“Feastival 2012” featuring Wale with Tyga and other artists is set for Friday night.
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Rapper Wale will perform at the MassMutual Center in Springfield in Friday night.It is a busy time for the MassMutual Center in downtown Springfield.
Along with accommodating a pro hockey schedule for the Springfield Falcons, the arena handles home games for the basketball D-League’s Springfield Armor, and is gearing up for college basketball’s March Madness with the DI MAAC tournament.
Add to the athletic mix a spate of live concerts that kicks off Friday night with the “Feastival 2012” performance with rappers Wale and Tyga and includes the electronic-flavored upcoming Winter White Out tour on Feb. 23, as well as some R&B when the Ladies Night Out” arrives on Feb. 25 with K-Ci and JoJo.
Oh, and Big Time Wrestling shows up on March 9.
“This is what we shoot for,” said Matt Hollander, general manager for Global Spectrum, the management company that runs the MassMutual Center. “We are serving all demographics with great programs and a flexible venue. We are making the building accessible to the whole community.”
Hollander is particularly excited about the live music coming to the venue.
“I think people remember this as THE building for live music,” he said. “Now a lot of those same people may not understand how the music business has changed and the competition that is out there. They just want to see activity.”
The general populace should take note of the venue’s schedule. The MassMutual Center has been activated.
Both Hollander and Marissa Skibbe, director of marketing for Global Spectrum, look to the Wiz Khalifa performance in the Exhibition Hall early last year as the jumping off point for the building’s recent success.
“It sold out,” said Skibbe. “Then in March, we had the Red Hot Chili Pipers and that was another great event. On the arena side, the Avenged Sevenfold tour was a huge success as well. It is great that we can utilize both sides of the building.”
Certainly the flexibility of the MassMutual Center is making it more and more attractive to promoters. An act can come in and play the Ballroom, the Exhibition Hall, or the main arena and all three can be adjusted to accommodate different size crowds.
“The Exhibition Hall really lends itself to a general admission style show,” Hollander said. “It also has the flexibility for seating. It is the same with the Ballroom. Even in the arena we can scale it down to theater size. It comes down to the flexibility of the space within the space.”
The MassMutual Center has also engaged in a great working relationship with a local promotion group called NV Concepts.
“It is great to be able to work with local promoters,” Hollander said. “These guys were educated at UMass and they have their finger on the pulse of the college crowd. We work with other promoters as well but to have them here and committed to growing their business here is very exciting for us.”
NV Concepts is responsible for the Jan. 27 “Feastival 2012” tour which features up and coming rappers Wale and Tyga along with Royce da 5’9”. The group will also bring in the “Ladies Night Out Tour,” that includes not only K-Ci and JoJo, but R&B artist Ginuwine. The “Winter White Out Tour” on Feb. 23 features electronic house duo Dada Life.
The “Feastival” event will be held in the arena which will set up in a half-house configuration with a capacity of 3,000.
The Big Time Wrestling event on March 9 features wrestling icon Bret “The Hitman” Hart and will include a pre-event Fan Fest with a meet-and-greet and autograph session.
With conventions, corporate events, and June graduations added to the sports and entertainment mix, the MassMutual Center continues to be a vibrant force in downtown Springfield.
“We are looking to be going 365 days a year,” Skibbe said. “We need to keep proving how viable a market this really is.”
Tickets for all MassMutual Center events are available at the MassMutual Center Box Office and all Ticketmaster outlets including ticketmaster.com and by phone at (800) 745-3000.