Pages

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Oxxfest coming to Scarborough Downs


SCARBOROUGH — Waterfront Concerts has announced the first of five shows it plans to stage this summer at Scarborough Downs.

The 2012 Oxxfest show will kick off at 11 a.m. on Friday, Aug. 10, to a day-long schedule that includes alternative and metal bands Five Finger Death Punch, Killswitch Engage, Trivium, Pop Evil, God Forbid, Emmure, Battle Cross and other local acts.

Tickets to the general admission show will go on sale though all Ticketmaster outlets at noon on Friday.

A parking plan submitted by Waterfront president Alex Gray when granted mass gathering permits by the Scarborough Town Council shows room for 1,259 vehicles on site. Scarborough’s mass gathering ordinance limits attendance to 3.5 people per vehicle, meaning up shows to 4,406 rockers could descend on the show. That would be down from the 5,500 reported at the 2011 Oxxfest show in Bangor’s Waterfront Pavillion, where Gray has staged A-list shows for the past three years.

Tentative listings for future shows in Scarborough include country superstar Miranda Lambert on Friday, July 27; some combination of alternative rockers Train, Matt Carney and Demi Lovato on Friday, Aug. 24; and, on Saturday, Sept. 1, the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, currently touring with metal bands Slipknot, Slayer, Motorhead and Anthrax in its lineup. 

Gray also has reported attempts to bring a Bob Dylan/Willie Nelson/Leon Russell show to town.

“We’ve had discussion with these acts, with their management and their agents,” said Gray. “They are holding dates for us. The routing works. They are in the region. They would like to play the state of Maine.

For Scarborough Downs, the deal gives a harness racing track with a recent history of declining fortunes a chance to find the money denied by repeated voter refusal to allow its transformation into a racino.

“I don’t think this is going to generate the same revenue as the slot would have, but it is a revenue source that we are looking to, to diversify, the same as any business needs to,” said Stephen Cobbett, director of operations at the Downs in a recent interview.


No comments:

Post a Comment