As anyone who has had the pleasure of planning a radio station festival knows, there are countless details to be organized, arrangements to be made, problems to be solved, i’s to be dotted and t’s to be crossed. But perhaps if one didn’t have to worry about coordinating some of the logistics of the event, such as the stage set up, back line, sound and lighting system, then the workload would be a bit more manageable. Thus is the idea behind the brand new Jagermeister Mobile Stage, which is essentially a 44-foot-long trailer that unfolds into a fully-equipped stage at the press of a button, much like a Transformer. It takes about one minute for the massive trailer to hydraulically unfold into a 34’ long x 16’ deep x 20’ high performance area, where the P.A. system, back line and lighting are already built in.
Next, Jagermeister’s full time crew – including a driver, a sound engineer and an additional sound and lighting staffer – take a few hours to run cables, hook up the gear and lighting equipment and hang some Jagermeister banners. The crew actually lives in the 33-foot state-of-the art Showhauler toter home that tows the mobile stage, so they are a full-time, professional staff that is working with the stage on a daily basis. Once they handle all the stage set up, bands need only show up and play, and they don’t even have to bring their own gear if they don’t want to.
“We had Peavey Electronics supply us all the P.A. and the back line. They gave us all the stacks, all the guitar and bass rigs,” explains Rick Zeiler, Director of Marketing and Brand Development for Jagermeister and the Sidney Frank Importing Company. “Then, a company by the name of Spaun – a somewhat small boutique drum company, but very high end – supplied us with a custom Jager drum kit. Schecter Guitars supplied us with guitars and basses for the mobile stage. So, while we don’t expect all the bands to use that stuff, it’s there for them if they want to.”
An enormous generator built into the neck of the trailer can power the stage for days, and the sound system is powerful enough to accommodate an audience of about 7,000 to 10,000 people. This summer, Jagermeister’s new creation will be used as the second stage for the entire Ozzfest tour, and KAZR/Des Moines already utilized the stage for its Lazerfest in May. Bands that played on the Jager stage at Lazerfest included The Exies, Smile Empty Soul, Index Case and Stereoside.
“It was easy to deal with and everything was self-contained. It looks great, the sound is solid. It made life much easier,” says KAZR PD Ryan Patrick. “The stage has everything. You don’t have to mix and match staging and lights and sound. Everything that came with the stage was self-contained. It catches your eye, which is awesome on so many levels, and the ease of dealing with it was a blessing, especially when you’re trying to do a show and you’re pulled in so many other directions. The fact that you’ve got it all self-contained makes it very easy.”
The liquor company’s new mobile stage is actually an extension of its long-running music program, which includes sponsoring over 200 bands as well as the Jagermeister Music Tour, which has been touring nationally since 2001. With Jagermeister becoming more and more involved with branding itself in the music business, Zeiler says the stage seemed like a natural progression of where the company’s music program was heading.
“When we started developing the ideas, I had a vision of what we wanted, and basically we just tried to cover every single detail of what bands would like when they showed up,” he explains. “The actual performance stage is 34-feet-long by 16-feet-wide. What I noticed with other mobile stages was that they always seemed claustrophobic. There are other little mobile stages like this, but the roof is only 10 or 12-feet tall. What we did was allow our roof to deploy and go up another ten feet. So it’s roughly 21 or 22 feet from the stage floor to the top of the roof. It’s not claustrophobic at all, and for Jagermeister, the signage is second to none.”
Perhaps the biggest advantage for radio stations that choose to use the stage for an event is the fact that Jagermeister will provide the service free of charge. Their crew will drive the toter home and mobile stage to any part of the country to do an event, and all the station needs to supply is a small rider for the crew to make sure they’re comfortable on the road. Jagermeister simply views the stage as a great branding opportunity and using it is a win/win situation for the station and the liquor company.
“When a radio station or anyone else does an event, and they have to rent a stage and a crew, it costs them anywhere from $6,000 to $15,000. If they want our stage, and they include us in their marketing for their event, that’s all we really ask,” explains Zeiler. “We just want to be a piece of their puzzle. It doesn’t cost them anything. We show up, we have a professional staff, and we go in and do the event. We don’t even require them to purchase Jagermeister or have Jagermeister on site. This is more of a brand awareness promotion tool that we use for the brand.”
In fact, if need be, Jagermeister could even supply the bands for the event. The company sponsors mostly Metal bands, though the stage is available for events in any format.
“We sponsor 230 different bands around the country and they range from local to regional to fairly recognizable national acts such as Slayer, H.I.M and Hatebreed,” says Zeiler. “We would sort of prefer the station or the event to provide the bands because they know what’s best for their audience, and that takes away the guess work for us. Plus we work with a lot of Metal bands, so if it’s a non-Metal event, then we only have a small pool of bands to choose from at that point.”
In addition to this summer’s Ozzfest, Jagermeister plans to use the mobile stage for NASCAR, NHRA and NFL events, as well as Harley Davidson bike rallies. They’re looking to get it out to as many events as possible. And as time goes on, the equipment included in the mobile stage will continue to be updated.
“What’s cool is that the sponsors, people like Schecter Guitars and Peavey Electronics and Chauvet lighting – they all gave us the equipment and the tools to go out and promote them as well as Jagermeister for several years. They’re going to always continue to give us their new products, so we’ll always sound good and we’ll always look good,” says Zeiler. “No bands will show up disappointed. We want people to leave with a good experience. We want the radio stations and whatever event we bring the stage to, to walk away happy.”
Patrick and the KAZR staff were certainly satisfied with their experience using the stage. When asked if he would use it again for his next festival, Patrick replied, “I would use it in a heartbeat.” He added, “The thing that I can say most about the stage is that it looks great, it sounds great, and it’s an eye-catcher. It makes life so much easier.”
** QB Content by Mandy Feingold **
