Pop star and last season’s “American Idol” winner Kris Allen apparently is being wooed to headline a new summer festival in Benton that will occur on Memorial Day weekend at the same time as the Wally Hall Tournament of Champions.
However, the concert is not set in stone yet, and officials in Benton this morning would not confirm a report last night on a local TV news station that Allen is indeed coming on May 29.
The official Kris Allen Web site originally posted the concert date of May 29 late last week when it posted other new tour dates for this spring and summer; those dates were then copied to a widely popular Kris Allen fan site called KrisAllenAddicts.com.
But the official Allen Web site has since removed the date from its list of upcoming concerts, likely because negotiations are continuing to bring Allen to Benton and nothing is yet official. However, the date remains on the fan site list, and a Google search brings up the original posting on the official site as well, though the link, when clicked on, says “page is no longer available” since it has been taken down.
The new festival is called Saline Summer Daze. It will take place at Bernard Holland Park and the surrounding area in Benton over Memorial Day weekend in conjunction with the Wally Hall softball tournament, which every year brings tens of thousands of visitors to Saline County.
One of the organizers of the new festival, Matt Brumley with the Benton Area Chamber of Commerce, said “it will be like nothing Saline County has ever seen, with major concerts, carnival amusement park rides, and of course the Wally Hall tournament.”
Brumley could not confirm whether Allen was being pursued as a headliner for the festival because the details are not yet worked out, he said, but a press conference is planned for next Thursday, March 18, at the chamber. “I can confirm there is a major artist coming as a headlining performer,” he added.
Because details of the concert are unavailable, ticket information was as well. However, a similar concert taking place next weekend in Kansas — featuring Allen as the headliner and only big act — was selling for $21 to $27 per ticket, according to the Kris Allen Web site.
Allen, 24, who lived in Conway before he won the “American Idol” competition last year with his wife, Katy, is hugely popular across the globe but especially in Arkansas.
Since winning “Idol,” he’s returned to his home state only once, as part of the “American Idols” tour that performed last year at Verizon Arena in downtown North Little Rock.
Allen, who won “Idol” by playing guitar and singing a breathtaking acoustic version of Kanye West’s hit hip-hop song, “Heartless,” never took a guitar lesson, so his playing was entirely self-taught.
By the time he enrolled in college at University of Central Arkansas in Conway, he has said he knew he wanted to play music professionally. During his sophomore year, he played his first gig at a local bar. “It was in downtown Conway, and the place was filled because it was the bar’s opening night. It was also their closing night,” Allen said, laughing, on a TV interview during his Idol season. “I don’t think it was our fault, because everyone said we played well. That night is when I got the encouragement to keep going.”
Allen played gigs in Little Rock and Fayetteville and recorded a CD when he left college in the middle of his junior year. He continued to play gigs at night while working as a salesperson at Hibbert Sporting Goods during the day.
Though not an avid television viewer — Allen and his wife don’t own a TV — he did see the Season 6 episodes of “American Idol” when his friend, Sean Michel, won praise from the judges during his audition. “It was great to see someone from Arkansas make it to Hollywood,” he said later.
Living with his parents during Season 7, the young Allen became hooked on “Idol.” In July 2008, his brother, Daniel, decided to audition in Louisville, Ky., and asked Kris and a friend to go with him. “I didn’t have anything else to do so I was down with that,” he recalled. “We arrived and there were 12,000 people standing there and we were the last ones to sign up. It was intimidating.”
The Allen brothers survived the first round of judging, but only Kris made it into see Simon, Paula, Randy and Kara. Kris and Katy were married that same month and after the honeymoon flew to Hollywood. “I was just hoping to get a little TV time so someone would recognize me and I could start a music career,” he says now on his Web site.
Allen made it from “Idol’s” Hollywood week to the top 36 to the top 12 and survived elimination week after week, heading into the finale with Adam Lambert. Allen’s path to victory included memorable performances of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine” and Michael Jackson’s “Man in the Mirror.” He was praised by the judges for his original arrangements of such well-known songs.
“What I do is completely forget about the original version and ask myself how I can play the song when it comes to phrasing, chord structure and emotion,” he explains. “I hear what it’s going to sound like in my head and run with it. Hopefully it’s a way that no one has ever thought of doing it before.”
Since the finale, Allen has had multiple songs appear on the Billboard charts. His newest, self-titled album includes the hit song, “Live Like We’re Dying,” which is quickly approaching No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 40 chart.
Watch the Courier for more information on this story as further details develop.
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