TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Festival Acts Are Hot Tickets

ADVERTISEMENT

By GEORGE H. NEWMAN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 19, 2007

Updated: 12/17/2007 09:13 pm

PLANT CITY - The Florida Strawberry Festival experienced a major computer glitch just as tickets to its headline acts went on sale Dec. 10.

The online ticketing system crashed for much of the first two days of sales, prompting often frantic customers to swamp the festival's phone lines.

By midweek, the ticketing systems were operating more smoothly, and orders have been pouring in ever since, festival officials said.

Festival General Manager Patsy Brooks said the tremendous demand for tickets to such headline acts as Alan Jackson and Sugarland was more than the computers and phone lines could handle.

"We are still experiencing some difficulties," Brooks said Thursday. "But things are getting better."

Joe Newsome, chairman of the committee that selected the 22 big-name entertainers, was as relieved as anyone that the ticketing was returning to normal.

"Everything seemed to be in an uproar for a few days," Newsome said. "Let's hope that's all behind us now."

Newsome said he expects "that our entertainment lineup will satisfy a large number of our festival patrons."

Bobby Vinton leads off with a show at 3:30 p.m. Feb. 28 at the Southern Chevy Dealers Soundstage. The final act, Jason Aldean, performs at 7:30 p.m. March 9.

In between, 20 other performers will entertain with acts that range from the folk music and comedy of the Smothers Brothers to the crossover hits of Crystal Gayle to the knockdown cowboy sounds of Jackson and Sugarland.

"Alan Jackson and Sugarland are our highest-dollar entertainers," Newsome said. "This year we spent a record $1.5 million on 22 acts. We looked for diversity of acts, which I think we achieved. It was a lot of hard work, but we are very happy with the lineup."

Reserved seats are as low as $10 for some shows. Sugarland's reserved seats are priced at $30 and $35, and reserved seats for Jackson's show are $40, the highest charged by the festival.

"Some of the shows will sell out pretty fast," Newsome said. "But they are all good names, and top-notch entertainers."

Charley Pride, Mickey Gilley, Glen Campbell, Tom Jones, Charlie Daniels and Billy Ray Cyrus and others are part of the eclectic mix of entertainers.

The festival tries to break even on its headline shows, Newsome said.

"I don't think there is another town in the country where you can see this kind of entertainment at such a reasonable price. Our philosophy is to bring the best entertainers that we can book for the Florida Strawberry Festival and let our patrons feast on top performances," he said.

Newsome said the festival is going back to the longtime tradition of offering free seats in its concrete bleachers for all shows. Last year, fans had to pay for those seats at evening shows.

"Those seats didn't sell, at any price last year," Newsome said. "It broke my heart last year when I looked up there and those seats were empty."

For the first time, the festival won't be selling advance tickets for strawberry shortcake. Festival association President Gary Boothe said the presales were ended because of troubles with computerized ticket scanners and counterfeit tickets.

"It's my understanding that scanning and counterfeiting of prefestival tickets created quite a problem last year. ... So we eliminated them," Boothe said.

At least one vendor, St. Clement Catholic Church, has decided to sell its advance strawberry shortcake tickets for $3, 50 cents less than the price charged at the festival. St. Clement is selling the tickets from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday in a tent next to the festival's new ticket office at 2209 W. Oak St.

Changes to the festival grounds this year include new entrance gates at the ticket office. The festival spent $550,000 on the new ticket office and 16 turnstiles to improve customer service, Boothe said. The gates will help eliminate bottlenecks at peak times as visitors enter the festival grounds, he said.

Boothe said other construction is planned to help improve the safety and convenience of the festival vendors, patrons and participants.

In 2009, the festival is going to relocate the steer competition to the northwest corner of the festival grounds, Boothe said. For now, the competition will remain under large tents.

Reporter George H. Newman can be reached at (813) 865-4451 or gnewman@tampa trib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT