Saturday, December 24, 2016

Music festivals not coming to FMCP next year

From the Times Ledger:

The city Parks Department Monday denied applications from three entertainment giants hoping to use Flushing Meadows Corona Park for music festivals this summer after opposition from Borough President Melinda Katz. Madison Square Garden, AEG Live and Founders Entertainment were seeking to close off large portions of the park in order to stage for-profit, multi-day events, but were denied permits for the second year in a row.

“Without a fair policy in place, I remain opposed to any applications from for-profit organizations to run paid-admission events in Flushing Meadows Corona Park,” Katz said last week. “The absence of a revised policy, including a set selection criteria and process approved by the community, renders the process arbitrary and unfair. Cutting off public access to our treasured parks flies in the face of the very principle behind our parks, which is space designated for public access and equity.”

Parks had no further comment and AEG Live could not be reached, but Tom Russell, co-founder and partner of Founders Entertainment, understood Katz’s opposition.


JQ LLC said...

Very good, Ms. Katz.

Maybe the times are a changin'. Because she would have definitely green-lighted this if there wasn't all that grand jury convening regarding pay to play fundraising and city service favoritism in city hall.

Anonymous said...

Good less Corona cerveza empties left behind.

Anonymous said...

No "Honest Graft" to be had or were the payoff's insulting?

Anonymous said...

Don't trust her.

Anonymous said...

Smart move by Katz.

The public never gets a fair policy with all ALL those sons of bitches. They just want to get every venue locked under their wing so everybody must go through them and sign layers of contracts to become part of the AEG, Live Nation's family to work. It was once called monopoly & racketeering, now its called "media deregulation"

Payola is lower this year due to bad sales, high cost of security and ALL involved know they are being watched and will no longer get away with shit under Trump administration.
FACT is All these booking, promotion and record labels all owned and run by ultra liberals (pure scum like the Dolens, Clear Channel mob) made a mutual agreements to blacklist any artist, singer or band that plays Trump's inauguration. You can bet they will be getting some serious payback over that and will soon not be able to act like a bunch of bully gorillas throwing their weight around.

Anonymous said...

I talked to many people who went to the one put on by Founders in the Citi Field parking lot and everyone agreed it was an excellent venue with no basis for moving it. So good for Katz. There's no benefit to moving it into the park other than they assume people would rather be on grass than asphalt - but turns out that may not be the case anyways!

Anonymous said...

why have a concert that provides economic benefit to the park when you can have one that provides economic impact to the wilpons instead.

Anonymous said...

Exactly, it works including the staging and sound direction of the FOH.
And by using the parking lot the bands roadies & production people aren't "locked out" by the IATSE unions who wanna not only run all the boards but control everything from curb in stage to the last nut and bolt load out. (They want you to take something like over 20 guys @ $125hr + overtime from 8AM to past midnight). And when they take break curfews all setup EVERYTHING must stop, you cant move a drum or even plug in on your own guitar amp.

Without all this racketeering anybody can afford to go to a concert PLUS you also get the best and longer show's, sound & lights.

Anonymous said...

If they use the parking lot, where will the attendees park?

Anonymous said...

We already have illegal music festivals originating at Willets Point.
Vans packed with huge blasting loudspeakers can be heard as far as east Flushing.
Seize those vans! That will end it for good!
This goes beyond Latins putting a radio in their windows to "share" the music with the public.