Lyman Launches Mayhem

Live Nation has at least one idea to cure to the ailing amphitheatre business – the Rockstar Energy Mayhem Festival, courtesy of Kevin Lyman and his crew at 4Fini.

Lyman – founder of the Vans Warped Tour – will be heading out with his signature tour this summer, hitting sheds, parking lots and all kinds of other outdoor venues. Meanwhile, partner John Reese will be launching the Mayhem Festival, an unabashedly metal project.

In addition to a main stage with headliners Slipknot and Disturbed, along with Dragonforce and Mastodon, the event will have a pair of second stages.

The first is sponsored by Jagermeister and features Sevendust, Airborne, Five Finger Death Punch, 36 Crazy Fists and the Jagermeister Battle of the Bands winner.

The second will host Machine Head, Black Tide, Suicide Silence, The Red Chord and Walls of Jericho.

The tour will launch July 9th at the White River Amphitheatre near Seattle, then move South to East, hitting approximately 30 sheds managed by Live Nation. Although 4Fini has its hands full with Warped and the Rockstar Taste of Chaos Tour, the company decided it could tackle one more gig.

One of Warped’s bands, As I Lay Dying, skewed metal but had a successful showing on the tour, which likely got labels like Metal Blade and Roadrunner to contact Lyman, looking for a spot on the roster. Unfortunately, there were "2,000" submissions already, Lyman told Pollstar.

But metal fans can always use a community, much like the one punk rockers and emo fans have at Warped. Meanwhile, labels are growing tired of buy-on tours, where they pay promoters, agents and managers to break their new acts.

"I’ve never believed in that for 25 years," Lyman said. "And I was also having problems with the kid who was 15 years old and, all of a sudden he decided he liked metal or punk and all of the T-shirts would double and tickets would start costing more."

Meanwhile, Rockstar, which sponsors Taste of Chaos, was looking for another vehicle. Warped already had Monster Energy drink as a sponsor and Lyman said he’s not one to switch sponsors.

"Then CAA approached and said they had Slipknot and Disturbed looking to do something out of the norm. … So it all came together."

Meanwhile, Live Nation execs – trying to find ways to fill up their outdoor venues – were "very excited" when Lyman approached with Mayhem.

"All of our successes are ‘group’ successes rather than putting together a package and trying to sell it," Lyman said. "We’re pretty much going it as a break-even because we were able to be compensated in our time and effort by our sponsor."

Complete info on the tour, including an itinerary and details about tickets will be made available in the near future at MayhemFest.com. – Joe Reinartz