The National Park Service is allowing the Landmark Music Festival, a $105/day ($175 for two day) ticketed benefit concert to be held in East Potomac Park, benefitting repairs to our National Mall.
There were never paid concerts in Washington, D.C. public parks before. While there was a lottery for free tickets and the music could be heard beyond West Potomac Park, I don't approve of that kind of exclusionary event being held in public parks.
In Chicago, a New Years Eve event walled off public land for a fancy-bears ticketed event along the Chicago River, with $99 early bird tickets and higher prices the day of the event.
And here in St. Johns County, what's our policy?
I've asked St. Johns County and have not yet received a coherent response to my request number 2016-2.
I am waiting.
Paid events in public parks are a slippery slope and a dangerous precedent.
We've had enough damn privatization around here, as with the Spanish Garden on St. George Street, the former Dow Museum of Historic Homes on Cordova Street and in Lighthouse Park (whose neighbors know, seeing both our Lighthouse and our Lighthouse Park Restaurant/Community Center privatized, turned into a non-profit corporation and the Yacht Club, respectively by louche no-bid sales and leases by St. Augustine and St. Johns County satraps.
2 comments:
And you push the St. Aug National Park and Seashore? Times change as do needs. The money goes to an excellent cause, which should instill in you some measure of appreciation. Urge you to rethink.
Have you ever checked out the fees St. John's County charges for their "Ponte Verda Concert Hall"? The fees are so high and so over-arching they are way, way, way out of the reach of ANY independent promoter
or musician in St. John's County. So the County is the primary promoter. They pick the talent, whether we like it or not. There are numerous mid-sized indie musical promoters in the region, but they choose venues in Jacksonville instead. Right now, the only way for residents to be able to use their own concert hall, is to get an organization together like the Friends of Ponte Vedra Concert Hall. http://www.friendspvch.org/. And the parks? Forget about it. A local indie promoter would need a sponsor like a bank to be able to afford the fees. Outrageous!
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