From the Rocky Mountain News Today
“Promoter Chuck Morris, joined by Gov. Bill Ritter and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, today will confirm one of the worst-kept secrets in the local music scene.
The inaugural Mile High Music Festival will be headlined by Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers on July 19, with the Dave Matthews Band closing out the next night.
Only the Telluride Bluegrass Festival challenges the festival in terms of number of acts for a Colorado concert. But the Mile High fest has a scope that ranges from veterans John Mayer and Steve Winwood to fan favorites such as The Black Crowes and Rodrigo y Gabriela and up-and-comers like the Flobots. Altogether more than 35 acts are confirmed for the festival, with more on the way.
The festival — which Morris and his company, the Phil Anschutz-owned AEG Live, hope will become an annual event — will charge $150 for two-day passes, plus service charges, and will take place on the 24 lighted soccer fields outside Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City. Tickets go on sale March 20.
The facility is run by Stan Kroenke, the owner of the Denver Nuggets, Colorado Avalanche, Colorado Rapids and Pepsi Center and an increasingly frequent collaborator with Anschutz on major events.
The concerts were originally planned for City Park in the urban-festival style of the Austin City Limits festival or Seattle ‘s Bumbershoot, where the city streets become the stage for the music. Objections from Denver Zoo officials over the possibility of trauma to its animals from the loud music scuttled that plan, despite extensive pre-planning and work by AEG Live.
It was subsequently relocated to the soccer fields outside of Dick’s Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City, where the concert lineup will be officially announced this morning.”