Aurora music festivals to grow by leaps and bounds

After posting record attendance in 2008, Aurora's two biggest weekend music festivals have outgrown their roots.

The need to better accommodate tens of thousands of blues and rock fans has evolved into new formats for both festivals and the city's four-concert Downtown Alive! program.

As many as 13,000 people are believed to have attended June's Blues on the Fox, causing several food and alcohol vendors to run out of their wares before the fest was over. So city event planners are promising a "bigger, better" format in 2009 as the concert series evolves into four Friday-Saturday festivals during the summer and moves all shows from Downer Place to the more easily accessible Galena Boulevard.

"The success of the two weekend festivals last year, Blues on the Fox and Rock the Fox, gave us a new vision for the 2009 lineup," said special events manager Gina Moga. "Instead of just two weekend festivals and four Friday night concerts, we've mixed things up to give the public four weekend festivals. It's still eight nights of entertainment, but in a format that gives us room to expand."

Mora said the new format will be more cost-effective, requiring setup and take down for only four shows, opposed to six in previous years. She also hopes the new location will be less of a disruption to Downer Place merchants.

Blues on the Fox, which last year featured Kenny Wayne Shepherd and Elvin Bishop, kicks off the summer lineup June 19-20. Rock on the Fox, which features classic rock, will return July 31 and Aug. 1. Moga already has booked Foghat and Dave Matthews tribute band Trippin Billies for that weekend.

The new alternative rock show, Summer Jam, will debut July 10-11 and feature Southern California band Eve 6 and local group Painkiller Hotel.

The new Fan Favorites Night debuts Aug. 14-15 and will feature top regional bands including American English and The Moods.

Moga will head to New York later this week to finish booking talent for the festivals. Within a day of last year's Rock the Fox, Moga said she had already begun planning talent for this year.

"I was really pleased with the talent I was able to book last year in New York, including UFO, Blue Oyster Cult, Dickey Betts, Hotel California and Kenny Wayne Shepherd," she said.

Festival headliners, however, will not be announced until all acts have signed contracts with the city.