Benefit Concert Down But Not Out

Unfortunately, sometimes benefit concerts do the exact opposite of their intended goal and put organizers further into the red.

A two-day cancer benefit featuring Clint Black in Tuscaloosa, Ala., attracted far fewer than the 10,000 that organizers expected, reportedly because of a change of venue and other setbacks.

The "Concert 4 The Cure" country music festival on Memorial Day weekend May 24-25 was expected to attract thousands to the city’s Munny Sokol Park to see Black, Jo Dee Messina, Lonestar, Buddy Jewell and others but instead drew about 800, according to the Tuscaloosa News.

Greg Benton, who co-promoted the event sponsored by the Walter Jones Foundation, told the paper the festival was originally scheduled for the city’s Jaycee Park and about 12,000 tickets had sold in advance.

However, city officials decided the event should be moved to Munny Sokol Park and ticket refunds were issued, leaving potential concertgoers to buy tickets again, the News said.

"The change of venue hurt us," Benton told the paper. "I think people made plans to do something else. And with it being a holiday weekend a lot of folks were out of town. We had a gazillion refunds we were processing over the past week."

Benton also said that Sokol Park isn’t a known concert site to anyone outside of Tuscaloosa, which may also have been a factor.

Meanwhile, organizers are discussing the possibility of doing a similar event next year, with some adjustments, the paper said.

Money raised from the concert was to be donated to the Alabama chapter of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure organization, which is dedicated to finding a cure for breast cancer.