Voodoo Sticking With City Park

It’s all clear for an annual New Orleans music festival that faced an uncertain future after a recent scheduling mixup.

The 2009 Voodoo Experience will once again take place in New Orleans’ City Park, where the festival has been staged for the past decade, following a recent agreement with the event promoter and city officials.

Promoter Stephen Rehage of Rehage Entertainment, who holds a nine-year contract with the park, originally scheduled the event Oct. 23-25, but something went awry when he switched the dates to Halloween weekend.

His company’s director of production called the park’s special events director in January and confirmed there were no other events, such as a wedding, on the books for Oct. 30 to Nov. 1, according to the Times-Picayune. Rehage moved the date, booked KISS as the Halloween night headliner and filled his lineup.

But apparently there had been a bit of miscommunication and a wedding – actually four weddings to be exact – and a fund-raiser were scheduled for the weekend.
Not anymore.

After hashing out the scheduling conflict, City Park executive director Bob Becker said in a statement that park officials were looking forward to hosting Voodoo Experience 2009 and “keeping the festival in the park long-term.”

New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau CEO Stephen Perry said the agreement will ultimately benefit the city.

“Economically and culturally, festivals have grown to be the lifeblood of our city’s tourism industry,” Perry said. “With a strong festival lineup in the spring, and Voodoo Experience anchoring the fall, we have an impressive roster of events to draw more people to the city.”

Last year’s festival drew more than 150,000 people to the park, according to the statement, with a reported economic impact of more than $50 million in the city.