Lots of folks got excited when the inaugural Thunder on the Mountain country music festival was announced earlier this year. And that excitement is warranted in many ways — it’ll be headlined by Toby Keith and Luke Bryan, and organizers tell us the event will exceed the size of the sister festival Wakarusa, meaning in excess of 25,000 may attend. The three-day fest takes place from June 6-8 on Mulberry Mountain north of Ozark on Arkansas 23.
Today comes word of a new music festival, which will take place about four hours away from that site. Flatlands County Music Festival, which will take place in Kansas City, Kan., will be headlined by … wait for it … Toby Keith and Luke Bryan. The similarities don’t end there: Thompson Square is another artist on both lineups, and Flatlands has a capacity of 24,000 for the three-day event, which takes place Sept. 12-14.
Organizers of Thunder on the Mountain said one motivator for creating the festival was that there are no significant county festivals in this part of the country. Looks like that changed this morning. Let’s hope the market is strong enough to handle both of them. I will venture to say Thunder on the Mountain does have a distinct advantage — tickets have been on sale for months, while Flatlands tickets don’t become available until Friday morning.
