ON THE ROAD

The roster of summer festival tours is adding another member this summer--and it’s one that will showcase what’s currently the hottest genre: techno. It doesn’t have a name yet, but an eight-week trek spun off of last summer’s rave-oriented Organic fest held in the San Bernardino Mountains is being assembled to join returnees Lollapalooza, H.O.R.D.E., Warped, Furthur and Smokin’ Grooves, as well as another newcomer in Sarah McLachlan’s all-female Lilith Faire.

The package is being put together by New York booking agent Gerry Gerard with dates being planned for July and August. But Gerrard, who represents such techno and industrial leaders as Nine Inch Nails, Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers, says the increased attention to the music has created intense competition from Lollapalooza and other tours for the top acts.

“I am concerned that some of the other possibilities out there for these bands will drive up the price and make this un-cost-effective,” he says.

But he hopes that the Organic experience last year of Prodigy, Orbital, Chemical Brothers, the Orb and others will bring them back.

The biggest questions, though, concern logistics. Relying on such sites as Organic’s idyllic locale presents some problems for these acts, most of whom rely on lights and films to provide visual elements.

“If it’s outdoors, you need darkness for nearly all the acts, as well as places that have reasonable sound restriction rules,” he says. “That’s hard to find in America, and the traditional amphitheaters all have curfews of midnight or so, which doesn’t work well with this. This year may be largely indoors to get around the problems. But if we go to somewhere like the Forum, we’ll work with the facility to make it so people won’t even recognize it as an arena. And if you sell out the Forum, everyone understands the success and we’re in even better shape to experiment next year.”