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Trumbull Concerts Reevaluated
Trumbull, Conn., town officials will discuss whether to continue financing its annual summer concert series after canceling a
First Selectman Tim Herbst told Pollstar said that officials partnered with Keith Mahler and Anthony Rhodes of Premier Concerts (formerly PKM Presents) to book Bolton for a Sept. 22 show at the 6,000-capacity Indian Ledge Park amphitheatre after detailed research.
Bolton, who lives in nearby Westbury, Conn., had packed the house for a June concert at Mortensen Hall at The Bushnell in Hartford.
However, as of Sept. 14, about 1,000 tickets, the average price $40, had been sold when the town needed to sell 4,000 to 5,000 tickets to break even. Herbst decided to cancel the event to cut the town’s losses.
“We had hoped it would work out but it didn’t. Some people might criticize my decision to cancel the concert but when you’re a chief executive, you have to make the tough choices,” Herbst said. “Had I not made the decision, the Town of Trumbull would have lost in excess of $170,000 instead of $19,000. I cannot in good conscience as chief executive of this town play chicken with the taxpayers’ money.”
Ticket sales were refunded at point of purchase.
The Bolton cancelation was just one more sign to Herbst that shouldering the costs and risks associated with concerts isn’t in the town’s best interests.
A nearly sold-out Train concert at the shed in 2010 profited the town about $70,000 but last year’s concert featuring Sugar Ray, Lifehouse and Gin Blossoms had only sold about 2,000 tickets before it was canceled because of Hurricane Irene.
“Going forward, I don’t think the Town of Trumbull should be in the concert business anymore. If we have any more concerts at Indian Ledge Park, I’m going to put out a [Request for Proposal] for a third party to come in and assume the liability and the risk, he told Pollstar.
“We looked at tickets sales over a five-year period and … sales between 2007 and 2008 [showed] a 50 percent drop-off. People don’t have the discretionary income that they had five years ago to go to concerts.”