The lineup for this year’s Concert In The Park season was announced the other day. And as usual some people have begun with the usual complaints: I’ve never heard of those acts, they can’t possibly be local, CITP isn’t promoting Sacramento artists like it should, etc.
Is that true? Or are people just complaining because they’re upset that THEY weren’t chosen to play CITP? Is CITP supporting (mostly) local Sacramento acts? Let’s find out.
Here’s the complete list of every performer listed for the season:
Del the Funky Homosapien
Grizfolk
Mad Caddies
R.LUM.R
HONEYHONEY
Secret Band
Rituals of Mine
Arden Park Roots
Cemetery Sun
Eternity Forever
Vista Kicks
ZuhG.
Joy and Madness
Joyzu
Hobo Johnson & The Lovemakers
Life in 24 Frames
The Lique
Soosh*e!
Another Damn Disappointment
A Foreign Affair
The Nickel Slots
Simple Creation
Ideateam
Our People
Sol Peligro
Inland
ONOFF
Lucid
Trophii
The Color Wild
Zach Van Dyck
The People’s Revolution
The Philharmonik
Destroy Boys
Jette
Josh Lane & The Heartfelt
Lost Things
Salt Wizard
The Diva Kings
Sunday School
Mikey LP & The Krooks
Adam J
Robbie (HOF)
Jon Reyes
DJ Eddie Z
My Cousin Vinny
DJ Epik
Joseph ONE
DJ Rated R
DJ Nocturnal
DJ Whores
Billy Lane
Zephyr
53 acts total. I’m combining everything, DJs plus bands, because everybody has their own reason(s) for attending CITP — who am I to say which acts are more/less important to the audience. So we’ll treat it all as an even leveled playing field.
Now to track down the home town (or close approximation) of each act and see just how many of them are local. Realistically, we need a little latitude for what constitutes a “local act”. It’s not fair to assume every performer must hail from downtown Sacramento. The radio station, DJs, promoters, and other entities all work together and Sacramento is much bigger than just “the grid”. Plus, (for example) what if some members live downtown but the band’s drummer lives in Vacaville? Does that still count as local? I’m going with “yes”. So let’s say any bands from Sacramento plus reasonable outlying areas are all local — Vacaville, Roseville, Stockton, etc, all probably have an argument for “close enough”.
Now, I’m just going to start looking the acts up on the web and see what they note as their home towns on social media, and whether or not I’d consider it “local” according to the aforementioned loose interpretation of that word:
Del the Funky Homosapien — Oakland, NO (much closer to the bay area, I’ve personally never heard him referred to as Sacto-related, but please correct me if I’m wrong)
Grizfolk - Sweeden, NO
Mad Caddies - Santa Barbar, NO
R.LUM.R - Nashville, TN, NO
HONEYHONEY - Cleveland, NO
Secret Band - Sacramento, YES
Rituals of Mine - (originally Sacramento, now LA), YES
Arden Park Roots - Sacramento, YES
Cemetery Sun - Sacramento, YES
Eternity Forever - Carmel, NO
Vista Kicks - (originally Sacramento, now LA), YES
ZuhG. - Sacramento, YES
Joy and Madness - Sacramento, YES
Joyzu - Sacramento, YES
Hobo Johnson & The Lovemakers - Sacramento, YES
Life in 24 Frames - Life in 24 Frames
The Lique - Las Vegas, NO
Soosh*e! - Sacramento, YES
Another Damn Disappointment - Sacramento, YES
A Foreign Affair - Sacramento, YES
The Nickel Slots - Sacramento/Davis, YES
Simple Creation - Roseville, YES
Ideateam - Sacramento, YES
Our People - Sacramento, YES
Sol Peligro - Sacramento, YES
Inland (so hard to look up this name on the web, I have to assume it’s either the band from Utah or the DJ from Europe). NO
ONOFF - (Facebook says “Northern California” but I know they’re closer to Sacto. They have a 530 number on their website and the next show is in Yuba City), YES
Lucid - Sacramento, YES
Trophii - Sacramento, YES
The Color Wild - Sacramento, YES
Zach Van Dyck - Sacramento, YES
The People’s Revolution - (only act I can find with that name is in the UK), NO
The Philharmonik - Cleveland, NO
Destroy Boys - Sacramento, YES
Jette - Sacramento, YES
Josh Lane & The Heartfelt - Sacramento, YES
Lost Things - Sacramento, YES
Salt Wizard - West Sacramento, YES
The Diva Kings - Sacramento, YES
Sunday School - Sacramento, YES
Mikey LP & The Krooks - Sacramento, YES
Adam J - (really hard to look up this name, I can’t find any references to a Sacto artist), NO
Robbie (HOF) - Sacramento, YES
Jon Reyes - Sacramento, YES
DJ Eddie Z - Sacramento, YES
My Cousin Vinny - Sacramento, YES
DJ Epik - Sacramento, YES
Joseph ONE - Sacramento, YES
DJ Rated R - Sacramento, YES
DJ Nocturnal - Sacramento, YES
DJ Whores - Sacramento, YES
Billy Lane - Sacramento, YES
Zephyr - Placerville, YES
As I noted in a few places, some of these might be my error, as it was hard to find info on a couple artists because of their name being so common, and/or lack of social media presence (which brings to mind other questions, such as “how are these artists able to viably promote their upcoming CITP shows? But that’s a different discussion.)
I aired on the side of “if I can’t find the info, let’s assume the worst, and that they are not local”, just to show that I’m not trying to play favorites. The goal of this exercise is to truly see if the complaints that CITP “is not supporting local bands” holds any water.
So where’d we end up…
53 acts total
11 No they’re not local
42 Yes they are from Sacramento or an outlying area
Roughly 21% non-local acts. Or rather 79% local acts.
So for ever one out of town act, we get FOUR local artists being promoted.
Technically no it’s not 100% local artists (it never has been, has it?), but I’m okay with that. Bringing the occasional bigger name draw in to help increase interest in 4 times as many local acts sounds like a pretty good trade to me.
I ran the same numbers on the 2016 list of acts. If memory serves it was 83% local acts, so a slight dip from last year. But in both cases, the lion’s share of slots and promo is going to Sacramento based music.
There’s no playing favorites here, none of the above info is based on which acts I like, don’t like, which bands I’m friends with, etc.
It’s simple path, and the numbers don’t lie.