MUSIC & NIGHTLIFE

Indiana State Fair discontinues concerts at coliseum

Animals get 17 days at arena; Free Stage will be home to live music

David Lindquist
david.lindquist@indystar.com
Indiana Farmers Coliseum, where Gov. Mike Pence welcomed visitors to opening day of the 2015 Indiana State Fair, will host no concerts during the 2016 fair.

After two years of Indiana State Fair concerts at the renovated Indiana Farmers Coliseum, live music won't return to the venue during this year's fair.

Touring acts still will perform on the Free Stage, where admission is included with each fair ticket.

But at the Indiana Farmers Coliseum, an uninterrupted slate of 17 days of livestock shows will replace dates previously assigned to rapper Pitbull (2014), comedian Gabriel Iglesias (2015) and other entertainers.

Fair spokeswoman Lesley Gordon said exhibitors of draft horses, cattle and goats requested more flexibility in a coliseum schedule that was split between music and animals.

"We are trying to continue to have one of the best livestock shows in the nation," Gordon said. "A lot of state fairs have gone away from the agriculture and livestock showing. We still maintain that."

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The fair on Tuesday announced four Free Stage performances: the "Happy Together" tour featuring the Turtles and former vocalists for Three Dog Night and Paul Revere & the Raiders on Aug. 10; rock band 38 Special on Aug. 12; singer-songwriter duo the Bacon Brothers (featuring actor Kevin Bacon) on Aug. 13; and rock band Blues Traveler on Aug. 15. More concerts at the open-air venue will be announced in coming weeks.

John Popper will perform with Blues Traveler on Aug. 15 at the Indiana State Fair.

Although the Coliseum presents concerts year-round, the 8,200-capacity venue has not hosted a blockbuster show during the fair since succeeding the Hoosier Lottery Grandstand as a ticketed venue in 2014.

Gordon said it's a challenge to find acts that can fill that number of seats and fit within the fair's budget. Fair officials appeared to have a winner in Meghan Trainor last year, but the singer known for chart-topping hit "All About That Bass" canceled multiple tour dates because of a vocal cord hemorrhage.

Stand-up comedian Jim Gaffigan attracted the most paying customers of any act to play the Coliseum in 2014 or 2015. An audience of 5,368 caught Gaffigan's show in 2014. The fair paid him $150,000. When country singer Jake Owen played the arena in 2015, 2,747 fans attended the show. Owen received $125,000.

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Most concert contracts are private, but the fair's are public record because the state of Indiana oversees the event.

The pop-rock oldies bill of "Happy Together" visited the Free Stage in 2015, when the musicians were paid $65,000.

Gordon said the general-admission format of the Free Stage is attractive to fair attendees, even if the biggest names of today aren't onstage.

"Our hope is that it creates more value for that State Fair ticket and creates more visits to the State Fair," she said.

Across decades, the grandstand attracted A-list talent. The venue's 15,000 capacity made it possible for the fair to have relatively low ticket prices and also pay premium guarantees to performers.

A deadly accident in 2011 brought an end to concerts at the grandstand. Stage rigging collapsed in high winds just before country-pop duo Sugarland was to perform. Seven people were killed, and more than 50 were injured.

Indiana State Fair concerts were presented at Bankers Life Fieldhouse in 2012, and no ticketed shows took place in 2013.

For more information on Free Stage concerts, visit IndianaStateFair.com.

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Call IndyStar reporter David Lindquist at (317) 444-6404. Follow him on Twitter: @317Lindquist.