Rally by River canceled for Saturday night

6/25/2010

In the wake of disappointing ticket sales, Toledoans will not have the chance to rally by the river Saturday night.

Though Friday evening's Rally by the River concert, the third in a summer-long series, will still happen, organizer Mike Scott said Saturday's concert had not sold enough tickets to justify going forward. At the time he decided to officially cancel the concert Friday morning, 92 tickets had been sold.

"This is the very first concert I have ever canceled in 31 years," Mr. Scott, a concert promoter, said. "This one made sense because of the huge lack of support."

He attributed the lack of local interest in the concert to negative publicity regarding the $20 ticket price. The taxpayer-funded nonprofit CitiFest Inc. organized and paid for the annual concert series up until three years ago, when a mayorial review and budget considerations lead to the organization's termination.

Jen Sorgenfrei, spokesperson for Mayor Mike Bell, agreed that the ticket price and local associations may have hurt Rally by the River's turnout.

"It does of course take some money to do that," Ms. Sorgenfrei said, referring to the concert's organization by a private producer like Mr. Scott. She added that she hopes he can retool the concert in the future to feature a lower ticket price.

Mr. Scott said he did not think Saturday's slated artists, which included Pat Travers and Survivor, were disappointed about the show's cancelation.

But despite Saturday's poor showing, Mr. Scott said he expects "a couple thousand" people to come to the Friday show, which features Fire, L.A. Guns, Dokken, and Skid Row.