Wilco Tickets Selling Quicker Than Last Year

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — Tickets for Wilco's Solid Sound Festival are selling quicker than last year.

"We'll have at least as many as we had last year and probably more," said Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art Director Joseph Thompson on Tuesday. "Ticket sales are tracking nicely above what they were at the t-minus 80 days, year-to-year count."

One of the big reasons tickets sales are up, Thompson told the Mass MoCA Cultural Development Commission, is because it is being held earlier in the summer and there are more available hotel rooms.

"It was the mayor's idea actually, to try and shift the program away from July, August into September, June or May when reservations were softer," Thompson said. "There were probably 1,000 or 1,500 more rooms available in a 30-mile radius."

The event could have been larger last year but lodging had been too difficult to find, Thompson said. Additionally, about half of the tent sites and 10 recreational vehicle sites at Noel Field Athletic Complex have been sold.

"Those are selling well. I think we are up to 165 tent slots," Thompson said. "People are excited that they can walk  from the tent site to the event."

Also regarding housing, Thompson said that last year there were a lot of rooms and houses that were rented for the weekend.

"It did happen last year. There were a lot of Craigslist listings," Thompson said. "People were selling even access to their showers on a per-use basis."

The success of the festival has even led MoCA officials to begin planning another concert event for August. The event, which will be much smaller than Solid Sound, is still in the planning stages and officials have yet to decide on the band.

"It will be some for 1,000 or 2,000 people," Thompson said. "We need to find the right band for the right price."