One of country music’s best festivals returned to Enterprise, Alabama from hiatus last year. BamaJam first strut onto the festival scene in 2008 and has boasted acts like Taylor Swift, Blake Shelton, Kenny Chesney, Kid Rock and Zac Brown Band during its evolution. BamaJam hasn’t always managed to skirt controversy though as the 2011 event was cancelled and event organizers were slow to refund patrons who had prepaid for tickets. This was no doubt largely due to promoter Ronnie Gilley being indicted for bribing state lawmakers. Needless to say, BamaJam 2012 rolled back into town with a bit of a cloud hanging over it, and I’m not referring to the torrential storms that threatened to wash out day one of the festival. Anyone with apprehensions saw that uneasiness quashed as BamaJam 2012 went off without a hitch and was a highly successful festival.
They said all of the right things, reserved the dates for BamaJam 2013 and started taking ticket money from the early birds as festival often do. Well a strange thing happened a couple weeks back. The BamaJam’s website went down and stayed down. Here we sit over two weeks later and all you get for your troubles is a mySQL error message where the site used to be (bamajam2012.com). As a festival, this is one of your busiest times of year to sell tickets as people begin to piece together their summer getaways. Secondly, the festival’s Facebook page has gone dead. The moderator checked out around mid-January and all that is left is a mass of frantic fans wanting, no begging to know, what is happening with their beloved BamaJam. No one answers. No one reassures. No one even confirms that the event is still a go.
There are other signs that all may not be well in BamaJam land. There is a notice of foreclosure on the BamaJam Farms RV Park by PCB Holdings marked January 29, 2013. Its difficult to know if this is related or if PCB Holdings would honor the previous commitments to the BamaJam promoters. The notice is steeped in legalese so I’ll leave this to someone with a higher pay grade than me.
An article in Dothan First dated February 13, says the company in charge of BamaJam is producing a festival in Panama City dubbed Gulf Coast Jam. Per the festival website, it is set to go September 26 – 28 though details are still trickling in. A representative with BamaJam Productions said Gulf Coast Jam is not meant to replace BamaJam. They go on to say that producer Rendy Lovelace is still in charge of BamaJam and that they are just awaiting land agreements to be finished before moving forward. We sit three and a half months out and the land agreements still aren’t in place?
Ricky Stokes News reports on February 21 that the big sponsors (Pepsi, Budweiser, Camping World) are not on board at this point.
So where does this all leave us? The water is very murky on trying to read this one. Last year, performers were announced February 17 so that benchmark has passed us by. Unfortunately, the deck seem stacked against them at this point. I hope that we aren’t witnessing the demise of BamaJam 2013 because 2012 was a great event. Enterprise was a great host, and the bill of country superstars that the promoters wrangled up was top notch. Maybe tomorrow, their website will magically reappear and someone will sign on to start to quell the fears of their Facebook nation. Maybe the marquee performers will be rolled out and tickets will get sucked up like a puddle in the Mojave Desert. This is my hope, but reality isn’t being too kind to my hope at this point.
For those starving for live country music in Alabama, don’t forget the Toadlick Music Festival happening in Dothan April 11-13. We covered the inaugural event last year, and it proved to be a great time. This year they feature Luke Bryan, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jake Owen and Kellie Pickler.
Has BamaJam Music Festival 2013 Been Cancelled?
One of country music’s best festivals returned to Enterprise, Alabama from hiatus last year. BamaJam first strut onto the festival scene in 2008 and has boasted acts like Taylor Swift, Blake Shelton, Kenny Chesney, Kid Rock and Zac Brown Band during its evolution. BamaJam hasn’t always managed to skirt controversy though as the 2011 event was cancelled and event organizers were slow to refund patrons who had prepaid for tickets. This was no doubt largely due to promoter Ronnie Gilley being indicted for bribing state lawmakers. Needless to say, BamaJam 2012 rolled back into town with a bit of a cloud hanging over it, and I’m not referring to the torrential storms that threatened to wash out day one of the festival. Anyone with apprehensions saw that uneasiness quashed as BamaJam 2012 went off without a hitch and was a highly successful festival.
They said all of the right things, reserved the dates for BamaJam 2013 and started taking ticket money from the early birds as festival often do. Well a strange thing happened a couple weeks back. The BamaJam’s website went down and stayed down. Here we sit over two weeks later and all you get for your troubles is a mySQL error message where the site used to be (bamajam2012.com). As a festival, this is one of your busiest times of year to sell tickets as people begin to piece together their summer getaways. Secondly, the festival’s Facebook page has gone dead. The moderator checked out around mid-January and all that is left is a mass of frantic fans wanting, no begging to know, what is happening with their beloved BamaJam. No one answers. No one reassures. No one even confirms that the event is still a go.
There are other signs that all may not be well in BamaJam land. There is a notice of foreclosure on the BamaJam Farms RV Park by PCB Holdings marked January 29, 2013. Its difficult to know if this is related or if PCB Holdings would honor the previous commitments to the BamaJam promoters. The notice is steeped in legalese so I’ll leave this to someone with a higher pay grade than me.
An article in Dothan First dated February 13, says the company in charge of BamaJam is producing a festival in Panama City dubbed Gulf Coast Jam. Per the festival website, it is set to go September 26 – 28 though details are still trickling in. A representative with BamaJam Productions said Gulf Coast Jam is not meant to replace BamaJam. They go on to say that producer Rendy Lovelace is still in charge of BamaJam and that they are just awaiting land agreements to be finished before moving forward. We sit three and a half months out and the land agreements still aren’t in place?
Ricky Stokes News reports on February 21 that the big sponsors (Pepsi, Budweiser, Camping World) are not on board at this point.
So where does this all leave us? The water is very murky on trying to read this one. Last year, performers were announced February 17 so that benchmark has passed us by. Unfortunately, the deck seem stacked against them at this point. I hope that we aren’t witnessing the demise of BamaJam 2013 because 2012 was a great event. Enterprise was a great host, and the bill of country superstars that the promoters wrangled up was top notch. Maybe tomorrow, their website will magically reappear and someone will sign on to start to quell the fears of their Facebook nation. Maybe the marquee performers will be rolled out and tickets will get sucked up like a puddle in the Mojave Desert. This is my hope, but reality isn’t being too kind to my hope at this point.
For those starving for live country music in Alabama, don’t forget the Toadlick Music Festival happening in Dothan April 11-13. We covered the inaugural event last year, and it proved to be a great time. This year they feature Luke Bryan, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jake Owen and Kellie Pickler.
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