‘Cruise-in’
grateful audience emails, and news that Los Lobos confirmed a Friday, Oct. 30 appearance to complement the Halloween show already booked with Mother Hips. Next up: An Oct. 10 show with Lyrics Born and Afrolicious.
If all goes well, Keidan won’t have fun. Well, maybe afterward.
“I never try to sit down and enjoy a show I’m producing. I’m focused on keeping the band and patrons happy,” he said. “I pick bands that I like, which allows me to get genuinely excited and promote them effectively. I don’t sit down and listen to the show until I look at a recording of it later. I’m running around the whole time.”
Saturday’s unveiling definitely kept Keidan on his toes. First, unbeknownst to him, those spending $99 per car were admitted through the Sage Street entrance as well as the main fairgrounds entrance.
“I didn’t realize there were going to be two different gates,” Keidan said. “It was a little bit exciting the first time trying to figure out how the venue works.”
Because Keidan was unsure about what to expect from fairgrounds-provided security, he brought his own paid staff plus volunteer “safety patrol.” Eventually convinced of the competency and demeanor of the fairgrounds staff, Keidan relaxed, confident his eight paid staff and 30 volunteers would handle assignments.
“It took a lot of people
to show everybody where to park and walk around and remind people to wear masks and social distance,” said Keidan, relieved the show sold out a week before. He released 10 last-minute tickets “and those went quickly,” bringing it to 230 cars at a maximum of four adults per car.
A “beautiful sunset” helped put people in the right mood, Keidan said.
“It was really a blessing right before the show started .. and the way the light show came together, was just awesome. I was just blown away how cool it looked,” he said.
Most people “were pretty good” about observing the social distancing and mask
rules, Keidan said, with each car allotted a 15-by-20 foot space. People could only venture out if they were hitting the food trucks or the restrooms.
“And people didn’t rush the stage, which I was afraid would happen,” Keidan said, believing a barrier in front of the stage helped prevent a human surge.
All the vehicles were able to tune into the music via their car radios or listen to the music from the stage speakers. A time delay from the sound of the live speakers to the car radios presented a problem that will be tweaked by the next show, Keidan said.
“It’s possible we’ll only
do the sound with the radio signal, but I’m afraid that wouldn’t make it feel like a regular concert,” he said.
Still, “overall, I think people were safe, people were happy .. and there weren’t any fights. Nobody demanded a refund and there were no traffic problems,” Keidan said. “And I asked people to pick up and take it (any trash) with them and they were remarkably good about that.”
It was decided almost at the last minute to not serve alcohol “to be on the safe side,” Keidan said. “It might lead to drinking and driving.”
Keidan said the more successful shows he has at the fairgrounds, the more he hears from other bands who have been sitting at home during the pandemic.
“Hopefully, now people can see it’s successful and safe so I’ll start getting calls and emails from even ‘better quality’ bands. More popular bands are more careful and reticent about doing something new in a risky time. Now that I’ve proved it’s possible to do it safely, more of the big name acts will be willing to work with me,” Keidan said.
The promoter acknowledged that he has to be wary of juggling too many plates.
“I’m only one person doing the job a team of people should be doing,” Keidan said. “I have to be careful and make sure I have the time and energy to pull off these events.”
For more information about future Cruise-In concerts, visit mrhatpresents. com.