Heat, Economy Sink HullabaLOU

Churchill Downs Inc., citing the down economy, will not present a HullabaLOU Music Festival in 2011 and has dissolved its Churchill Downs Entertainment Group.

CDE President Steve Sexton also resigned from the Kentucky-based group to pursue other interests.

Churchill Downs lost more than $5 million producing the inaugural three-day event at the famed horse racing track, about double the amount it had projected, according to Louisville’s Courier-Journal.

The July 23-25 festival featured some 65 artists including headliners Kenny Chesney, Bon Jovi and Dave Matthews Band. The HullabaLOU website projected a capacity of 90,000, but posted an attendance just shy of 79,000 fans that braved an excessive heat wave.

The organization said it hopes 2011 is just a hiatus and HullabaLOU could return under more favorable economic conditions, according to the paper.

“It has become clear that launching new, upscale entertainment events in the current economy, particularly with the persistently high levels of unemployment, is extremely difficult,” CDI President/CEO Robert Evans said in a statement quoted by the Courier-Journal.

“While we received exceptionally high marks from the nearly 80,000 people who attended our CDE events, we fell short of the attendance levels necessary to operate these events profitably.”