- flickr.com/photos/focka/
Live Nation was not playing around when they expressed a desire to put on more festivals in the Tampa Bay area.
"I can't really put together Bonnaroo or Coachella," Neil Jacobson told the Tampa Bay Timesin November, citing the massive budget and infrastructure required to throw mega-fests. "But we felt we could produce a number of smaller to midsize festivals that could appeal to different genres."
Jacobson is president of Live Nation Florida, which put on the three day Big Guava Festival as well as the Sunshine Music and Blues Festival, amongst others. They also staged last November's Coastline Music Festival, but stated in a press release that it has "ended its affiliation" with Coastline, adding that they are not responsible for "any posts from the Coastline Facebook Page and all other social sites…"
The exact reasons for the split weren't clarified, but the concert promotions company soothed fans of the fest today by dropping the lineup announcement for the inaugural Coral Skies Music Festival set for Sat., Oct. 25 at the MidFlorida Credit Amphitheatre (and the next day at West Palm Beach's Cruzan Amphitheatre).
Cage The Elephant — who were literally just in town to play a free show for Clear Channel radio station 97X — are on the top line of the announcement, but the real big draw is Juilan Casablancas. The 35-year-old Strokes frontman is coming with a different band (The Voidz), and he's joined on the lineup by ex-Alexisonfire crooner Dallas Green (aka City and Colour) as well as UK indie-poppers Bombay Bicycle Club, and Bleachers (fronted by Jack Antonoff of fun. and Steel Train).
A pair of local acts done good — Benjamin Booker and Good Graeff — are on the bill, too, as are Canada's Toyko Police Club, Nashville-based Wild Cub, Junior Prom and longtime Tampa-stepchildren The Hold Steady (which just headlined WMNF's Tropical Heatwave).
Early bird tickets are priced at $20 and will be available from July 14-17. Tickets increase to $30 on July 18, and if you want to get close you'll have to spring for one of the limited general admission pit tickets for $55. VIP tickets — which come with preferred reserved seating (or pit access), special viewing areas at the second stage, parking, private restrooms as well as select souvenirs — will run you $150. More ticketing info is available here.
Like Coastine, Coral Skies will have craft beer, food trucks, and art. More information is available at Coral Skies' official website. Check out the poster below.
