New Backers for Summer Music Fest
2 Local Companies Replace AOL as Sponsors of Annual Concert Series

By Michael Alison Chandler
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 20, 2008

The Loudoun Foundation announced Friday that it is back on track to launch the fifth annual Loudoun Summer Music Fest, with help from two new corporate sponsors: Infinitive, a local management consulting firm; and Open Band, a locally owned broadband provider.

The two sponsors will replace AOL, which co-founded the event and until this year had contributed up to $80,000 annually. The company moved its headquarters from Dulles to New York last year to focus on global Internet advertising. AOL abruptly discontinued its support of the summer concert series in December, stating that the event no longer fit the company's goals.

"We were literally days away from having to decide to abandon the 2008 season," Tracey Parent, the foundation's president, said in a statement released Friday.

Following news reports about the foundation's bind, company executives started calling, she said.

"We were overwhelmed by the response to our predicament," Parent said. "For companies to be able to turn around sponsorship and funding at these levels without prior budgeting is extremely unusual. To say it was gratifying is an understatement."

The concert series drew about 60,000 people to Belmont Country Club last summer, with proceeds benefiting local charities.

The final lineup of performers for this summer has not been confirmed. Parent said she hopes to bring back acts such as Lynyrd Skynyrd and Pat Benatar, and possibly some previously unseen bands, including Duran Duran.

AOL laid off 20 percent of its global workforce in October, including 750 workers in the Washington area. Among them was the company's primary contact with nonprofit groups and schools. The company also shut down its AOL Aspires grant program, which awarded funds to about 10 after-school programs, and halted its annual pledge to Greater D.C. Cares.