Pop-music diva Fergie requires a gallon of fresh-squeezed orange juice, while her backup band can't survive without a box of Lucky Charms.
Associated Press
Fergie at the fair in 2008
Grandstand acts
by the numbers
Some of the highest-paid performers at this year's San Diego County Fair:
$270,000: Fergie
$150,000: Earth, Wind & Fire
$125,000: Boston
$100,000: B.B. King
$75,000: Intocable & Horoscopes de Durango
$65,000: Arrolladora Banda el Limon & Rieleros del Norte
SOURCE: Del Mar Fairgrounds
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Blues icon B.B. King requests an unopened fifth of Glenlivet single-malt scotch for his dressing room before his performances.
Comedian Sinbad is content with hot tea with lemon and honey.
And Steel Pulse, a socially conscious reggae band from England, insists that none of its food, drink or dressing-room furnishings be bought at Wal-Mart Stores, Sam's Club or other “Republican Party shills.”
“We will gladly accept receipts for items bought at . . . places that treat employees like human beings,” the band stipulates.
These and numerous other preferences fill the booking contracts for the 22 Grandstand Stage headliners performing at this year's San Diego County Fair, which comes to the Del Mar Fairgrounds from June 14 to July 6.
Entertainers' contract riders, as they are called, spell out precisely what a performer requires, from the size of the stage and color of bath towels to preferred backstage video games.
Whether a venue fulfills all the requirements is another matter.
“Many of the demands made in riders are just ego exercises,” said Dennis McNally, a former publicist for the Grateful Dead.
Riders were originally designed to specify audio and stage-lighting equipment, but have expanded over the years to include eyebrow-raising demands.
Rap-rock band Korn typically requests a “ 'rock friendly' lawyer, medical doctor, dentist, masseuse and/or chiropractor,” while Britney Spears insists her dressing room have a phone with an unlisted number that can only place outgoing calls. Should any incoming call make it through, she threatens a $5,000 “fine.” Neither Korn nor Spears is booked to perform at the fair.
For big-name musicians who play the fair's Grandstand Stage or other major venues locally and across the country, riders are a way of life. For concert promoters, they can be annoying, amusing or a nonissue.
“Normally, we cross so many things out that are on the riders,” said Street Scene festival founder Rob Hagey. “If somebody wants 35 doughnuts with chocolate filling, I don't even pay attention to it.”
A look at the contracts for this year's fair acts shows many riders are extremely detailed – about a lot more than doughnuts.
Grand Funk Railroad, which performs at the fair June 17 and was popular in the drug-hazed 1970s, submitted a 21-page rider that includes a request for “eight sober stagehands.”
To combat extreme demands, the San Diego County Fair has its own five-page “house rider” stating that no tobacco or alcohol will be furnished to performers. But rock stars are free to BYOB. So if King wants a shot of scotch, he'll have to supply his own.
“We try to take really good care of them backstage, but there are some things we just can't do,” said Rebecca Bartling, who has handled the contracts as deputy general manager of the fairgrounds for 15 years.
In a 39-page rider, '70s disco veterans KC & the Sunshine Band requested a bottle of Aleve or Extra Strength Tylenol, four six-packs of beer and two bottles of wine. The fair, which pays for the backstage amenities, nixed all of those requests.
One of the more elaborate fair-contract riders comes from Earth, Wind & Fire, whose lead singer, Philip Bailey, has very specific requests. In addition to 5 pounds of fresh ginger root, which he uses in a gargle to keep his throat in shape, he wants a jar of peanut butter and two bottles of wine that cost more than $200 apiece.
Fellow band members Verdin White and Ralph Johnson requested Famous Amos chocolate-chip cookies and a bottle of Eyzaguirre cabernet sauvignon, vintage 2003, which retails for a mere $10. Each of those requests was vetoed by fair executives.
But Earth, Wind & Fire's desire for 36 black or dark-colored hand towels, nine dozen bath towels and a dozen bars of soap will be honored.
In addition to her gallon of orange juice, Fergie will get a pint of cottage cheese, four cans of Red Bull energy drink, a bottle of Airborne vitamins, a gallon of 1 percent-fat milk and a box of Throat Coat tea.
Del Mar Fairgrounds staff caterer Sue Walls has satisfied rock stars' culinary whims for 20 years. She still laughs when she recalls the late Frank Zappa and his standing request for “Ruffles potato chips with Beluga caviar.”
Walls' only major frustration was working with Sara McLachlan, whose Lilith Fair music festival played at the fair in 1999. Walls tactfully avoids specifics, but said the Canadian singer-songwriter's requests were “so over the top, I'd rather go work with refugees somewhere.”
To maintain a family-friendly atmosphere, the fair's house rider also prohibits performers from using profanity or obscene gestures. Flashing the wrong finger can cost a band $1,000 per flick.
The rap-rock group Gym Class Heroes used “extreme” profanity during its performance at the fair last year and was fined $25,000, Bartling said.
Some performers' requests are colorful, while others are challenging.
“When Mariah Carey played here at the Sports Arena in late 2006, she required that her dressing room be entirely white and that there could be no cement walls showing,” said San Diego concert promoter John Wojas. “We had to cover all four walls with white drapes and rent a white table and a white couch.”
Because someone left an indelible mascara stain on the $5,000 white couch, the rental company demanded full payment. The couch now sits in Wojas' Pacific Beach home, although his patio doors had to be removed to get it into his living room.
“It's the nicest piece of furniture in my house,” he said, “and the most expensive.”
Terry Rodgers: 293-1713; terry.rodgers@uniontrib.com
George Varga: (619) 293-2253; george.varga@uniontrib.com
