#heritagefest

4.21.2016:  Update on this festival here.

Back in August, local site Vanyaland, reported about a new festival taking place in Rhode Island, which was being described as “the largest music festival of its kind in the entire Northeast / New England region”, and possibly taking place at Quonset Naval Air Base June 25th and 26th, 2016.  

The Las Vegas-based promotion company, Evil Vixen Promotion, is organizing the festival and mentioned they wanted to book bands like Metallica, Foo Fighters, and the Black Keys, though nothing was finalized just yet.

Looking at the websites for both America Rocks and Evil Vixen Promotions, it appears things have changed.  According to the America Rocks website, the two-day festival that was targeted to take place in North Kingstown in June, is now listed as three days, and will take place at Pierce Stadium in East Providence July 22-24.

Though the dates aren't offically listed on the America Rocks page, the information can be seen on both the East Providence Heritage Days Facebook page and the EVP website.

Pierce Field / Site Map

The America Rocks website shows the detailed site plan layout of the Pierce Athletic Complex , which contains a football field and several baseball fields. 

Looking at the plans, there will be one main stage located near the parking lot, with a beer pavilion and sponsors at the other end.  It appears the main concert area will be roughly the length of a football field, and I’m curious what the capacity will be.  Let’s take a guess.

How many people can you comfortably fit onto a football field?  Keep in mind, you’ll have sponsors, a sound booth, cameras, fire lanes, people with blankets/chairs, etc.  Maybe 7 square feet a person?  With a 57,600 square foot field, that would give you 8,228 people.  The map below doesn’t include the stadium seating on both sides, which fits roughly 8,000 people.  So maybe 16,000 people in the main concert area?  I could be way off.  Who knows?  Thoughts? 

Google Maps

It appears the baseball fields to the right of the stadium will feature vendors, a motorcycle and automotive dealer display, amusements, food trucks, a beer pavilion, and a small stage.

Maybe add another 4,000 people in this area, and it gives you a 20,000 capacity festival, which would be roughly the size of Boston Calling, or the old Life Is Good Festival.  This would make it a good sized festival, but significantly less than Govenors Ball (45,000) in NYC.

Who’s Playing / Lineup?

Initiall reports were they were in talks with bands like Metallica, Foo Fighters, Black Keys, and The Arctic Monkeys, though nothing was set in stone.  If the capacity is indeed around 20k, I think Metallica would be out, as they seem to only like to play festivals 80k+.  The Foo Fighters seem to have a solid New England draw and played two sold out shows at Fenway last summer, so I’m guessing they would be out as well.  The Evil Vixen Promotion website, lists a prospective artist roster containing some big name rock bands, but none as big as Metallica or the Foo Fighters.

AR2016 will feature an artist roster that will be consistent / reflective of the following [PROSPECTIVE] artist roster. The following artist roster is not representative of the actual contracted artist roster at this time and is for conceptual purposes only.

Merge With Heritagefest

The America Rocks festival is partnering with Heritagefest, which used Pierce Field for it’s festival last year.  However, this seems like an odd match, as the 2014 festival featured doo-wop and the opposite types of artists America Rocks is trying to book.

Same weekend as Newport Folk Festival?

If the dates look familiar, it’s because it’s the same exact weekend as the Newport Folk Festival.  Of all the weekends, I have no idea why they chose this one, because you’ll have two music festivals taking place 38 miles from each other.  So what does this mean?

One look at that prospective lineup, and it’s safe to say these are two totally different festivals, and musically, it doesn’t appear they would be competing for the same fans or artists.  The 2016 NFF is basically sold out (only Friday tickets remain), but if America Rocks snags headliners like The Black Keys or The Strokes, you may have had a few NFF fans that would have considered attending America Rocks if it was a different weekend.  

Since it’s hard to find places to stay in Newport for the folk festival, I know a few people stay south of Providence near the airport in Warwick.  Will this slightly affect the prices of those hotels?  Who knows? 

Summary

The America Rocks Festival looks to be a decent sized festival and should draw some recognizable rock bands.  In my opinion, it seems to be somewhat smaller than originally reported, but looking on the plus side, it's a huge upgrade for Heritagefest!