British Weekly Praises Oklahoma Music Festivals

from Oklahoma Rock Newsblog by Ryan

Photo: Jeremy Charles

British weekly The Economist recently used Oklahoma as an example of a state using music festivals to bolster the local economy and increase tourism.

The article mentions DFest, Rocklahoma and Country Fever, but could also have easily included Norman Music Festival - which brought in an estimated $2.5 million to the local economy earlier this spring.

Oklahoma, for instance, has realised that festivals can be a big boon to a struggling state. Tulsa’s Dfest started out in 2002 as a competition for local bands. Over the past seven years it has turned into a mega-event hosting big acts like the Flaming Lips and a crowd exceeding 50,000.

Then there is Pryor, Oklahoma, which sits near the Kansas, Arkansas and Missouri state lines, about 30 miles from Tulsa. It has found a mammoth market with “Rocklahoma”, a music festival in July aimed at metal-heads. Billed as the world’s biggest 1980s music festival, it lures tourists from all over the world, and they often stay on after the festival to camp.

A few weeks before “Rocklahoma” the town, normally home to just 8,500 people, hosts “Country Fever”, another festival. These two gigs add up to the biggest annual sales-tax earner for the city, Christmas included.

Look for out DFest coverage all next week.