The Flaming Lips
Rapper Ludacris sings before Georgia's spring intrasquad NCAA college football game Saturday, April 16, 2016, in Athens, Ga. (AP Photo/John Bazemore) Do you realize the Riverbend Festival is changing?
Or at least that's the way it might seem to some fans with the announcement today that rap superstar/actor Ludacris and music festival favorites The Flaming Lips will play the nine-day event on consecutive Saturdays this summer.
They join Boz Scaggs, Don Felder, Corey Smith, Old Dominion, Crowder, Mother's Finest, George Thorogood & The Destroyers, The Purple Xperience, Morris Day & The Time with Cameo, Toby Keith and Here Come the Mummies as the headlining acts on the main Coca-Cola Stage.
Others on the schedule include newly announced acts Five Alarm Funk, Watch the Duck, The Ragbirds, Drivin' & Cryin' and The Producers, as well as previously announced artists such as Joy Formidable, White Denim and Whiskey Myers.
Critics of Riverbend have complained for years that it is dominated by country and oldies acts with very few newer acts such as those found at "destination" music festivals like Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Manchester, Tenn., or Hangout in Gulf Shores, Ala.
Keith Landecker, operations manager of Brewer Broadcasting's Urban Radio Division, said this year's lineup is reflective of festival organizers listening to what fans want.
"Ludacris should be hot as a firecracker" thanks to a starring role and song inclusion in 2015's "Fast & Furious 7" movie, Landecker said. And Ludacris will reprise his role as Tej Parker in "Fast & Furious 8" due out April 14.
Landecker said the music selection committee, led by talent and production coordinator Joe "Dixie" Fuller, has heard the requests of fans to go after the music they want to hear.
"I think Dixie and those guys are being very aware that the demographic is starting to shift a little bit. They are trying to attract, I won't say younger, but a different audience that is interested in the best artists out there. The ones they really want to see. I think the committee is really trying to step up their game.
"I mean, you've got Ludacris and Toby Keith, but also The Purple Xperience with Morris Day. You can't get any closer to Prince than Morris Day. And you throw in Cameo. That's powerful."
Among the more popular Flaming Lips songs are "Do You Realize?" "Yoshimi Battles Pink Robots," "She Don't Use Jelly" and "Suddenly Everything Has Changed." Led by Wayne Coyne, the band is known as a great live act with a trippy show heavy on lighting, video and stage effects, including Coyne walking out onto the crowd in a giant ball. Fuller isn't sure that can work because the Coke Stage is a barge on the river, but he says he is working with the band's production team to ensure the show is full of what fans expect.
"They want to make it as spectacular as they can with lots of video, lots of confetti, which is biodegradable, and lots of lights," Fuller said. "They are looking forward to making it work."
Local businessman John Sorrow is the new events chairman on the Friends of the Festival board and a member of the selection committee. He said there has been much discussion over the last few years about, "'How do we take it to the next level and keep it affordable?' We have listened to those requests."
Sorrow said adding the earlier co-headlining slot on the Coke Stage two years ago allowed them to bring in more of the types of acts that would normally play a Bonnaroo-type festival but not Riverbend. Those acts, like St. Paul & The Broken Bones, would have been too expensive to put on smaller Riverbend stages, but are not yet popular or well-known enough to be the sole headliners on the Coke Stage.
"We have built a solid reputation with the artists who leave here and tell their agents and other artists how well they were treated here," he said. "Chattanooga continues to emerge as a place for great music."
Sorrow said the committee also is very aware that Riverbend is known for the country, classic rock and Southern rock acts that it has booked since it began, and it is not abandoning those.
"We have not changed the formula drastically, but we are being proactive," he said. "What we need now is good weather and for the people who always come to come and for new fans to come, as well."
Friends of the Festival Executive Director Chip Baker said Riverbend has always been a regional festival with an emphasis on value, diversity and entertainment. He said this year's festival lineup is similar to what organizers try to do every year.
"I think every year we try to do a little bit of everything for everyone," he said. "Sometimes that is our nemesis and sometimes it works. But, for our price, that is the greatest thing about us. For $42, you can see Toby Keith, and a whole bunch of other great acts such as Ludacris or The Flaming Lips."
Riverbend is set for June 9-17 at Ross's Landing.
Contact Barry Courter at bcourter@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6354.