Third time's the charm?

The promoters of DeLuna Fest are promising that the third time will be the charm.

Scott Mitchell, who with his wife, Emily, serve as managing partners of Five Flags Tourism Group, have produced their first hit of the year in signing on Gus Brandt, a longtime music-industry pro as booking director.

The initial lineup for the Sept. 21-23 festival, to take place on Casino Beach, is set to be released around April 17. Organizers have not yet revealed an exact date.

The Mitchells and Brandt aren't giving out names yet. But they're planning on 45 bands across four stages and may bring in even more bands if tickets are sold out in advance.

"It's going to be loud and cool," Brandt said. "People should show up. We can't threaten anyone with a good time, but if they're going to have one, it's going to be here. And they want to be a part of it rather than hear about it later."

Brandt knows "loud and cool."

A Pensacola native, he has been the road manager for one of the biggest rock bands in the world, the Foo Fighters, for more than 15 years. He's also worked in similar roles with acts as diverse as Eminem, blink-182 and Conan O'Brian.

But before all of that, Brandt got his start as a young guy in Pensacola who just wanted to see bands play.

"I had no idea what I was doing," he recalled of the days when he brought acts such as Social Distortion, Primus, the Offspring, the Flaming Lips, Helmet and Soundgarden to Pensacola stages.

"I would just find (Soundgarden frontman) Chris Cornell's phone number and call him," Brandt said. "I would just call these guys up and say, 'Hey, do you want to play Pensacola?' 'No.' Call them back, 'Do you want to play Pensacola?' I was like the crazy girl looking for a date for prom."

Brandt said he's enjoying being back in the booking game as he helps to build a bigger, better DeLuna Fest.

"A lot of the people who provide talent all over the world, I work with," he said. "So there's a shorthand that I have, that's available to me. I can get people on the phone, and I can wade through some of the things."

But Mitchell said Brandt brings something more than connections and a skill set.

"It's the fact that he cares, to be honest with you," Scott Mitchell said. "Gus has worked with the biggest entertainment groups in the world. He doesn't have to take my phone call. But he wants this to work. The results have been far greater that I ever could have dreamed. When ... we do our announcement, we're going to be in a very good place."

Proud of Pensacola

Brandt said his involvement with the festival is a matter of civic pride.

"People laugh at me — friends of mine, people I work with," he said. "They're like, 'You live there?' Yeah! It's a great place to live! Nobody knows about it. We've got white sandy beaches, we're not taxed to death — this town is a great town.

"Why can't Pensacola have it's own thing that's sustainable, that we can look forward to? There's no reason we can't get cool things here, it's just that people have to support it. ... If DeLuna Fest is successful, then people outside of this town talk about what a great place it is. It's like the snake that eats itself."

Brandt and Mitchell said the lineup is about 80 percent set. About half, including all of the big-name headliners, are under contract.

Beyond the star power, the team is promising what Brandt calls an "eclectic cool" bill.

"We're still looking for another country band or two, perhaps, maybe a DJ. Last year was pretty heavy with the electronic stuff. There's New Orleans music, there's alt-country, there's soft rock/easy listening."

And for those who enjoyed last year's more indie-heavy bill, there will be plenty of that, too.

"We don't want to lose the indie cred that we spent (time) building, so that component will still be there," Mitchell said.

More bands?

If the tickets are sold out in advance, Brandt said he may get more bands.

"I DARE Pensacola to buy all the tickets so we can go get crazier bands and make people go, 'What? They got THEM?' I want people to look at the poster and go, 'Wow. How? Who? Really?' Those should be the words we hear when people hear the announcement."

Mitchell said the team has learned from its mistakes of the past, particularly last year.

"I didn't have to hear the criticisms. I lived them," he said, ticking off complaints about the lineup.

Critics said last year's festival focused too intently on hipster indie acts to please a Pensacola audience. They were disappointed that it took months after the initial announcement to sign headliner Linkin Park, only to see the band drop off the bill eight days before the festival. And they weren't happy about a last-minute attempt to add value by allowing ticketholders to "bring a friend" with their already-purchased weekend passes, meaning that some people bought two tickets when they could have bought one.

A number of vendors also were unhappy when they weren't paid in a timely manner because of the apparently reduced revenue. In the past several months, many of those vendors have been paid and others are in the process of being paid.

The team is confident that plenty of people will want to come to this year's festival.

Accordingly, the new site measures 850 feet from the main stage near the Pensacola Beach pier to the fourth stage just west of the Hampton Inn. The second and third stages will be in the Casino Beach parking lot.

Mitchell's goal is to sell 30,000 tickets, and he says he's prepared for more since the new site plan will hold 50,000 people.

"The past is the past," he said. "We've taken the mistakes, and we've said, 'OK, we can either cry about them, or we can learn from them.'

"And what I've learned from them is that I need to be able to get into the room with the big people in December, in January, to do a fall festival, and that's what we've done. It is about having the value (at the top of the ticket). People buy their ticket to DeLuna Fest for the top of the poster."