Red Bull is bringing a concert to Gainesville this week, but due to a campus contract snag, it can’t promote the event at UF.
The Red Bull Sound Select tour bus will join electro-pop duo Cherub for a free concert Thursday night at The Wooly.
A Red Bull campus spokesman said the company originally considered bringing the concert to Flavet Field. It is a company-wide policy for Red Bull employees to be unnamed in the media.
But Bob Miller, UF’s associate vice president of business, said UF’s contract with Pepsi prohibits other brands of drinks from being distributed or promoted on campus.
“When we have a contract for exclusive beverage or food service provider then they get exclusive access to campus,” Miller said. “So in the Pepsi contract, only Pepsi products can be sold, distributed or given away, including (Red Bull’s) entire line of drinks.”
Thursday’s show, which will take place in downtown Gainesville, is open to participants who RSVP on the event website at win.gs/flatour.
Doors will open at 9 p.m. Opening acts for this leg of the tour include Carousel and Future Unlimited.
Unlike Gainesville, the other three Florida dates in the tour — Tampa, Orlando and Tallahassee — will feature the custom stage that unfolds from the Red Bull Sound Select tour bus, said the tour bus manager Akoni Kama.
The process of setting the stage up and breaking it down is labor-intensive, so the tour bus is generally not used on consecutive days, he said. That’s why it won’t make an appearance in Gainesville.
The Florida dates are the only free shows in Cherub’s nationwide tour. It’s an attempt to connect band members with college-age fans at some of the state’s largest universities, according to a Red Bull press release.
Jason Huber, a member of the Cherub duo, said although the Gainesville stop will be different, he is looking forward to it.
“We’ve never been to Gainesville, so we don’t know what to expect,” said Huber. “But that’s the best part of this tour, playing in new markets and making new friends.”
[A version of this story ran on page 1 on 4/16/2014 under the headline "Red Bull concert stop not on UF campus"]
