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Langerado 2011 Cancels

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As displayed on the main page of www.Langerado.com, the festival cancels again, both times being cancelled, Death Cab for Cutie was the main headliner for the event.


Unfortunately, this news popped up on the Langerado website a couple of hours ago. The South Florida music festival that has been plagued with problems the past couple years has again been scrapped -- or "cancelled" (sic). Its return to the idyllic Markham Park with a lineup of headliners including Death Cab for Cutie, Trey Anastasio Band, Thievery Corporation, Ween, and Ben Harper set for the weekend of October 8-9 sadly comes too late.



Now for many music fans in the area, this news comes as no surprise. Ever since the festival was shifted away from a Bonnaroo-style camping event to an attempt at a downtown Miami clusterscrew in 2009 -- it was eventually canceled that year too -- folks have been reluctant to purchase tickets. There was no Langerado at all in 2010, and it's unlikely there will ever be another one after this.

This is a heartbreaking loss for Broward County, which would have benefited from the many travelers using area hotels, restaurants, and kava bars, as well as a needed boost of quality music acts to the cultural spectrum.



On the Langerado Facebook page, the message reads simply:



We regretfully announce that Boros Entertainment has cancelled Langerado 2011. Tickets will be fully refunded at 888-512-SHOW or e-mail support@fgtcustomerservice.com

Two things that are telling about this message and its timing:



The responsibility for the cancellation is placed upon Boros Entertainment.
If you look back at the press releases for the event, and if you were theoretically planning to devote an entire issue to this event, you'll know that Texas-based C3 Presents(Lollapalooza, Austin City Limits) is actually also on the hook for this failure in addition toBoros. The Laurel, Florida-based Boros is "dedicated to the development and production of distinct events, with a specific commitment to bringing live music events to South Florida," but they couldn't have done this without the know-how of C3, which was knee-deep in planning this year's Austin City Limits, as their reps were quick to tell me. And apparently they couldn't do it at all.



This has been an inevitability for a while. Posting a cancellation on Labor Day weekend while everyone is out on a boat, climbing a mountain, or passed out by a pool is the best time to minimize the sting of this news. Expect a ton of celebrity divorces to be announced this weekend too. Again, if you were theoretically trying to set up interviews to promote the event, and had been met with resistance and deferments for every request for information dating back to mid-July, this would not seem to be such a shock. True, the daily lineup schedules and camping information came out recently, but the bold push of nearly year-round publicity of every year's Ultra Music Festival was markedly absent from Langerado's arsenal.



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