MontanaFair Adds Funds to Next Year’s Entertainment Budget

If you are one of the people who thinks Metra Park should be bringing bigger acts to Billings, here's some good news.  The MontanaFair recently announced they'll be adding new funds to their 2015 entertainment budget.

All told, the increase will allocate an extra $40,000 to for "night time concerts".  Which sounds like a lot, but it really isn't.  As Metra Park Marketing Director Ray Massie pointed out, the cost for top tier talent is rising, especially among country artist.  Massie claims that several years ago, there were about 7 country artists who commanded more than $250,000 per show.  Now, he estimates that 13 country artists have ascended to that level.

The increase will bring the total entertainment budget to around $600,000.  Which means, we can expect a 2015 lineup similar to what we had this year.  You know the drill:  One mid level country act, one pop music act and one hard rock act.  Hopefully that extra $40k will help us land a bigger artist. We'll see.