"With limited venues willing or able to cater to live music in Lexington, but with growing pockets of interest in entertainment options among fans and players themselves, a group of organizers are tuning up for what they believe could be a recognized local music and arts scene.
Using the Red Mile racetrack for their inaugural production, concert organizers Dave Hadland, Robin Sunderland and Shane Miller recognized the lack of music spaces in town that can hold mid-level audience sizes — larger than typical bar settings, but smaller than arena seating. The Red Mile, where Hadland works, jumped out as an immediate viable option.
"There's so much room at the Red Mile," Hadland said. "Look at Churchill Downs, what they're doing, they've got stuff going on. There's room to do festivals here; there's room to do big concerts, and nobody's doing it. This should be a stop for bands, but nobody's using it as a stop."
Dubbed Red Mile Rocks, the concerts use the track's clubhouse for the stage area. With a capacity of 1,200 and seating available outside of the actual stage area, the network of televisions used for racing simulcasting broadcasts footage of the live music throughout the facility. It's an unnecessary embellishment, but it's one of the many perks offered to the audience — and, just as importantly, to the bands — to make the event feel special.
"You're creating a scene, more than just capitalizing on the actual dollar," Hadland said. "And I think that's attractive to the bands."
The bill for the first concert on April 27 touted some of the more feted bands in town (and one from Nashville), all of which are considered capable of serving as a headlining act at local concert halls, and represented a broad spectrum of musical genres — from indie dance rock to country. Each of the local bands playing, Parlour Boys, Sunday Valley, Very Emergency and In Endeavors Italya, came equipped with a built-in audience, and the organizers hoped to cross-pollinate fans' tastes by exposing them to bands with which they may not have been familiar. Because a large portion of their fan base is under 21, as well as themselves, In Endeavors Italya rarely gets a chance to be booked in music clubs.
What also makes Red Mile an attractive venue is its ability to host all-ages crowds while also serving alcoholic drinks to people of age, a virtual anomaly in Lexington music options, which the organizers feel alienates a large crowd of music fans — those under the age of 21.
"With the license that the Red Mile has, it's like a ball game at Yankee Stadium where the father sits there with a glass of beer and the son has the hot dog, that's how the license works," Hadland said. "Obviously, we're going to have to be very careful, but the Red Mile is stepping up and saying, 'Hey, we want to make this the best, but we also want to make it safe.' We want to make sure the parents know that it's safe for future events."
The organizers hope that the inaugural concert blossoms into a regular installment of musical events, but they can't occur too often or they run the risk of losing their distinction, and the promoters want to maintain the vibe that this event is something special for the musicians and the fans.
"There has to be a vibe to it," Hadland said. "I'm thinking that if I am looking at the bands that are playing, I want to be not only excited about it, but I want to feel like this is a new thing. That's the reason we can't do them every week or once a month; you burn yourself out."
The management of Red Mile has been very open to the idea of the events and was financially supportive for things such as security, sound equipment and promotional materials to make the initial concert a reality. It's a risk, but if enough interest is generated and audience numbers keep climbing, the series could spawn an actual festival, perhaps a two- or three-day affair, that would take place in the infield.
"They were very receptive to it," Hadland said. "They're more interested in building and making everything right and actually putting monies up to make it happen. They understand that if we move it from the club house and we start getting stuff in the infield, that that's going to be a great venue."
Another component to the concert is integrating the visual artist community in Lexington, merging the visual with the audio. Between acts, images from local artists will stream across the network of televisions. And apparently, the interest has been pretty extensive.
"We've had 50 or so bands and 30 or so artists that want to be a part of the next one," Sunderland said. "We've got to do a next one. What are we going to do with all these people?"
Bringing in the visual artists was just another component to the event which the organizers hoped would help dog-ear the occasion in the audience members' and the musicians' minds — something to make them look forward to next time.
"Instead of bands just saying that they're going to be playing the local bar scene, there's a tag to it, it's important," Hadland said. "And that vibe goes along with it, so when people come, they know it's special, and that's why we're taking a lot of effort."
Robbie Clark is the editor of "Business Lexington's" free sister publication, "W Weekly." For more information on arts and entertainment happenings in Lexington, "W Weekly" is available at more than 300 locations around town.