Yahoo! On the Road recently revealed Fall Out Boy as a band that will visit Madison May 13 during its three-month international tour.
Although the Yahoo! music festival will take place in Madison just one week after the Mifflin Street Block Party and coincide with the Revelry Music and Arts Festival, Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, said he is not worried about having larger events over two consecutive weeks. He said other communities have back-to-back shows, so Madison should be fine.
Since each festival falls on separate days and weekends, Resnick said the city and police force should be able to handle each event.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said he has no concerns about the festival.
“Quite the contrary, I think it’s really quite exciting, and I am anticipating more details to the venue and the rest of the lineup,” Verveer said. “Overall, I would say that I am very excited that the Yahoo! music festival has apparently chosen to include Madison on their tour.”
In comparing the Yahoo! festival to Revelry, Verveer said the popularity of what will hopefully be the first annual Revelry festival is dependent on the talent the Revelry Executive Committee is able to bring to perform May 4. He said he thinks people will compare the Yahoo! festival to Revelry in this regard.
As for the rest of the lineup, Resnick said he is waiting to see if Madison will host other artists.
“I was rooting for the Lumineers,” Resnick said.
The consecutive festivals will be fundamentally different events in terms of the audience and artists each will bring, according to Revelry Executive Committee Director Sarah Mathews.
With the date of the Yahoo! festival falling on the second day of finals, Mathews said she thinks students could be in more of a finals mindset. She said the timing of the Yahoo! festival could be “detrimental” to a strong University of Wisconsin student presence at the event.
“I can’t speak to what festival organizers are thinking, but I think that there are various factors, especially the timing and the choice of artists, that are going to make the Madison stop less geared toward the college audience,” Mathews said.
However, Mathews added, she thinks many high school students and Madison community members will attend the Yahoo! festival.
