Viva PHX Takes A Year Off, Downtown Phoenix Festival May Return

Viva PHX 2017 Lineup
 – Viva PHX 2017 Lineup

Four years after its inception, Phoenix’s Viva PHX festival will sit 2018 out.

This year’s edition of Viva PHX featured 100 bands, including American Football, Girl Talk, The Drums, The Maine, Mystikal and Joyce Manor, playing on 20 stages. The festival took place March 11 at Comerica Theatre, Crescent Ballroom, Phoenix Masonic Temple and several other Phoenix venues.

The Arizona Republic reported that a “multitude of factors” led to the cancelation of 2018’s Viva PHX.

Stateside Presents founder Charlie Levy told the paper that the promoter struggled with booking artists for 2018’s event.

“We were having a tough time getting the artists that we strive to get,” Levy told the paper. “And that’s one of the things I’m super-proud of is that those hundred bands on 20 stages, you can walk anywhere to see any band at any time and its super-top-quality music.”

Another obstacle was Stateside’s limited staff, as most of its employees are reportedly focused on the promotion company’s latest venue, The Van Buren.

 “Just a handful of us on our team do Viva PHX,” Levy said. “And we were stretched a little thin.”

There’s also the launch of C3 Presents‘ Innings Festival, which is set to take place March 23-25, a week after Viva PHX would have happened. Levy said the new festival was not a factor in Viva PHX’s cancelation, however. 

Levy told the paper that he wanted to put on the festival only if they did it “right.”

“If anything, I want to do a bigger version. I love Viva PHX. I think it’s so cool. All the bands and all the people. It’s probably one of my favorite things I do all year. And I think it deserves to be the best that it can be and not a BS version of it,” he said.

He added that the promotion company would later discuss discuss whether the festival would be back for 2019.

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