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Oil Spill / Summer Travel / Alabama Travel / Florida Travel / Music Travel / Concerts / Live Music Travel / Jimmy Buffett / → All Tags

BP Wants to Start Free Gulf Concert Series, After Success of Jimmy Buffett Show

BP officials say that they're on the verge of successfully capping the oil spill, although we'll believe that when we see it. For all we know, this will be another one of those schemes that works fine on paper, only to have some robot bump into a pipe and send everyone back to the drawing board.

Putting aside their technological fumbling though, the company seems to have stumbled into a brilliant formula for dealing with the catastrophe's tourism-related fallout: host free entertainment, and hope people show up.

Two events from the last few days show the potential of this little-tried "free" strategy. The first, which wasn't funded by BP, was the annual Blue Devils beach air show over Pensacola. The weekend after July 4th is the single biggest tourism weekend of the year in the region, and cleanup crews worked overnight and into the show to keep oil away from the crowds. The efforts paid off in the form of a $25 million revenue haul.

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Sports Travel / Miami Dolphins / Jimmy Buffett / Football / Stadiums / → All Tags

Jimmy Buffet Gets Drunk on the Miami Dolphins

We knew Floridians had an extra special place in their hearts for Jimmy Buffett's beach bum tunes, but this is taking it to the extreme. To honor LandShark Lager, a beer produced by Buffet's Margaritaville brand, the Miami Dolphins football team has just renamed their home field LandShark Stadium.

Reportedly, Buffett will help finance the deal by performing at the stadium for little or no cost. At a kickoff concert this weekend, Buffet unveiled "FINS," a song he wrote for the Dolphins—no word on whether that was part of the contract.

This brings a whole new chapter to the saga of building naming rights. It looks like the once highly-debated rights are not the hot commodity they once were. We all still remember a couple years ago when Citigroup shelled out $400 million for naming rights on the Mets' new stadium and now the going price on a stadium is a few free Buffet tickets. What's next? Will we be heading to games at Jessica Simpson Field at Cowboys Stadium? In any case, you can now sing "Cheeseburger in Paradise" loud and strong while in the concessions line at the Dolphins stadium.

Related Stories:
· New name for home of Dolphins and UM: LandShark Stadium? [Sun Sentinel]
· Buffett rocks Dolphins’ LandShark Stadium [Yahoo]
· Jimmy Buffett Busted For X in France [Jaunted]

[Photo: LandShark Stadium]

Celeb Travel News / Celeb News / Jimmy Buffett / Crime / Drugs / → All Tags

Jimmy Buffett Busted For X in France

He may have flown in on a private jet, on route to St. Tropez, but easy-breezy Jimmy Buffet found himself in a bit of a bind at Toulon-Hyères International Airport in the South of France this week.

Though we wouldn't call him a rock star, Buffett's reported bust was quintessentially rock 'n' roll--over 100 ecstasy pills were found in the luggage. Oops! French officials seized the club drugs and sent Buffet on his way with a measely $380 fine.

Back in the U.S. he would have been fined up to $100,000 and could have faced jail time. But luckily for him, the French seem to consider Ecstasy a lesser drug. Either that or they really like that song, "Cheeseburger in Paradise."

Note to Jim: cancel your trip to Bali; do not ask Dallas Austin for tips on Dubai.

Related Stories:
· Buffett Caught With Club Drug [NYP]