Norman Music Festival organizers gleefully roamed the packed downtown streets last year as the inaugural event defied expectations by bringing a festival packed not only with local and regional talent, but offering it up to city residents for free.
The festival lured Chainsaw Kittens out of semi-retirement, brought the cult choir The Polyphonic Spree to Oklahoma for the first time and drew a crowd estimated around 13,000.
Organizers eager to keep the festival fresh in metro minds are staging a 9 p.m. Friday promo show with Dorian Small at Norman's The Deli, 309 White.
MERCHANDISE
The show will feature a raffle for, among other things, VIP passes for the 2009 festival. Shirts, posters and other merchandise will also be sold Friday to help offset the cost of the April 25, 2009, festival.
"Some people were skeptical before it went down and I don't blame them," Bomgardner said. "We had never done anything like that before, but we had really great response from the community. We even got a thank you letter from our mayor, which made me happy. It's nice to know that the city was generally pleased because it went so smoothly."
Bomgardner recently announced that Starlight Mints will perform at the 2009 festival. He said next year's day-long show will be expanded. Street barricades will be relocated along side streets to add crowd capacity, and a fourth stage " geared toward child audiences " is being considered. Organizers also tweaked the date to avoid any overlap with other large music events.
"Last year we were on the same weekend as Coachella, and when we were looking to get bands, the one thing we heard a lot was, 'We are looking to see if we get into Coachella,'" Bomgardner said. "This year, we are staggered by one week, so we are hoping that will help us since Coachella puts a lot of bands on the road. That will help with mid-tier bands." "Charles Martin
