Features Article / Time Out Chicago  

NOTE: We slightly revised the Article Below – Click “Time Out” Link for Original Article)

Who’s got clout?

Cultural CLOUT

Meet the tastemakers behind the city’s best art, music, theater and restaurants. Fighting the crowds at the latest “it” restaurant, checking out free concerts at Millennium Park, getting turned on to an exciting new artist at the Art Institute: These are the experiences that make living in this city so awesome. But who decides which eatery should get the early buzz, which band should be booked and which artists should get their own shows? The city’s most powerful patrons, critics, publicists, curators and promoters, that’s who. And what influences their decisions may surprise you.

John Barry, StarEvents

It’s a familiar affair… If you’ve been to one summer fest, you’ve been to them all, right? Here’s why.
By Jake Malooley

It’s summer in the city. You’re standing in the middle of a crowded, closed-off street somewhere, anywhere on the North Side, washing down a gyro and elephant ear with a $5 cup of beer. On a stage in front of you, a hard-rocking band is pumping out Rick Springfield’s “Jessie’s Girl.” A blond dude in khaki shorts and a light-blue polo—you feel as if you’ve seen this guy dozens of times—raises his cup and yells, “Whoo!” And then it hits you: full-on neighborhood street fest déjà vu. Is it just the oppressive heat, you wonder, or has all of this happened before?

Chances are it has. There are about 39 main neighborhood street fests from May through September, according to the Mayor’s Office of Special Events. Almost all of them are produced by just two private companies: StarEvents and Special Events Management. And that’s why every weekend, all summer long, you end up eating the same vendor food, drinking ice cold beer, watching cover bands and rubbing shoulders with the  “Whoo!”-ing bros.

The homogeneity of street fests isn’t lost on John Barry, StarEvents’ 43-year-old founder. Barry, who’s tan and handsome in the Robert Mitchum mold, has been producing street fetes—among them Andersonville Midsommarfest, Wrigleyville Summerfest and Chicago Summerfest—for 15 years. He says he fields complaints every year from attendees who are burned out on the same old, same old. “I get these e-mails on occasion from Chicagoans that will say, ‘Why are you booking the same bands over and over? We’ve heard those songs and the city offers such great talent,’”  Barry tells us at StarEvents HQ in Lakeview.

(Not sure about the Robert Mitchum comment… but Thanks!)

“Believe me, I’d love to have them and I’d encourage anyone who wants to see more original acts, develop and produce their own event. When you’re paying for lights, stage, sound, security, portables, etc—your expenses get really crazy. And if you book bands that are less known, even though they sound great, the event may take a financial beating.”

Hanging on the walls in the bathroom at StarEvents are promo posters from Mayfest, Rock Around the Block, Retro on Roscoe and other StarEvents fests dating back to the late ’90s. It’s hard not to notice a pattern among the stage lineups: Cover acts dominate prime spots. Barry concedes that Sixteen Candles, Hairbangers Ball, Mike & Joe, Too White Crew and Maggie Speaks are the go-to acts. (Jake spent a long time in the bathroom… got a match?)

“When you’re drawing a crowd of 20-, 30-, 50,000+ people, you need to appeal to as many people as possible,” he says. “Cover bands play what the crowds know. And when you’re drinking with your friends on the street and enjoying  a hot dog, ‘Livin’ on a Prayer’ can be a fun thing to hear. Come to any of our fests and you’ll probably hear that song a couple of times from different bands, because they all share the same set list. But it works.”

Hank Zemola, CEO of  Special Events Management, says it takes effort to avoid “clone fest.” He’s had success setting limits on bands. “We say, ‘We’re going to give you three slots this year: once in June, once in July, once in September. You want to do other events? Then we don’t want you.’”

Despite being competitors, Barry and Zemola agree that most people don’t understand summer street fests are fund-raisers—especially the scoundrels who sidestep the recommended gate donation (usually $5). Neighborhood orgs such as chambers of commerce, charities and churches tap StarEvents and Special Events Management to help fill their coffers. “These events cost a lot of money—anywhere from $50,000 to a quarter of a million dollars,” Barry says. “When you’ve got that kind of money on the line and you’re a local charity, you’d best find a way to reduce the risk as much as possible.” (Zemola can speak to that: In 2005, the Old Town Merchants & Residents Association lost $90,000, he says, when Hurricane Katrina–related rains drowned out the festivities.)

Reducing risk also means favoring the same few established turnkey food and crafts vendors. “We always look first to see what we can get from the local community,” Zemola says. “But the smaller, local operators often say they’d love to do it but they don’t have the infrastructure.” “Some of these guys,” Zemola says, “would have to pay $4,000 before they even sell their first hot dog.”

“So you’re going to see these same operations, like the egg rolls from Lee Concessions,” Barry says. “For me, it’s much easier. I don’t have to hold their hand.” Tried-and-tested bands, vendors and artisans get considered for the next year, Barry says, and some he hires for many events. “If you have a return rate of 80 percent, you’re doing well.”
However, Zemola’s had luck keeping the Wells Street Art Festival vendors by saying NO more often. “It causes some hard feelings. I had a woman call me and say, ‘I’ve been accepted for ten years in a row and I wasn’t accepted this year.’ Well, just because you were in last year doesn’t mean you’re in this year.”

One of StarEvents’ summer-fest outliers is the Taste of Randolph Street. The foodie-centric fest spurns cover bands and traveling vendors. (Jam Productions, an entity that books national acts at venues like the Park West and the Riviera, produced it in years past.) Barry says it’s going to be one of his big challenges of the year, because he’s had to establish relationships with companies like Live Nation, Windish and William Morris, instead of, say, speed-dialing Mr. Blotto.

Barry attends every festival he produces. In a decade and a half, he’s been to more than 200. “You tolerate it, you put up with it. But no question, I could go the rest of my life without seeing cover bands ever again. I’ve sang ‘Jessie’s Girl’ a thousand times over,” Barry says. “But I love the outcome. Any of our nonprofit clients can do so much more because of the money we raise for them. That’s a cool job.”