How in the world did Guthrie ever land the mega-star, Grammy award-winning Mumford & Sons and the three-day Stopover? The short answer to that question – internet and 51 acres of open land.
Josh Albrecht speaks inside Guthrie’s City Hall and answered questions concerning the upcoming Stopover.
Josh Albrecht with Jam Productions, the Chicago company producing the event, held a televised public forum at Guthrie’s City Hall with an estimated 60 people in the audience. Majority of the audience was represented by business owners.
The folk rock megastar band Mumford & Sons (M&S) confirmed in February they were coming to Guthrie on September 6 and 7 for the 2013 Gentleman of the Road Stopover in Guthrie’s Cottonwood Flats. Joining Guthrie on the Stopover tour, Lewes (UK), Simcoe (Ontario), Troy (Ohio) and St. Augustine (Florida).
Along with Mumford and Sons, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Willy Mason, Alabama Shakes, The Vaccines, Bear’s Den, Half Moon Run and Those Darlins will be performing on the main stage.
Albrecht helped his hometown of Dixon, Illinois land last year’s two-day Stopover as he serves as the Dixon Main Street Executive (similar to a chamber of commerce). Last fall, he shared his work load when he joined JAM.
Albrecht was told M&S wanted a Stopover in the great plains, in a small town with a piece of land close to the downtown district, close to the camping grounds and close to the concert grounds.
The search was on. Iowa, Colorado, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska were some of the states that were explored. It was further broken down when Albrecht did a Google search and found a website that listed Guthrie as a unique destination.
Albrecht loved the idea of Guthrie being the first capital and all of its historic downtown shops, but looking at Google maps he could not find a place to hold a 25,000-plus concert. So he called Lucy Swanson at the Chamber of Commerce and said he loves the town, but did not see any space for the concert. Swanson quickly told Albrecht to move his cursor to the area of the Cottonwood Flats.
“I looked at a lot of towns and the uniqueness (of Guthrie) is one of a kind,” Albrecht said about the town of 10,000 people. “I don’t think there is another small town or major city with 51 acres immediately adjacent to their downtown that can be used for festivals and events.”
Albrecht immediately contacted JAM’s manager Don Sullivan, after speaking with Swanson, and following a five minutes conversation – a trip was planned to visit Guthrie.
“They sold the city very well,” Albrecht said of chamber (Swanson and Mary Coffin) and city officials (Sereniah Breland and Cody Mosley) once he and promoters got the grand tour of Oklahoma’s first capital.
The Stopover in Dixon last year had a similar set up as Guthrie will see with the open land, trees and a nearby river. The Dixon Stopover sold 15,000 tickets compared to Guthrie’s 25,000.
Mumford & Sons played their popular hit “I Will Wait” at the 2013 Grammy Awards.
Future tickets for sale?
Albrecht announced that 25,499 tickets have officially been sold for the show, but says more tickets may become available. He could not say for certain when they would go on sale.
The Guthrie Stopover sold 25,000 tickets in 36 hours. Ticket prices were sold at $109.
Stages announced
The main concert stage (in the Cottonwood Flats) for the Stopover will be just west of the Cottonwood Creek (approximately 3rd Street between Logan and Washington Ave).
The downtown venue’s main stage will be at 2nd Street and Harrison in front of the State Capital Publishing Museum.
The main route connecting the two stages will be Oklahoma Ave and across 5th Street.
On Schedule
The Stopover is several weeks out and Albrecht says there is still plenty to do, but the event is on schedule and are now in the planning stage.
Related story: Guthrie Stopover tour conducts first meeting at City Hall
Related story: Streets to be blocked off for downtown festival
Related story: Mumford & Sons postpone upcoming concerts due to illness
Related story: Mumford & Sons wins album of the year for “Babel”
Related story: Grammy nominee band announces concert in Guthrie
Related story: Gentlemen of the Road Stopover sells out in less than 48 hours
Related story: Volunteers sought for Stopover event in September
As the admin of this website is working, no hesitation very quickly
it will be well-known, due to its feature contents.
Very nice post. I definitely love this website. Keep it up!
Excellent post but I was wanting to know if you could write a litte more on
this subject? I’d be very thankful if you could elaborate a little bit further. Thank you!
Hi there would you mind letting me know which web host you’re utilizing? I’ve loaded your blog in 3 different internet browsers and I must
say this blog loads a lot quicker then most. Can you recommend a good
web hosting provider at a reasonable price? Thanks, I appreciate
it!
hi!,I love your writing so much! proportion we communicate more approximately your post on
AOL? I need an expert in this space to solve my problem.
Maybe that is you! Taking a look ahead to see you.
I do not even know how I ended up here, but I thought this post was good.
I do not know who you are but definitely you are going to a
famous blogger if you are not already 😉 Cheers!
Good day! This is my 1st comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I really enjoy reading through your articles.
Can you suggest any other blogs/websites/forums that go over the same subjects?
Thank you so much!
Thanks to my father who stated to me concerning this website,
this website is truly remarkable.
hello there and thank you for your info – I have certainly picked up something new from right here.
I did however expertise several technical points using this web site, since I
experienced to reload the site many times previous to I could get it
to load properly. I had been wondering if your web hosting is OK?
Not that I’m complaining, but slow loading instances times will often affect your placement
in google and can damage your quality score if ads and marketing
with Adwords. Well I’m adding this RSS to my email and could look out for much more of your respective fascinating content.
Ensure that you update this again soon.