Get a taste of De La Soul at this year's Comerica CityFest, set to settle in at Detroit's New Center Area over the Fourth of July.
It's a metro Detroit
tradition as rich as Thanksgiving parades, Coney Islands
and futile hopes for Lions football: summer concerts under the stars.
Schedules for DTE Energy Music Theatre, Meadow Brook Music
Festival and Chene Park are announced, and concert fans are
primed for one of the most star-powered seasons in recent years, featuring such
premium draws as the Police, Neil Diamond and Bon Jovi.
As always, the bulk of the action will take place at DTE. As
it did last summer, Freedom Hill Amphitheater in Sterling Heights will maintain a limited show
volume.
There's just one stadium concert in the books so far --
Kenny Chesney's Aug. 2 country spectacle at Ford Field, his third annual visit
there.
Area fans will be able to partake in the trend that's
exploding nationally: multiday festivals. The inaugural Rothbury fest is July
3-6 in western Michigan.
That's on top of metro Detroit's
standard slate of prime-time fests like Movement, the annual electronic music festival that takes over Hart Plaza Memorial Day weekend.
Ticket prices appear to have stabilized. The priciest ticket
at DTE this summer is a $232.50 lower-pavilion seat for the Police (July 26).
But most DTE shows feature lawn tickets for less than $20 and pavilion seats
from $30 to $60.
DTE and promoter Live Nation are pushing their "lawn
four-pack" promotion, which offers discounts for many shows with the purchase
of four tickets (typically about 25% off).
Nationally, more than 600,000 fans attended concerts with
four-pack tickets last summer, according to Live Nation, and it has expanded
the promotion to more than 700 shows for '08.
