it? EVen the bands have a great time here for the holiday! PLease bring back Vegoose to its true form and bring a little life to this Desert!
Damn it…I can’t believe this…my first year being able to make it out there and no show! Still going to Vegas for halloween but what the hell I’m I going to do? I’ve looked forward to this fest for 5 years while being stuck on the east coast and dumb ass bonnaroo.
The 07 lineup was awesome, all of you saying it sucked are absolutely retarded. The lineup for the price was insane. If you want your folk/reggae festivals (which I’m still totally down with) check out Reggae on the River, etc. There are still plenty to choose from.
NO SHIT, the line up sucked cock, if they kept this festival to its roots, the jam band community they would make there profits. Just like Bonaroo and every other gigantic festival, vegoose sold out and payed for that.
The Grateful Dead last played @ Sam Boyd in ‘95… That’s why I went out there in ‘05, during the Sox Frenzy in Chicago…
Bring the Jam Bands back and I will be there…
The reason attendance dropped is because there were less hippie jam bands in 2007 plain and simple. They created the festival idea to begin with. Fans of other bands dont travel to see them as much. In 2006 some of the alternative emo pop bands were a dumb idea. Few of us like them and the younger crowd they appeal to dont travel or spend money they dont have. I like STS9 and Bass Nectar and even Daft Punk, but the latter will bring fans but not in the big numbers needed. Phil Lesh, Widespread, Phish etc would bring attendance back as well as a big classic rock act reunion. Rothbury ruled.
Canceled, my man. Sorry.
Okay… jokes over…. this is no longer funny… whats the deal on Vegoose for sure… cause its hard to believe a bunch of rumors when nothing is even posted on the actual Vegoose website
I attended all 3 shows. I felt all three shows shocased great music and were a blast. But, I see attendence dropping from two things. One was the lineups. The second was the dates. The first year halloween was on a Monday, making for a great 3 day weekend. The last two years it was midweek. Vegoose 3 Halloween was on a Wednesday. We all like to have fun on Halloween, but to have fun on Halloween and go to Vegas on the weekend after/before was just too much. I thought this years would have been off the hook. Halloween is on a Friday, making for a one hell of a weekend party atmosphere and very large crowds.
I attended Vegoose ‘05 and thought it was great. Afterwards, I was already making plans for the following year, but it seemed like each year the lineups progressively became less interesting. ’05’s lineup was straight hippie- you had Phil and Friends, Widespread, Moe., Trey, Dave and Friends- musicians with a following. Bands that attract fans from far away. Each year, as the lineup continued to get worse, more and more people were turned off. I know me and my friends and people I had met in ‘05 all came to the same conclusion, which was it wasn’t worth attending any more because the quality of the music was so poor. Vegoose worked in ‘05 and its sad to see the event go through this identity crisis. I would love for it to return to its ‘05 incarnation. Hopefully it will. If not, well, I know that I had a great time at the first one.
Vegoose is awesome because it’s like Bonnaroo for the west coast. I agree with jesse, bring back the jam bands! People aren’t gonna come if they’re not interested in the bands playing. Also, a significant problem may be the PRICE of the ticket and the fact that we are in a recession, headed straight for a depression, and many people just don’t have the funds to buy the ticket and pay for lodging and transportation. Maybe lowering the ticket price and offering very cheap hotel packages/camping grounds would help!
i truel’y beleive that the reason you guy;s saw such a drop in ticket sale’s is because of the line up the fisrt years line up was amazing as well as the second year but it just seamed that each year it got a little less interesting bring back phil, and moe, and umphrees, sts9, particle, MMW, and youi no all the jam bands and i would put my life on it you guys would do so much better last years fest i and as well as many maby people that i know only did the late nights so thats what i think and i hope you guys do keep it going vegoose really was a great festival as a matter of fact it was my favorite
About time - 2005 was enough.
No surprise. Last year’s line-up sucked. Seriously, the Saturday atmosphere was depressing. So many angry hippies, it would have been funny if not for the crappy music. If they want a gay prog-rock festival, then do it, but don’t mix it with jam bands.
R.I.P. Vegoose
DAFT PUNK!!!!!!!
I’m surprised to hear that there was such a low turnout considering the performers of last year… DAFT PUNK was absolutely amazing… not to mention a breathtaking performance from MIA, Thievery Corporation, Muse and the many others.
To be honest, there is no way they could ever remotely beat last years line up so…Like all the others (warp tour, coachella, lollapolooza…
This is not the 1st victim, Vineland was also cancelled due to competition and the vast number of festivals out there.
Way too many festivals.
I would be surprised if Pemberton makes it, although the location is very beautiful, and it would be more of a camping trip.
Salt Lake City, UT do it.
Bring that shit to Dallas.
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