Sean C. Morgan
The Oregon Jamboree has filled all but two slots for its 2004 event, Event Manager Peter LaPonte said March 17 at the annual Sweet Home Economic Development Group membership meeting.
The most recent addition to the lineup is Collin Ray on Friday night. The Jamboree is still working on a Friday night headliner and a regional act for Saturday.
Ray joins a lineup including, Pam Tillis and Clay Walker.
The Jamboree is in round seven seeking a Friday headliner, LaPonte said. “It gets harder and harder every year to fill. The cost of doing this festival just keeps going up and up and up every year.”
Heavier competition for artists among a proliferating number of venues, including casinos, arenas, a new amphitheater and festivals, is helping drive those costs upward, LaPonte said. The Jamboree is looking at ways to expand the site and perhaps draw larger acts.
“There’s nothing that stops us from going out and buying a George Strait,” LaPonte said. The only constraint is the size of the venue. The Jamboree would need to accommodate a larger crowd to pay for such a star.
It has a maximum of 9,000 to 10,000 persons now.
Raising attendance to 15,000 or 20,000, “suddenly then a George Strait becomes doable,” LaPonte said. Without doing something, the Jamboree will be faced with an ever-shrinking group of national talent or end up increasing prices and locking a number of fans out of the market.
A committee is exploring ideas for purchasing property to expand the size of the Jamboree, LaPonte said. It also is looking at developing multiple events on a site-built stage, which would help reduce overall annual operational costs.
“We’d have a hard asset that could be used year round,” LaPonte said. Even if the Jambore did not make money on the extra events but merely broke even, it would still help fulfill the mission of the parent organization, SHEDG, by bringing a couple thousand visitors to town where they will buy gas, food and more.
While considering the future of the event, LaPonte said, the Jamboree is working improving the production quality of the show.
This year, that means giant video screens will be mounted on stage to provide a better view to those in back. The package will cost approximately $40,000.
The investment won’t pay for itself initially but in the next couple of years as the Jamboree sells advertising and sponsorships for it, LaPonte said. The big screen will also provide an attraction to the event as backstage interviews are put on the screen between shows.
The thousands of photos taken by volunteer Jamboree photographers can be put on the screen at any time during the event as well, and the Jamboree could potentially show music videos.
The addition will increase the value of a ticket, LaPonte said, and it will make the event rival indoor shows at places like the Rose Garden.
Ticket sales are about equal to last year at this point with nearly $400,000 in revenues to date. Most of the sales are in VIP seating and camping. Only about 70 VIP seats remain, and camping is available only in three sites.
For more information about the Jamboree or to volunteer, persons may call 367-8800.
The Jamboree is a three-day country music and camping festival held annually on the first weekend of August. Proceeds from the event are used by SHEDG for economic development projects in the community. About 400 volunteers help produce the show each year.