Tampabay: Sponsors, lineup for Superfest still up in the air

ST. PETERSBURG -- With a little more than three weeks remaining before the Super Bowl, the organizers of a St. Petersburg waterfront concert weekend were working Friday to sign a headline band and nail down corporate sponsors.

The Superfest 2001 event is scheduled for Vinoy Park on Jan. 26-28, the same weekend as Super Bowl XXXV in Tampa. The event is not sanctioned by the official Super Bowl Task Force.

The St. Petersburg City Council did agree to sponsor Superfest, although questions have been raised about whether the promoter, Dee>Art Enterprises, has the experience producing large concert events that the council believed it did.

Dee>Art principal Art Johnson wrote on forms submitted to the city and the task force that he produced a large concert festival in Milwaukee and a black arts festival in Atlanta when he really worked as a roasted corn vendor in Milwaukee and brought a dance group to Atlanta.

Since then, the city has required weekly written progress reports from Dee>Art about its preparations for the event.

In its Friday report, Dee>Art event coordinator Deborah A. Jones listed 12 event sponsors, four of which are corporations owned by or closely tied to Dee>Art, Jones and Johnson.

Another company on the list, Great Bay Distributors, plans to sell beer at the event but is still considering whether to sponsor it, the company's special events manager, Doug Whitmire, said Friday.

Two of the organizations listed said they actually are not sponsoring Superfest: the Tampa Bay Devil Rays baseball team and Hank Aaron BMW of Union City, Ga.

"We can confirm that we are not doing it," said Sid Barron, general manager of the BMW dealership. "I operate the business, so I would know."

Devil Rays general counsel John Higgins said that Jones approached the team about sponsoring both Superfest and a companion celebrity golf tournament. The team declined to sponsor either event but agreed to donate sports items for an auction associated with the golf tournament, Higgins said.

Jones insisted Friday that "the Devil Rays are now on board."

She also said Hank Aaron BMW is a sponsor.

"I got something otherwise," Jones said by phone from her Atlanta office. "I just talked to him otherwise. We purchase all our cars from them."

The previous weekly report to the city, dated Dec. 29, listed 20 organizations under the heading "Sponsorship," including a major bank, an electrical utility and three airlines that are not signed sponsors of the event.

Jones said Friday that those companies' names were listed only to show the city that Dee>Art had solicited sponsorship from them. She pointed out that some companies were shown as "confirmed," while other companies' names had no such notation.

The Dec. 20 report had included a sentence making that distinction clear, but the Dec. 29 report did not.

"I'd say that's a good lineup, yes," said Jacqulyn Schuett, the city's special events manager said, glancing at the Dec. 29 list of "Sponsorship" organizations.

When told Dee>Art considered some of the names just sponsorship prospects, Schuett said that city officials would find out more Wednesday, when they will meet with Dee>Art to hear a more detailed version of its planning.

Friday's report says the Original Drifters; Randall Hall Band; Dave Muse Band, a band featuring former Doobie Brothers members; Pocket Dawgs; BJ Thomas; the Temptations Review with Dennis Edwards; the Tampa Bay Mass Choir; and the GIG Teen Gospel Group will perform.

Dee>Art plans to charge $15 per person per day to attend the event. It intends to make a profit but donate a portion of the proceeds to the Suncoast Boys and Girls Club, which is providing volunteers for the event and golf tournament.

Recent coverage

Event questions arise as clock ticks (December 6, 2000)

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