[Bugaha]

Who would you like to see come and perform?

[billiefan2000]

hopefully out of town bands. some local bands are terrible.

foreigner or genesis or night ranger (if they have a couple of 80's bands at the event)

[Omahahonors]

I'm hoping for a good mix of out of state bands as our well known local bands (Omaha sound etc..)

This festival should do well here.

[Bugaha]

I think it's going to be a BIG TIME music event. Names that were mentioned in the rumorville are U2 and Jimmy Buffet. But there is supposed to be 6 days of music, so there should be something for everybody.

[laserdisque]

I would like to see group like The Arcade Fire, David Byrne, and The Pixies.

[HandBanana]

This will start with good intentions and end with "Ladies and gentlemen...Big Head Todd and the Monsters*!"

If all goes well it may be headlined by a 5-years-past-prime indie act like Interpol.

I dont mean to hate, but the Maha fest didnt fill me with much hope.

* - substitute virtually any lame 90s 4-white-dudes-alt-rock-dinosaur-act here. The Nixons, Blue Moon Ghetto, Verve Pipe, Semisonic and/or Trip Shakespeare.

[HandBanana]

Or worse, some 1996-style white trash rap rock ala that RiverFest thing that I went to a couple years ago that had Flogging Molly headlining. Spent the whole day up until their set feeling like I'd slipped thru some white trash wigger time vortex.

[Omahahonors]

That's fine HandBanana, but we'll see if your 'bad experience' directly relates to this new festival in a surging downtown area. February is the month the lineup is released.

[HandBanana]

Dont get me wrong, I would love for this to succeed.
Would give me extra reason to come back and visit family.
And Omaha has gotten markedly cooler in the decade since I moved away.

[Omahahonors]

Originally Posted by HandBanana

Dont get me wrong, I would love for this to succeed.
Would give me extra reason to come back and visit family.
And Omaha has gotten markedly cooler in the decade since I moved away.

No problem there are so many negative people on here just waiting for a chance to declare failure before it begins.

That said, this trend of progression is projected to actually escalate. The downtown area has gained in the last decade:
1) top 10 national arena in the Qwest, with a large convention space already in the final stages of preparing for a large expansion.
2) 24,000 seat baseball stadium (right next to the qwest)with all the bells and whistles of a pro stadium, but designed to expand to 40,000; while designed as a multi-purpose stadium.
3) CWS, UFL-Football, Creighton Baseball, a new AAA baseball team and now a music festival slated to use the stadium.
4) Holland Performing arts center - A $90,000,000 privately funded extravagent building where top performing arts groups use.
5) Pedestrian Bridge - Important as this links the many out-of-state visitors in the casinos to downtown. this also links the Nebraska-Iowa, Omaha-Council bluffs walking/biking trails.
6) Explosion of new residents - Rows of Soma, converted lofts, other row-houses, Riverfront condo 'scrapers (12 and 15 story), Midtown crossing mega project with tons of new condos and apartments.
7) Retail/Clubs - The pre-stages of a street-level explosion has been here for a few years with Midtown Crossing's many restaurants, clubs and Marcus Theatre's location. Also North Downtown has seen two of the nation's top rated music clubs in the Mattress Club and Slowdown. The Capitol District beginning to gain steam where developers are planning to build more street-level retail/clubs/restaurants, but having many added condos/apartments/office with the plans of a few 15-20 story hotels built.
8) Besides the two other condo scrapers, a 44 and 20 story corporate headquarters have been built.
9) New downtown festivals and events that have are nationally recognized as some of the best.

These ingredients spell a better chance for success.