BamaJam not a hard sell for event producer

By Debbie Ingram

Published: May 30, 2008

Despite the unknowns associated with a first-year festival in rural Southeast Alabama, BamaJam producers say sponsors, entertainers and fans all seem to “get it.”

“It’s not been difficult to sell, but it’s difficult for people to believe,” said BamaJam event producer Ted Hacker of Nashville.

It’s difficult to believe that upwards of 30,000 people could convene on this 600 acres of land in central Coffee County next weekend in the largest outdoor festival this area has seen.

Ronnie Gilley Entertainment has done what it needed to get the word out. They painted a BamaJam motor home and hit the highways. They advertised heavily over the Southeast, hitting cities like Mobile, Birmingham, Montgomery, Tallahassee and Pensacola with billboards and radio promotional ticket giveaways.

They drove the bus to various other festivals and rallies in the area.

The exposure seems to be working. Advance ticket sales were close to 20,000 on Tuesday. Ticket buyers are traveling to the area from as far away as Scotland, England and California.

And Hacker expects many others to buy tickets at the gate.

“In this market, everybody tells us it’s last-minute,” he said. “People are still wondering if it’s gonna happen or not, and when you have a weather-related event, there’s a tendency to wait and see.”

Yet the festival has gained music industry support and is the talk of the Internet. Entertainer Web sites and music blogs are all the buzz with this BamaJam Music & Arts Festival and its impressive lineup of musicians.

While some have wondered about the remote location, Hacker said the Coffee County site is a “perfect place to have a festival. There’s no major market competition, but yet you have major markets within 100 to 200 miles. When you look at what’s within 150 miles of Enterprise, that’s a lot.”

There have been challenges in putting the event together, however.

“The biggest challenge was to get the entertainment to commit to a first-time event,” Hacker said. “I have a relationship and Ronnie does with lot of entertainers. When you do a first-time event, you do have a challenge.”

Ditto for the sponsors. Some companies needed to run the event by corporate. Others were eager to sign on. It’s why Pepsi and Miller will be sold inside the gates and others will not.

“These sponsors understood what we were trying to accomplish, all the goals and everything. These companies put proposals together that were great. Some thought outside the box,” Hacker said.

Sponsors like Buffalo Rock advertised BamaJam with event stickers and neck hangers at convenience stores across the state and in the Florida Panhandle.

Hacker said the cooperation has been great.

Another obstacle for the festival, however, has been infrastructure. Power at the site will be provided by more than a dozen generators, including one for a mammoth stage.

“We can’t afford for the stage to go down for one second,” Hacker said, “so we have backups.”

There will also be wireless Internet access on site and ATMs.

A former country music manager for the Oak Ridge Boys, Diamond Rio and Darryl Worley, Hacker is strictly an events manager today. He produces the annual American Freedom Festival in Washington, D.C.