Motongator Joe I Attendance: 987

Joe Grinsteiner—a.k.a. Motongator Joe—tells the Madison Daily Leader that attendance at the first staging of his summer country music festival at Prairie Village drew 987 visitors this past weekend. That's small compared to the festival he runs in the Michigan Upper Peninsula, which draws five or six thousand each summer... but then that event has also been going for 11 years. The performance of this weekend's festival is in line with recent one-day music festivals at the Village: Prairie Fire and Dakota Jam each generally drew a few hundred people.

Grinsteiner is determined to build the franchise here: he has signed a ten-year lease with Prairie Village. And lest you think you can do better, Grinsteiner's contract with the Village also bought him first option on any new music events seeking to play at the Village—i.e., Motongator Joe Inc. can veto any competition or at least claim a cut of the take. Looks like Prairie Village is banking on the Grinsteiners to bring in the big bucks for the next decade.