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Most Calgary music fans failed to notice a few weeks back when the Virgin Festival in Vancouver, scheduled for the summer, was cancelled due to the organizers' inability to attract the top rock acts the event has become famous for. But the truth is, we had good reason to look on the situation with special interest. After all, the renowned rock festival is heading to our city for the first time June 21 and 22 at Fort Calgary. How could it be that the mighty Virgin Festival, spearheaded by Virgin Mobile and its president, British tycoon Richard Branson, would fail to bring in anything less than the world's most sought-after bands to the Vancouver shows? Virgin's reply to that query was a true eyebrow raiser for Calgary music fans because organizers blamed an overabundance of music festivals on the North American circuit as a major reason for their difficulties. With so many rock-oriented festivals competing to draw from the existing pool of top bands, it's become increasingly difficult for festivals to secure the acts they're gunning for -- even for a powerhouse organization like Virgin. It would appear that the concert market is becoming oversaturated with festivals. That's more relevant than ever in Calgary. This summer, the city is playing host to 10 major music festivals, including our staple event, the Calgary Stampede with its multiple music offerings. Among the upcoming festivals are such locally based mainstays as the Calgary Folk Music Festival, the Jazz Festival, the Calgary International Blues Festival and the Reggae Festival. There's also the indie rock fest Sled Island, now in its second year, which has become a major player on the scene. Meanwhile, three mammoth-sized festivals have entered our market for the first time this year, including Virgin, Monsters of Rock, a branch-off from the mega-successful Ozzfest juggernaut, and Cruefest, glam band Motley Crue's travelling hard-rock circus. We also can't forget the popular punk rock road show Vans Warped, which has been coming to town every summer since 2000. Despite all the world-class music coming to Calgary in the midst of this festival gold rush, it's wise to be aware of the Vancouver situation. If they lost their Virgin Festival this summer due to the challenges of an oversaturated market, Calgary may also be on the tipping point. The question is, can we accommodate this many musical extravaganzas, or can we expect to see a few casualties ahead on the city's festival scene? "We'll know by the end of this year," says Andrew Bridge, director of Virgin Festivals in Canada. "We'll see how (all the festivals) perform and how people receive them. . . . But I can say the (Calgary) market is demanding a festival like ours. We're seeing the youngest city in the country with a huge, youthful population. This is a very affluent city that jumps at the chance to live these experiences. "(We think there is) room for all these festivals. . . . We're seeing the market positively responding to the things that are being brought and they're looking forward to more." But critics says the Calgary Virgin Festival is already suffering from the challenges facing summer festivals. Organizers have faced criticism since unveiling their Calgary lineup in April, which features headliners Stone Temple Pilots and Flaming Lips, along with a number of Canadian acts like Tragically Hip, Three Days Grace, Corb Lund, City and Colour and The New Pornographers. Even though the latter acts are well liked and big draws in their own right, the commonly heard complaint is that they've played Calgary frequently over the years. Given Virgin's reputation for cutting-edge lineups -- Virgin Festivals in other cities have attracted the likes of Radiohead, Beck, Gnarls Barkley, Iggy & The Stooges, The Who and The Police in the past -- many griped that Virgin's Calgary show seemed rather underwhelming. Some of that criticism is coming from Virgin Festival competitors. "I think people look to (Virgin) in terms of tastemaking and Calgarians were disappointed in the regressive nature of their lineup," says Zak Pashak organizer of Sled Island, a locally produced indie-rock festival that runs the weekend after the Virgin event. "A lot of Calgarians (thought) 'Now we're going to get the greatest things (in music) today, because Virgin's going to help us.' But I think Virgin looks at us as more of a market -- a market of people who only like classic rock. . . . 'You're not as good a city as Toronto, so you're not going to get as good a lineup. You're a bunch of hicks.' . . . It seemed insulting." Bridge defends Virgin's Calgary outing. He says the organization asked Calgarians on who they wanted for the event by setting up a Facebook page and soliciting e-mails. From those responses, they crafted a master list of acts they pursued for the festival. Virgin didn't get all the groups they were after, he says, stressing this sort of thing is always contingent on the plans of each band. Plus, even though Calgary is increasingly being looked upon as an A-list market with its young audience and booming economy, its geographic location can still be a hurdle. "Calgary doesn't meet the east coast/west coast touring schedule for some artists and that adds another dynamic," Bridge says. "We're not going to satisfy everyone," Bridge adds. "But while there may be a few critics, there's also a lot of people that are really excited about our lineup. Ticket sales are going great. I'd argue we've done a good job of bringing international established bands, established Canadian bands and up-and-coming bands. . . . We'll listen to what the fans say after the festival . . . but we're very confident we made the right calls." Sniping between festivals -- with smaller homegrown organizations threatened by powerhouse outsiders entering the market -- is probably inevitable given the fierce competition right now on the festival scene. Certainly rivalry between music festivals has rarely if ever been so heated in Calgary as it is this summer. Amping up the intensity is the fact that many of the Calgary festivals are obviously vying for the same acts. Broken Social Scene and The Gutter Twins, who are in town for Sled Island, would have looked good on the Virgin bill while The Flaming Lips and The Constantines, both playing Virgin, could have been a great coup for Sled Island. Meanwhile, out to attract a young, hip crowd, the Calgary Folk Music Festival booked a number of acts that are extremely popular on the alternative rock and pop scene, including Sam Roberts, Conor Oberst, Andrew Bird, The Weakerthans and Aimee Mann. As well, the Folk Fest has to contend with the blues, jazz and reggae festivals when it comes to many of the acts they've targeted. MeShell Ndegeocello and blues man Charlie Musselwhite, both playing the Folk Fest, would easily fit in on a number of other festival bills. "There's certainly overlaps," says Kerry Clarke, artistic director of the Calgary Folk Music Festival. "There's a finite number of artists available and no matter what style of music you program . . . a lot of (festivals) are going for the same headliners. Case in point, we had an offer in to Tegan and Sara and it didn't end up working out. I heard they were going to play Virgin Fest at one point and (ultimately they wound up) on Sled Island. There's an artist that got cycled through as a possibility for three different festivals within a five-week period." This competitive climate has helped drive up the price of some of the more sought after acts. "Fees have gone up incrementally," Clarke says. "An artist that you would have booked for $20,000 in the mid-'90s is now $100,000." That makes it increasingly difficult for an organization like the folk fest to compete when an impossibly rich and resourceful "Goliath" like Virgin enters the picture, she says. "We're holding our own," Clarke stresses, "but it is challenging. . . . I've got the artists I wanted, pretty much. I've got a lineup I'm really pleased with. There was some (artists) we tried for and didn't get, but that's the story for all of us. . . . It is competitive and we'll have to see how things shake down." It's not only competition on a festival's home turf that makes it tough for the events to survive. Rival festivals across North America can also have an effect as fans flock to them from far and wide. One of the great blows to the Vancouver Virgin Festival was the sudden appearance of the Pemberton Festival to be held July 25 to 27 to be held in nearby Whistler. That festival includes such mega-popular acts as Coldplay, Death Cab For Cutie, The Flaming Lips, My Morning Jacket, Jay Z and Wolfmother among others, all of whom would have been ideal for the Vancouver Virgin lineup. "They secured some brilliant artists in the market," says Bridge. "And some of the other artists we approached didn't want to participate in the festival thing. All of those things made us say 'You know what, we don't have the confidence. . . that we can continue at the same calibre on that weekend. . . . We're going to take a pass this year and come back next year. That's our philosophy. Don't do it if you're not confident it's going to be done well." Bridge acknowledges that while the festival business is getting "more competitive and more costly" than ever, he maintains that music fans only stand to benefit from an abundance of choice. When it comes to a heavyweight competitor like Pemberton, he says Virgin wishes them "all the luck in the world. . . . In the long run it can only help us when it comes to conditioning Canadians to the whole festival culture. . . . It helps us to have a really strong festival foundation in North America." Maurice Ginzer, organizer of the Calgary International Blues Festival sees the logic in that. But he can also foresee a time when the city might not support all of its festivals if Calgarians are faced with an overabundance. "If you get too many you're gonna come to a point where people say 'Well, we've already gone to three festivals this summer. We don't want to go to another one.' There's always a bit of concern about that because most people only have so much money to spend on entertainment. . . . We might lose a little bit because people have so many choices. Hopefully not though, because we're such a niche market." Calgary concert promoter Bryan Taylor knows something about tough competition in the festival business. He gave the Calgary Folk Music Festival a run for their money a few years back with his impressive Calgary Blues and Roots Festival, but after two years Taylor got himself in over his head and he was forced to cancel the event. His line today is not all that different than it was when he was taking on the Folk Fest. "Competition makes us all better," Taylor says. Still, with so many festivals in town this summer, he can't help but question if they will all survive. "I wonder if we're hitting the tipping point this year," Taylor says. "Everybody's flooding in here and maybe this is the year somebody gets hurt. . . . You're going to have hundreds of acts playing Calgary and at some point people will have to pick and choose. "Then again, maybe they'll all do really well. I look at all of these festivals and think 'May the best man win.' "   (More)

Numerous V Festival performing artists did their thing at the Virgin Blue Hanger Ball in Brisbane. Expect more coverage on the ball in this weekend's Gold Coast and Brisbane's newspapers and magazines. The V Festival is to do Perth, Western Australia. Expect big things in Canada and Europe, and RB is expected to show at a number of these world calibre events.

THE Virgin king, Richard Branson, has been named as a surprise guest at the V Festival on Saturday. The bearded billionaire is expected to flash his toothy grin to A-listers at a corporate marquee. The festival is the brainchild of the 58-year-old British entrepreneur, whose Virgin empire includes flights, finance and mobile phones. His visits tend to coincide with photo opportunities to launch the latest addition to his brand juggernaut, with recent reports suggesting he was about to announce details of a new airline to operate between Australia and the United States. Also on the schedule are a charity ball in Brisbane on Saturday and co-presenting Al Gore's enviro-lesson to Virgin staff with Tim Ross of Merrick and Rosso fame. Links to Australia run deep in the Branson family, with the mogul's 23-year-old son, Sam, recently spotted cosying up to pop star Natalie Imbruglia, who split from her rock star husband Daniel Johns in January.

Branson answers his own call IF there is one thing billionaire entreprenuer Sir Richard Branson isn't a virgin of, it's rock and roll bash the V Festival. Having jetted into town on Tuesday, Branson will deliver a "hands on" approach to the second Sydney staging of the international concert owned by his Virgin empire. And we're not just talking about his way with the ladies - Branson will complete an inspection of the Centennial Park site on Saturday morning before hosting a VIP lunch after the music festival kicks off at 1pm. The gregarious business guru will notch up his 12th V Festival appearance - his first in Sydney - before he flies out to Brisbane for a Virgin Blue charity ball later that night.

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