NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Stephen Rehage lost thousands of dollars in the making of the first New Orleans Voodoo Experience, the outdoor music festival he first produced in 1999 that only drew about 8,000 people.
But now in its 10th year, the event has grown into a hot spot for artists and fans alike, luring more than 100 acts and an expected 100,000 or more fans.
“It’s become a destination festival,” said Gary Bongiovanni, the editor-in-chief of Pollstar, a trade publication covering the concert business. “And the lineup is terrific.”
This year’s festival kicks off Friday with performances by Stone Temple Pilots, Joss Stone, Erykah Badu, Wyclef Jean and others. R.E.M., Nine Inch Nails, rappers Lil Wayne and Lupe Fiasco and dozens of others will perform Saturday and Sunday.
The lineup is more than double that of the festival’s early years, when there were roughly 45 acts. Bongiovanni said Voodoo has beaten the odds by hitting the decade mark.
“Anything in the concert business to hit 10 years is a milestone,” he said. “These festivals are very difficult to run without the proper support.”
Rehage, who started the production company Rehage Entertainment 15 years ago, admits getting started wasn’t easy. He sighs when recalling the first Voodoo festival, held at a football stadium in City Park.
“It was a complete nightmare,” he said. “Everything that could have gone wrong went wrong, and I made every mistake known to man … I lost a lot of money.”
The first festival was held the day after Halloween, when “everyone was hung over, so nobody showed up,” Rehage said. Then Mother Nature struck a blow to those who did attend: “It rained so hard you couldn’t see the stage.”
The following year, Rehage moved the festival to City Park, which he said provided a nicer backdrop than the stadium, and he added a day. He also managed to book rapper Eminem, who in 2000 was one of the hottest acts around, and the festival drew a crowd of 65,000.
“You learn something every year,” Rehage said. “We could have easily packed it in and shut this thing down, but there are too many people who care about this event and this city’s music scene. We just couldn’t give up.”
Bongiovanni said Voodoo has a number of things working it its favor: It’s spaced nicely from the widely popular New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, which is held in spring, and has a variety of talent.
“If you’re a music fan and you can’t find something you like in this lineup, then you’re not really a music fan,” he said.
The Voodoo lineup includes dozens of alternative punk, rock, soul and techno groups, among them TV on the Radio, Panic at the Disco, Dashboard Confessional and Shudder to Think. As in years past, there also are Louisiana favorites: Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Trombone Shorty, Irma Thomas, Kermit Ruffins and Ivan Neville, to name a few.
About two-thirds of the Voodoo fan base comes from out of state, Rehage said. Many come from New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta and Canada, he said.
The draw, he says, is the festival’s eclectic mix of acts.
One year, Wyclef Jean was followed on stage by Moby and then Dr. John, Rehage said. “That kind of lineup just doesn’t work anywhere else,” he said. “It works here.”
Bongiovanni said he sees a bright future for Voodoo, especially if the price of admission stays reasonable. At $50 a day, or $125 for a three-day pass, Voodoo is a lot of bang for the buck, he said.
Rehage said the timing of Voodoo also works well.
Besides the cool, dry October weather, Voodoo comes at the end of a long summer festival touring circuit. So it doesn’t compete with such festivals as South by Southwest and Austin City Limits in Austin, Summerfest in Milwaukee, Wis., and Lollapalooza in Chicago.
Musicians seem to like the fall work.
“It’s a big deal for us,” said Fred LeBlanc, drummer and lead singer for Cowboy Mouth. The band has performed at several Voodoo fests and will do songs from its new album, “Fearless,” on Sunday.
Last year, more than 140,000 people attended Voodoo. The festival’s one major backslide was in 2005, when it was held two months after Katrina flooded 80 percent of the city. It was cut to one day and held free of charge to anyone who showed up.
Rehage, a New Orleans native, said the free concert was a way to give back to the military, volunteers and first-responders working hurricane recovery in the region.
 
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