While yesterday’s announcement that Bayou Country Superfest would be “on hiatus until further notice” was news to the local community, it came as no surprise to Visit Baton Rouge, the city-parish or LSU, which has hosted the music festival at Tiger Stadium in the past.
To be clear, Bayou Country Superfest organizers never specified its reasons behind the announced hiatus. However, VBR President Paul Arrigo says the tourism agency never budgeted for festival marketing in its $5.45 million, 2020 budget that was approved in December, despite ultimately ponying up $350,000 in cash to support it last year—the same amount contributed by the Louisiana Office of Tourism.
And Chief Administrative Officer Darryl Gissel says the city-parish—which has traditionally rebated its 2% local general fund sales tax on festival ticket purchases—hadn’t been approached by VBR to do the same this year as it has been in the past, though it would have been positioned to continue the rebate this year.
But Arrigo says he never anticipated the festival would return to Baton Rouge again in 2020. After all, there would be no venue, with the Tiger Stadium field under extensive renovations.
“There’s no possibility for an event of any kind during that period,” says LSU athletics spokesman Robert Munson. “There is no field.”
LSU began a full field replacement and drainage construction project immediately after the final football game in late November, says Munson, which is expected to continue through the summer. The project was planned before last summer’s festival was even on the calendar.
“We did not budget for any sponsorship monies going out, nor any additional income coming from the festival in May,” Arrigo says. “For this, you need a producer, a promoter and a venue to make it happen, and LSU is in the midst of redoing its field.”
Arrigo says he isn’t sure whether Bayou Country Superfest will return to Baton Rouge in future years, but notes his agency is “always working on major events like this,” citing the significant impact it normally has on visitation and hotel stays during usually slow periods. He’s trying to offset the potential economic loss by promoting several other local festivals and events slated for this spring.
He says VBR was fortunate to bring the festival back to Baton Rouge in 2019 after it moved to New Orleans for two years—a welcome surprise, given the agency also didn’t originally budget for it to return, as the festival made its location announcement later than usual after its producer lured it back with a $1 million incentive deal.
Bayou Country Superfest, which is put on by a division of live entertainment company Anschutz Entertainment Group, has brought big-name country acts to both Baton Rouge and New Orleans for years, but saw declining attendance numbers in recent years. AEG is the same company behind New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival and Buku Music + Art Project. The event drew about 50,000 people to Tiger Stadium over Memorial Day weekend in 2019, less than half the size of the crowd that showed up the last time the festival was in Baton Rouge in 2016 and smaller than crowds that attended during years in New Orleans.
Event attendance peaked in 2014, attracting 135,000 people. Roughly 100,000 people attended the 2016 event in Baton Rouge.
While LSU incurs significant costs hosting the festival, its agreement with promoters includes a percentage of ticket sales, concessions, parking and a reimbursement for most expenses, which generally results in a net financial positive for the university.
“We were very pleased to host the Bayou Country Superfest for so many years and look forward to working with the city and state on exciting events and opportunities that may come in the future,” Munson says.
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