Debut music fest wants to become yearly event

Detroit Free Press..

2. August 31, 2001

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Recipe for a hectic life: Move to a new city. Organize a multi-artist music festival. Hold it in a big stadium on one of the most competitive entertainment weekends of the year.
"Want to switch places for the next couple of days?" asks Detroit Music Festival producer Kevin Brown. "It's crazy. It's been crazy since a year ago, when I decided this would be a good idea."
Brown moved to Detroit last year from Cincinnati, where he worked in sales with the Cincinnati Reds and helped stage that city's long-running R&B event, the Coors Light Jazz Festival, at Riverfront Stadium.
He was convinced the concept could fly in Motown. After all, Brown says, much of the Riverfront audience was made up of Michganders who'd traveled to the show.
"It always amazed me," he recalls. "Any time an artist got on stage and said, 'People from Detroit, raise your hands,' it was like the whole stadium was from Detroit."
Thus was born the Detroit Music Festival at Comerica Park, which aims to ignite its own tradition in Detroit. It's off to an auspicious start: Ford Motor Co. signed on as title sponsor, Kmart as a sponsor and the MGM Grand Casino as presenter. Former Detroit Piston John Salley will emcee the event.
Brown knows he faces some stiff competition this weekend, primarily from the Ford Detroit International Jazz Festival, a free and firmly entrenched event blocks away at Hart Plaza. Labor Day Weekend wasn't his first choice, but between the Tigers' baseball schedule and summer stadium concerts from Dave Matthews Band and 'N Sync, the options were limited. Next year's fest, he says, could expand to multiple days and move to an earlier summer date.
With behind-the-scenes help from the Santangelo Agency -- veterans with the Cincinnati event -- Brown managed to round up a solid lineup of performers for his inaugural fest, including Luther Vandross, the Isley Brothers, Maze featuring Frankie Beverly, Missy (Misdemeanor) Elliott and Ginuwine. He says he was close to landing hot newcomers Alicia Keys and Jill Scott, and even Detroit singer Aaliyah, killed last week in a plane crash, had considered performing.
"I know we've got busloads of people coming from Cleveland and Chicago," Brown says. "I think it's going to be a very, very good weekend with Detroit."

By Brian McCollum, Free Press pop music writer.

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