By JENNIFER CHANCELLOR Scene Writer on Jul 29, 2009, at 3:38 PM Updated on 7/29 at 3:38 PM
BARRELHOUSE BEAT
Tulsa’s Brian Horton of Horton Records is organizing an Okie Tornado Relief Benefit concert. It kicks off 6 p.m. Thursday ...
Tulsa-founded boutique and coffee bar Joebots at Dwelling Spaces will donate 100 percent of proceeds from the sale of its ...
Tulsa’s historic music venue Cain's Ballroom will donate $1 from each ticket sold for its Thursday Thompson Square concert ...
Dfest 2009 (Tulsa World photo)
London's "
The Economist" magazine recently cited Okie events
Rocklahoma,
Country Fever and
Dfest as international examples of successful music festivals.
Reports the magazine: Oklahoma, for instance, has realised that festivals can be a big boon to a struggling state. Tulsa’s Dfest started out in 2002 as a competition for local bands. Over the past seven years it has turned into a mega-event hosting big acts like the Flaming Lips and a crowd exceeding 50,000.
Then there is Pryor, Oklahoma, which sits near the Kansas, Arkansas and Missouri state lines, about 30 miles from Tulsa. It has found a mammoth market with “Rocklahoma”, a music festival in July aimed at metal-heads. Billed as the world’s biggest 1980s music festival, it lures tourists from all over the world, and they often stay on after the festival to camp. A few weeks before “Rocklahoma” the town, normally home to just 8,500 people, hosts “Country Fever”, another festival. These two gigs add up to the biggest annual sales-tax earner for the city, Christmas included.
Also mentioned: Wakarusa, Bonnaroo and the King Biscuit Blues Festival.
Read the full Economist story, 
here.
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