St. Louis made a real case for itself as a major music city when a stream of new and relaunched festivals were unveiled recently.

The indie-rock LouFest made its debut in Forest Park on Aug. 28, the same day that the St. Louis Super Music Festival, an old-school R&B show, kicked off at Chaifetz Arena.

Also last weekend, the St. Louis Bluesweek Festival played downtown in front of the new Peabody Opera House.

And the return of the touring show Budweiser Superfest drew R&B and neo-soul fans to Verizon Wireless Amphitheater on Aug. 26.

Here's how the shows fared and what the outlook is for their future. Vote for which music festival most deserves to return next year by clicking here.

 

Budweiser Superfest with Anthony Hamilton, Kem, Jaheim and Raheem DeVaughn

When • Aug. 26

Where • Verizon Wireless Amphitheater

Attendance • 10,000-12,000

Budweiser Superfest and Lilith Fair both disappeared in 1999 and returned this year. But while Lilith Fair struggled, Budweiser Superfest drew impressive crowds with a smaller, shorter run.

Bryan Hammonds, an executive at Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis, came up with the idea of bringing back the R&B concert.

"From what I've seen, everyone is excited about the return of the Superfest and the lineup," says Hammonds. A second show was added in Atlanta after the first show sold out.

The St. Louis show was a success as well. Originally planned as a pavilion-only concert, interest exploded when the lawn was opened with $10 tickets.

"It turned out fantastic," Hammonds says. "The weather, the performances, all the stars lined up in St. Louis."

Hammonds says it's yet to be determined whether Superfest will return next year. If it does, he says, local involvement will be continued, which this year included a Battle for a Crown contest in which a local singer won the chance to open the event.

 

St. Louis Super Music Festival with George Clinton, Teena Marie, Zapp and Cameo

When • Aug. 28

Where • Chaifetz Arena

Attendance • 3,500

The folks behind the St. Louis Super Music Festival say the first run of the festival was a success, despite one big hiccup that has been the talk of the event.

"I looked around at the crowd, and everyone was partying and dancing, and that was my whole mission, for people to have fun," promoter Daryel Oliver says.

Jim Wynkoop, general manager at Chaifetz Arena, says: "We had people there for six or seven hours, and I think everybody enjoyed themselves. It was a long evening, but the music was great — and I'll stop there."

What Wynkoop doesn't want to mention is headliner George Clinton's set. Clinton and his band failed to show for sound check. They performed a "line check," verifying the cables and microphones were properly connected, in front of the audience.

"We should have kept the music (from DJ Raven Fox) going so people weren't paying attention, because when the band was on stage, people thought the show was going to start," Oliver says of the uncomfortable period when the band was doing its check.

Some fans booed as Clinton's set finally got under way and the Godfather of Funk's vocals were inaudible. Audience members left.

Oliver also addressed complaints that Clinton fell short of the marathon concerts he performed during his P-Funk heyday. He was contracted to do only an hour show at Chaifetz.

To concertgoers who were disappointed, Wynkoop hopes they can look at the evening as a whole and not just at how it ended.

"Certainly, people went there to see George, and they may have been disappointed, but overall the night of music was great," he says.

Chaifetz Arena remains supportive of the St. Louis Super Music Festival and looks forward to its return next year. Oliver wants it to expand, possibly adding a day and bringing on vendors to give it more of a festival feel.

Oliver says he's considering Stevie Wonder, Prince and Earth, Wind & Fire as headliners.

"The numbers might not work out, but if we get corporate sponsorship, this will happen where we can make it like the Essence Festival," he says.

 

LouFest with She & Him, Jeff Tweedy, Broken Social Scene, Built to Spill and more

When • Aug. 28-29

Where • Central Field, Forest Park

Attendance • 9,000 over two days

If LouFest was the prototype of how to get a new music festival off the ground, there's reason why. Bits of other, more established music festivals including Austin City Music Limits Music Festival, Pitchfork Music Festival and the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival were emulated to launch LouFest.

"We wouldn't want to give the impression that we lifted a festival up and dropped it in St. Louis," LouFest organizer and founder Brian Cohen says.

"But we took what we liked from each festival and created something new and unique, and we were successful at doing that. And it felt local. Bands said this is a great local festival."

LouFest mixed national names including She & Him and Alejandro Escovedo with local favorites Kim Massie and Magnolia Summer. The event brought about 9,000 people to Forest Park over two days.

Cohen is satisfied with that number but says, "You can always sell more tickets, and the numbers are smaller than the field can hold. We didn't expect capacity. Year 1 is about delivering an experience that meets expectations. The trajectory is to start small and build. We've shown what we can do, and people who came this year will look back and say 'Wow, I was a part of the first year.'"

Cohen says the first festival could not have gone better.

"I felt like the execution was flawless," he says. "My team knew exactly what they were doing, was prepared and it showed. We had a few growing pains Saturday, but they were all handled backstage, and I don't think they affected the people up front, the fans."

Cohen describes the growing pains as minor, mostly dealing with who was supposed to be where and when. But he feels that's typical in dealing with "a big space with lots of moving parts."

Lucero's lead singer had a health issue that caused the band to cut its set short. But the flow of the event ran smoothly as the crowd shifted between two stages.

When LouFest returns to Forest Park, and Cohen says it will, he envisions some minor tweaks. He will re-examine the physical layout to better spread out the overall areas of concentration.

He's also interested in adding more hours, another stage and maybe a Friday date, which would all lead to more performers.

What won't happen is a major expansion of the types of music LouFest will present.

"The heart and soul will always be indie rock," Cohen says.

 

St. Louis Bluesweek Festival

When • Aug. 27-28

Where • 14th and Market Streets in front of the Peabody Opera House

Attendance • 10,000

The St. Louis Bluesweek Festival, the biggest component of the first St. Louis Bluesweek, didn't go into its inaugural rollout with much of a hip quotient attached to it. After all, it was celebrating some of the oldest recorded music ever.

But organizer Mike Kociela says more than 10,000 people packed the park and streets at the Peabody Opera House last weekend to hear the various tribute concerts to St. Louis blues musicians.

"I would have been happy with 5,000 to 7,000, but I knew we could collectively do the 10,000," Kociela says. "And when you think about it, it was all St. Louis musicians, and there weren't any typical bands. They were tribute bands paying homage. So it was awesome that the draw of the St. Louis blues scene pulled that number."

The fact that St. Louis Bluesweek Festival was free, unlike the other festivals, certainly helped.

"St. Louis likes free," Kociela says.

Kociela admits he was nervous the first night, not knowing what to expect.

"It's like when you throw a party and don't know if anyone will come," he says. "We were all shaking in our boots."

But by 6 p.m. on the first night, the park was half full, the street was full by 8 p.m., and by 9 p.m. the entire area was packed, he says.

Did everything run exactly on schedule? Not exactly.

"Blues runs on a different time clock, and it runs slow," Kociela says. "But it's not that big a deal."

The festival will return next year, and sponsors already have started reupping. The date, however, could change.

"We want to look at what else is going on, baseball schedules and things like that," Kociela says.