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Stumble It!On May 14, the usually calm intersection of Ninth and New Hampshire streets will be anything but when it plays host to more than 3,000 fans of the band Wilco. The outdoor concert, approved last month by the Lawrence City Commission, is expected to bring hundreds of visitors to Lawrence from out of town. Organizers and city officials are hoping that these guests along with residents of Lawrence will help generate money for downtown merchants.
“Obviously, it will be a great shot in the arm because I know businesses up and down Massachusetts Street will enjoy some benefit from people that are coming to the concert. Certainly restaurants and bars are going to have a field day because there will be so many people down here,” said Jane Pennington, director of Downtown Lawrence, Inc.
In addition to bringing in revenue for downtown businesses the concert is also significant because it marks a new direction the city is taking in downtown entertainment.
Brett Mosiman, one of the events promoters, is encouraged by city leaders’ decision to allow the concert and hopes that they will continue to allow large scale outdoor events downtown in the future.
“Lawrence is a great community, but we’ve gotten in the habit of saying no to things and people that take risks, spend money and create jobs have gotten that message loud and clear over the last 10 years or so,” Mosiman said. “I like to say we’ve got to start saying ‘why not?’ instead of ‘what if?’”
Wilco’s outdoor performance will be the first of such magnitude downtown. However, the crowd will pale in comparison to the tens of thousands of people who flooded the streets following the last three KU men’s basketball victories against Davidson, North Carolina and Memphis.
Given that only minor disturbances happened in those festivities, the outlook for the Wilco concert is also win-win-win: one for the crowd, one for downtown merchants and one for the city of Lawrence.
Purchase tickets for this event online
To hear samples of Wilco performing live at the 2005 Wakarusa Music and Camping Festival, see "Multimedia" to the right of the page. Audio by Sam Stratton
