Scarborough Downs will be a venue for country music shows next year if all goes well for a New Hampshire-based concert promoter.

Good Music Productions of Newton, N.H., expects to put on as many as five shows from June 1 to Oct. 1. The performers and dates have not been confirmed.

Each show would have a capacity of 15,000 fans, with reserved seats. The stage and seating would be set up west of the racetrack, in the area of Scarborough Downs that is accessed from Payne Road.

Jim Goodwin and Mike Flanagin, the principals of Good Music Productions, declined to comment Monday, saying they are awaiting a mass-gathering permit from Scarborough. The Town Council is expected to consider the application Wednesday.

Good Music Productions has not produced any concerts in the past couple of years, according to documents filed with the town.

But Flanagin has produced shows at venues around the region, including Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass., through his company New England Country Music Productions.

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He has produced concerts for artists including U2, Taylor Swift, Kanye West and the Dixie Chicks, according to his website.

Scarborough Downs wouldn’t be the first Maine venue for outdoor country concerts. Country music was a big part of the Hollywood Slots Waterfront Series earlier this year.

“Country is as mainstream as rock music,” said Alex Gray, the Bangor area concert promoter who booked the series. “The reality you’re seeing now is there’s more crossover in what they do. Rock is becoming country, country is becoming rock.”

Scarborough Town Manager Tom Hall said town officials want to see additional details of the plan that address issues such as traffic control, parking and toilet facilities.

The town would consider granting a permit for an initial concert before considering any subsequent shows.

“Frankly, we don’t have much doubt that they can do this. They’re not new to the event-promoting business,” Hall said.

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From a public safety perspective, Scarborough Downs is an ideal site for such events because of its location — between the Maine Turnpike and routes 1 and 114 — and its numerous access points, said Scarborough Police Chief Robert Moulton.

“You can get vehicles in from the major routes within the confines of that property. That’s half the battle,” he said.

A rock festival headlined by Blue Oyster Cult in 1978, when the track was under different ownership, evokes vivid memories for some public safety personnel in town.

Moulton expects an event by Good Music Productions to run much more smoothly than that festival.

He recalls how people camped out for days in advance, how police confiscated guns and drugs from incoming vehicles, and how officers ended up below the stage to prevent the audience from stampeding it at the end of the band’s performance.

“It was a different era and it was a different kind of event,” Moulton said. 

Staff Writer Ann S. Kim can be contacted at 791-6383 or at:

akim@pressherald.com 


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