What we already knew:

• 80/35 2009 is taking place July 3 and 4th.
• It will be the second iteration of Des Moines’ own independent music festival. 
• (Late Night with Jimmy Fallon house band) The Roots and The Flaming Lips headlined the inagural 80/35 2008 at Western Gateway Park in downtown Des Moines.

What we know now:

• 80/35 WILL return to Western Gateway in 2009.
• The main stage is set in front of the downtown library on the eastern edge of the park.
• A limited number of discounted presale tickets will already be on sale THIS Saturday, March 7: $60 in advance for a 2-day pass. 
• Ticket retailer: IowaTix
• 2009 capacity: 12,000
• Free festival area on Locust Avenue returns.
• 40+ bands

That’s all of the official news for now. So what does this tell us that they’re not telling us? The ticket prices and paid capacity are the biggest indicators of what types of bands we can expect at 80/35 2009. If 2-day pre-sale discount passes are $60, my best guess would be that number will top out around $100 at most, give or take. So, 12,000 capacity times a likely maximum cost of $100  equals $1,200,000 in MAXIMUM potential ticket revenue (note that this number won’t be reached, it’s just a number to play with). The DMMC will have their own estimates based on the festival market, competition and the 2008 performance of how much of this maximum they are likely to reach, and schedule their entertainment budget from there. To give you some numbers to chew on, The Flaming Lips average in the neighborhood of 4,000 tickets per show and a gross of $140,000. The Roots, 1800 tickets sold and $61,000.

Given the success of 2008′s event, the easier job they will have promoting it, and the goodwill to be generated from returning to the same location that everyone loved, the DMMC is likely feeling confident about the sucess of 80/35 2009 and I believe we can expect to see some pretty spectacular bands. My best guess would be that we’ll see perhaps two Lips-scale headliners, two Roots-scale headliners, and a deeper and stronger roster of support acts than in 2008. The other route is to go for the gold and spend a large chunk of change on a very large scale headliner with more 2008 style baby bands and regional acts serving as support. Personally, I hope the former is the case rather than the latter, as Pitchfork, Lolla, and a number of other indie festivals had a whole lot of bands in 2008 I would have loved to have seen at 80/35.

There will be conversation happening all over the place today regarding this event, and I know the festival organizers will be checking in on Rock Iowa. So, if you have guesses about headliners or questions about the event, fire away in the comments!

80/35 linkage:

• http://www.80-35.com
• http://www.twitter.com/8035
• http://www.myspace.com/8035
• http://www.facebook.com/pages/8035/14540530675

Update: Forgot to mention that VIP passes will be available at pre-sale for $100.
Update 2: Less than 1,000 total 2-day passes available at the $60 price point.
Update 3: Western Gateway will likely NOT be the permanent location of 80/35 as it grows in size.
Update 4: Rumor: DJ Shadow under consideration as an act?
Update 5: Scott is good at math. Amedeo confirms headline acts will be in the $150k-$300k range.
Update 6: Fireworks confirmed for Saturday the 4th.
Update 7:  Headliners will be bigger in comparison to 2008, support acts will remain similar.

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