In the face of tough economic times, Palace Sports & Entertainment (PS&E) attracted a record number of sellouts and near record-breaking attendance averages to DTE Energy Music Theatre in Clarkston, MI and Meadow Brook Music Festival in Rochester, MI, during the 2008 summer concert season. Also, the amphitheatres committed to be more environmentally friendly by implementing several “green” initiatives this summer, which saw encouraging results from their participation in DTE Energy’s GreenCurrents program and recycling efforts.
More than two-thirds of the venues’ events included affordable $10 or $15 lawn tickets or specially discounted four-packs of lawn tickets and, in addition, PS&E offered big savings on a wide selection of concerts at The Palace, DTE Energy Music Theatre and Meadow Brook Music Festival back in July as part of their “Two-Day Ticket Blitz,” which provided savings of up to 50 percent on a majority of the shows at the three PS&E venues.
DTE Energy Music Theatre brought in more than 785,000 people during its 65-show summer, resulting in the third-best average attendance (12,086) in PS&E’s 18 years of ownership. These numbers should keep the venue on pace to remain the nation’s most attended outdoor venue for the 18th consecutive year. DTE posted 20 sellouts as Kid Rock highlighted the summer with four consecutive capacity crowds on July 19-20, 22 and 25, marking the longest string of sellouts at the amphitheatre by one group or artist in a season during PS&E’s ownership.
Meadow Brook Music Festival posted its most impressive summer with a record-high six sellouts in 2008, surpassing its previous season high of four, and drew close to 150,000 people during its 35 shows to notch its second highest attendance average (4,282) under PS&E’s 15 years of management. The sold-out shows were James Taylor (June 4), Trace Adkins with Kellie Pickler (July 17), “Weird Al” Yankovic (July 18), Crosby, Stills & Nash (July 19), Live, Blues Traveler and Collective Soul (July 24) and O.A.R. (July 25).
“We are thrilled with how well our amphitheatres fared and thankful for the continued support by our area’s event-goers this summer, especially during these tough economic times,” said Tom Wilson, president and CEO of PS&E, in a statement. “It goes to show how much metro Detroiters and the state of Michigan love their music. We dedicate ourselvnyes to bringing the best summer acts to our stages while delivering the best overall fan experience possible and we are more than excited by the turnouts we observed this season.”
On June 1, DTE Energy Music Theatre came on-line with the GreenCurrents renewable energy program, a voluntary program offered by DTE Energy and is available to its residence and business electric customers. In the four months the venue participated in program, it displaced 330,600 kWh of energy, which equates to more than 463,000 pounds of carbon dioxide. This is the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide produced by 2.9 million miles of motor vehicle travel or one vehicle making a trip around the circumference of the earth’s equator (24,902 miles) 117 times.
