By. Clarissa Cottrill
Morgantown is home to a rich nightlife, but only a few spots are dedicated to music and Mainstage Morgantown threw its hat into the small ring just about a year ago, and has experienced a fair amount of success.
The club is in the heart of downtown Morgantown, making it accessible to most students and opened in 2015. New businesses can always be a struggle, but new music venues can be particularly difficult because of the balance of outreach, economics and entertainment.
Mainstage hit a scene that was nearly dominated by 123 Pleasant Street, a smaller music venue with a deep history centered on local, independent music.
Mainstage has more of a concert venue environment, and a larger capacity than 123 (500 vs. roughly 300), which could serve as a pro and con as far as resonating with the community. It may be more exciting, new and spacious but it does lack the rich, homegrown history that other venues like 123 have.
A main corner of success for Mainstage has been the variety of acts that grace the stage. In addition to local music, the venue has hosted more mainstream acts like Insane Clown Posse, Blue October and Waka Flocka Flame. The ability to book even moderately well-known acts from varying genres proves a level of success.
Attendance has also been a key issue. I’ve gone to a few shows at Mainstage, and very rarely is the house empty. According to the ticket sale website, in the past six months at least 5 shows have completely sold out, which is a feat for a small town music venue.
Audience reviews have been relatively high thus far, but the next step for such success is keeping momentum, which may prove difficult in the face of recent controversy.
On Sept. 25, Mainstage was the scene of a shooting that injured one person. As a result the venue’s liquor license was suspended. In just the past week, media outlets announced that the victim of that shooting was suing the venue, citing management negligence with hiring and supervision.
So, with a pending lawsuit and criticisms about management the year-long success of this new venue is muddled. Overall, the beginnings of Mainstage Morgantown saw success in variety of artists and economics of ticket sales, definitely making an impact on the community. Controversial happenings like the September shooting and the repercussions of it could halt that success though, proving that public opinion and appeal can make or break any new business.
Morgantown Notes 