Back in March, Conor Corcoran, the attorney of the Philadelphia based Popped! Music Festival, noted in an interview with Make Major Moves that this year’s edition could be in serious jeopardy after promoter Live Nation back out of its planned involvement. “It’s incredibly devastating, not only for the organization but for the city,” Corcoran said. “We’re talking about the most successful concert festival that this city has seen in God knows how long…We’re looking around but for all intents and purposes we’re going to have a very hard time putting on a show this summer.”
Combine those words with the lack of any actual details in the weeks that followed, and it certainly appeared as if the third annual Popped! Music Festival wasn’t taking place this year. In fact, we even scratched it off the list on the Festival Outlook.
Well, it’s time unscratch. It turns out that Popped! will be returning in 2009, albeit a much scaled down version of it. According to Phrequency.com, this year, the festival will be part of the 2nd Street Festival in Northern Liberties on June 20th. It will also be free, with a focus primarily on indie and local acts. Thus far, Benjy Freree, Rock Plaza Central, The Blood Feathers, Birds of Maya, Magnet City Kids, and The Chimeras make up the bill.
Hey, it’s no Vampire Weekend, Mates of State, and Gogol Bordello, aka Popped ’08, but it’s something. Additional details can be found via the festival’s website.