Features
Tours de Farce: Wedding Bell Blues
Built in 1957 when our founder, Festus Pollstar, briefly considered merging with Scientology in order to snag a tax-exempt status from the IRS, our little chapel has launched countless couples onto the seas of matrimony. Yes, even before “synergy” became a buzz word, Old Festus was buzzed when he realized that tour dates, such as the latest routings for Dada and Mya, often sparked thoughts of love, family, babies and service charges.
Today, over 500 couples a day say their vows in our little church. However, a ceremony at the Pollstar.com Wedding Chapel is more than just a couple of quick “I do’s” followed by the blushing bride being showered with ticket stubs for George Jones or Bottle Rockets before the newlyweds make a mad dash for the local Motel 5.9 where the rates are hourly and the sheets changed daily. For we want to ensure that each and every wedding signifies the love and devotion that is synonymous with the concert industry.
For starters, couples have their choice of concert industry professionals to pronounce them man and wife. Forget about those Elvis impersonators in Reno and Vegas, for at the Pollstar.com Wedding Chapel couples can be married by the promoter for The Rolling Stones, the booking agents for Simon & Garfunkel and yes, even the roadies that crew for Phish, The Beach Boys and Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes. Thus ensuring that the marriages will be as strong and enduring as the firmest of dates for The Moody Blues or the current musician lineup in Phil Lesh & Friends. Yes, at the Pollstar.com Wedding Chapel, “marriage” is not just a word. It’s a sentence.
Needless to say, the Pollstar.com Wedding Chapel has been quite prosperous over the years. The number of people inspired to tie the knot after viewing the raw data for Young Dubliners and Barenaked Ladies is truly unbelievable, and the extra income has helped us through the hard times, including the dot-com meltdown, not to mention the Supremes reunion tour disaster of the late ’90s, and has enabled us to provide you, the Pollstar.com user, with tour data for Fun Lovin’ Criminals, Patty Griffin and America at absolutely no charge for these many, many years.
In fact, it’s almost as profitable as our Pollstar.com Quickie Divorce Service. Now, that’s synergy.