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Live Nation Launches Faster Horses
Live Nation has announced a large-scale, three-day country music festival called Faster Horses that will take place in Brooklyn, Mich., in July.
Faster Horses will be held on two stages adjacent to the Michigan International Speedway July 19-21, with camping. Producer Brian O’Connell is calling it a three-day “hillbilly sleepover.” Artist will be announced Feb. 18 and there is apparently enough room on the grounds to accommodate fans of the headliners because, according to O’Connell, there is a lot of land.
This is the second festival produced by O’Connell, who launched the Watershed Festival at The Gorge in George, Wash., last year. This one required months of research.
“I looked at a lot of locations in the Midwest and this one came to life late one night,” O’Connell told Pollstar. “This one was obvious because of the land and it had the camping amenities already in place. That’s the most important thing: the comfort of the fans. And there are a variety of camping sites around the festival site. But when it all crystallized is when I found the way to name it.”
O’Connell said the festival was almost shelved because of writer’s block. But in the middle of the night, the name came to him. It is derived from a Henry Ford quote, and associates racecars with country music. Ford said of his four-wheeled inventions, “If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
Live Nation wants Faster Horses to become a “rite of summer” for Midwestern music fans.
“There’s nothing cooler than that area of the country in the summertime because of the weather,” O’Connell said. “Obviously they get blistered all winter with snow and ice, and just awfulness. And people tend to celebrate the summer in the Midwest in a great way. You’re past the Fourth of July, you’re right before kids go back to school – it’s a great time for everybody to get together and have a great time. And that area of the world doesn’t have one.”
The festival website features a two-minute video of horses traversing the state, looking for the best location for the festival.
“And they found the spot!” he said. “They’re the ones that kind of told me where to do it.”