The summer's biggest jam-band fest found one jam it couldn't escape from: slow ticket sales.
The inaugural Zooma Tour, a traveling music party jointly headlined by former Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio and R&B-flavored folk-rocker Ben Harper, has been canceled due to slow ticket sales.
Organizers confirmed the cancellation in a post on ZoomaTour.com.
"The Zooma Tour was conceived to provide fans with an exceptional musical and entertainment experience. Due to unforeseen circumstances, it has become clear that it would not be possible to provide that experience at the level initially envisioned. Rather than go forward with a tour that falls short of what was conceived, everyone involved has mutually agreed that it is best to cancel the tour altogether," tour promoters said.
Aside from the headliners, the six-week trek featured an eclectic lineup of such neo-hippy favorites as Medeski Martin & Wood, Galactic, Gomez, Toots and the Maytals, the Black Keys, G. Love and Special Sauce, Brazilian Girls and Jurassic 5. Zooma was scheduled to kick off June 13 in Camden, New Jersey, and run through July 31.
Tour producer Jonathan Mayers, one of the masterminds of jam land's hugely popular Bonnaroo Festival in Manchester, Tennessee, admitted to Billboard that despite the roster, not enough fans materialized to support Zooma.
"We went into this hoping to do a whole concourse activity and really present a full entertainment experience, and because of where we are with sales we aren't able to deliver that," Mayers said. "So we all mutually agreed to pull the plug."
But the promoter says Zooma's demise "doesn't signal waning interest in the improvisational music scene by any stretch of the imagination."
Mayers told Billboard: "I just think at the end of the day the synergy just didn't work like we thought it would--it just didn't resonate with the audience. Sometimes you just don't know until you try something."
Just ask organizers of Lollapalooza, the seminal alt-rock fest that changed the whole idea of a touring music festival. What seemed like a sure thing on paper--a two-day event in each city featuring a stellar lineup of Sonic Youth, Morrissey, the Flaming Lips, the Stringcheese Incident, Wilco and a reunited Pixies--ended up being a Lollapa-loser--done in by weak sales. (The Lollapalooza name was recently appropriated for a one-off event July 23-24 in Chicago.)
Speaking of Stringcheese, noodle lovers can catch the Incident headlining the Big Summer Classic 2005, a separate, if smaller traveling jam-band festival that kicks off with a pair of shows at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison, Colorado, July 2 and 3.
As for Anastasio, his management is working out a new itinerary for the ex-Phish man that will see him and his new band, 70 Volt Parade, play venues across the country. Harper and his group, the Innocent Criminals, meanwhile, have scheduled a two-night stand at Los Angeles' Temple Bar June 9 and 10 and more dates are expected to follow.
Automatic refunds for Zooma are being given to anyone who purchased advanced tickets via Anastasio or Harper's Websites, as well as through Ticketmaster. Tickets obtained at other locations will be refunded at point of purchase.