Mayor to Palace board: ‘Get your butts in gear’ on festival music lineup – Mitchell Republic

MITCHELL — The Corn Palace Events and Entertainment Commission was reprimanded Tuesday by Mitchell Mayor Bob Everson for failing to secure a headline act for this year’s annual Corn Palace Festival.

“In my opinion, at this stage of the game, you guys should be thinking about what you’re going to do for 2024, not try to find someone here in 2023. So you My words to you guys are: ‘Get into gear and get this done. “

Corn Palace Festival shows are usually already announced and tickets are on sale. Corn Palace director Doug Greenway said the show had struggled to secure performers this year, but that work on finding entertainment had already begun in December. The Corn Palace Festival is scheduled for August 23-27.

According to Greenway, there will be two headline acts this year, on Friday 25th August and Saturday 26th August. In past years, there have been up to four ticketed shows. Local artists will be presenting outdoor entertainment on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Sundays throughout this year’s festival.

At Tuesday’s meeting, it was discussed that country music artists Ko Wetzel and Scotty McCreary have both stepped down from the board this year. McCreery, who recently opened for Brooks and Dunn in Sioux Falls, was pulled out of the board due to lack of tickets for a June 2nd appearance in the area.

Mr. Wetzel, whom board members were largely unaware of, will perform at the Denny Sanford Premier Center in Sioux Falls this month, according to Greenway. Other offers that did not materialize also included musicians Rainie Wilson, Elle King and Terry Clark.

Everson told the board that one of its aims is to “make the Corn Palace Festival a success by getting someone to participate.”

“Waiting this long to complete it is unacceptable,” Everson said.

Greenway said he is in weekly contact with Romeo Entertainment, a group contracted by the city to find good acts that fit local demographic interests. A board conference call with Romeo Entertainment officials was held at an executive meeting on Tuesday to discuss a deal to consider having the entertainer come to Mitchell for the festival.

“Romeo will make the offer on our behalf, so this process will only take time,” Greenway said. “We don’t get involved in the negotiations. We get a contract that says, ‘This is how they come to Corn Palace to play.’ do you accept? 』

Greenway said 2021 was a year of delays for the band to cancel shows during the pandemic, but a fill-in was found and a success, despite a late public release by the third week of July. Pointed out that the show was held.

In terms of attracting acts this year, Greenway expects two shows to be booked in the next 10 days.

“This is certainly not ideal,” Greenway said Wednesday. “He thinks there are two ticketed shows and will do all the marketing, ticketing and dissemination as soon as we know what they are.”

The Corn Palace Events and Entertainment Commission members who attended the meeting included Craig Stucky, Mitchell City Councilman Jeff Smith, John Foster, Giovanni Lanier and Tiffany Lanier, according to the meeting minutes. Mr. Batdorf, Mr. Stratton Habrik and Mr. Carol Celsosimo. Gene Koehler, Jordan Gow and Chairman Steve Morgan were absent from Tuesday’s meeting. The mayor appoints commissioners and is not paid.

Luke Hagen was promoted to Editor in Chief of The Mitchell Republic in 2014. He has been with the paper since his 2008, covering sports, outdoors, education, features and breaking news. To contact him, he is lhagen@mitchellrepublic.com.