By Admin, BuyLocalBG.com, BuyLocalBg@gmail.com/
Tuesday, August 14th, 2012 10:00 AM CST
Bowling Green residents will soon get the chance to show off their singing skills for a popular reality television competition.
Auditions for “American Idol” will be from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday at Fountain Square Park.
The show is bringing its “Small Town Audition Bus Tour” to Bowling Green as part of its 12th season, which is set to air in January. Bowling Green is one of 10 towns selected for the tour.
The bus tour is a new part of the show’s audition process, in which a bus will visit 10 small cities in an attempt to find hidden talent among people who might not be able to travel to an audition in a larger city.
The date of the tour stop was announced this morning on the Twitter feed of the Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce, although the chamber isn’t involved in the organization of the audition, said Jessica Thompson, marketing and communications director for the chamber.
“It was a premature announcement from the chamber, and we deeply regret it,” she said.
“American Idol” hasn’t yet officially announced the date, said Marissa Butler, public relations director for the Bowling Green Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.
However, she said the “Idol” bus has so far visited cities announced for the tour in the order that they appear in a July press release that revealed the selected cities.
On Saturday, a post on the “American Idol” Facebook page said the bus was in Rock Rapids, Iowa, and would be in Iowa City on Aug. 14. Bowling Green is next on the list after Iowa City.
“We are just absolutely so excited to have them rolling into Bowling Green,” Butler said.
The city of Bowling Green has no comment, said Kim Lancaster, public information officer for the city.
The date and time of the auditions was confirmed in a memo dated July 30 from Lancaster to Fountain Square merchants.
The city plans to shut down both Park Row and Main Avenue for the event. Crowds of anywhere from 400 to 1,000 are expected, according to the memo.
Setup for the auditions is expected to take place Thursday, according to the memo.
The production staff for “American Idol” wanted an outdoor venue that represented the city of Bowling Green and small-town America. Producers were very impressed with Fountain Square Park, according to the memo.
The city of Bowling Green has agreed to waive the permit fee, performance bond and cost reimbursement requirements for “American Idol” to use city property for filming and has authorized the use of city police officers for traffic and crowd control during the auditions, as well as the use of other city employees as needed.
The location release agreement with the city includes Thursday and Friday as the term of the agreement and the address for Fountain Square Park as the premises for the agreement.
