Summer Nights concerts canceled for 2006

From the Seattle Times:

Seattle has lost a showcase summer attraction — at least for this year — as promoter One Reel on Tuesday canceled its annual outdoor concert series for 2006, delighting those who had sued to keep the shows out of Gas Works Park.

One Reel sold more than 50,000 tickets to last year's Summer Nights, 17 concerts from June to September on the shores of South Lake Union that featured acts such as Lyle Lovett, B.B. King, Chris Isaak, Clint Black and Aimee Mann.

When the city's Department of Parks and Recreation announced in December that it had agreed to let One Reel move the series to Gas Works, the joys of listening to live music under starry skies quickly gave way to a racket over neighborhood tranquility and park access.

That battle landed in King County Superior Court last week. The lawsuit, faulting the city and One Reel for not formally evaluating the impacts of the move, was one of several factors that led One Reel to decide to cancel the series for this summer and instead point toward 2007, said Sheila Hughes, chief operating officer.

The move to Gas Works would have been the second in three years for the concert series that began 15 years ago.

"We simply ran out of time," Hughes said.

"It's a complicated series of things that have to come together in order for us to produce an event like Summer Nights. The timelines for all of those different pieces had become so compressed that we felt like we didn't have the ability to pull it off beautifully this year."

One Reel, a nonprofit that also produces Bumbershoot, already had lined up some undisclosed performers for this year's Summer Nights who now will either skip Seattle or seek out an alternative venue. One Reel needed to start selling tickets in April, but felt that would be a stretch for this year.

"We just haven't been able to move as swiftly into marketing, promotion and launch because we've been working so hard on the other pieces of this," Hughes said.

One Reel and the city were negotiating with the Wallingford Community Council over the configuration of the venue at the park, as well as how to manage parking, traffic and noise on show nights. The capacity for each concert would have been 3,800 ticket holders, although opponents of the move expected countless others would converge upon the park to listen for free.

Cheryl Trivison, founder of the Friends of Gas Works Park advocacy group that took the city and One Reel to court, said she is convinced the lawsuit prompted the cancellation. She said the group could keep its lawsuit active in order to prevent the series from ever moving to Gas Works.

"As far as I'm concerned, the concerts are gone from Gas Works for good," said Trivison, whose husband, Richard Haag, designed Gas Works three decades ago.

"One Reel's idea that it can fence off a 2 ½-acre section of the park, put up bleachers, a stage and 31 Porta Potties that would stay up from May to September to accommodate the concerts, that's just not going to happen now or ever."

But Mayor Greg Nickels and Parks Superintendent Ken Bounds both believe Gas Works is the appropriate location for the concerts and want the series to restart there in 2007.

"The mayor is very disappointed that One Reel was put in the position of having to cancel this year's series," spokesman Marty McOmber said.

"Being able to put on a waterfront concert series with amazing views of the skyline is something special in this city and it's unfortunate that's not going to happen this summer. It's a safe bet a lot of music lovers in this city feel the same way."

For many, Summer Nights concerts have become popular "date nights," with the romantic waterfront setting and high-end ticket prices a sure-fire way to impress.

The series began in 1991 on Seattle's central waterfront. Because Pier 62/63 needs repair, it moved to South Lake Union in 2005. The concerts needed to move again for 2006 because of park construction.

Much of the consternation over the move to Gas Works stems from the way it was disclosed — at a hastily called meeting with Friends of Gas Works and three neighborhood groups, three days before Christmas and Hanukkah.

Parks Superintendent Bounds told residents of Wallingford, Fremont and Eastlake that night that the concerts were moving to Gas Works, and that the city and One Reel would spend the next several months addressing any negative effects on the neighborhoods.

Although private discussions about the possibility of moving the series to Gas Works began in August, Bounds emphasized again on Tuesday that the neighborhoods were informed of the decision soon after he made it.

"We didn't have enough time to conduct a public process that the community would have considered to be adequate," he said. "But no matter what the process is, there are still people who are not going to be satisfied because they don't want the concerts to happen at Gas Works."

Bounds said if the concerts are to take place in a Seattle park in 2007, they will be at Gas Works. He said the decision to cancel this year's series buys the city and One Reel a year to negotiate a plan that addresses concerns of the Wallingford Community Council.

The neighborhood group opted not to be a plaintiff in the lawsuit because it was in talks with the city and One Reel about ways to resolve parking, traffic and noise issues.

Bob Quinn, the community council's spokesman, said the group could end up supporting Summer Nights at Gas Works if those negotiations go well.

The neighborhood council might have supported the shows this summer had the city and One Reel brought Wallingford into negotiations sooner, he said.

"We are not against the concerts," Quinn said. "We are against the process used to site these concerts at Gas Works Park. We think this hiatus of one year is appropriate as it will allow the appropriate process to take place."

The City Council last month approved the move to Gas Works, voting to release $150,000 for park improvements to support the shows. The council limited the run at Gas Works to three years.

After 2008, officials would consider a permanent venue, although the new South Lake Union Park would be off the table because the council has promised supporters trying to raise private money that the park is not being built to host events of that size.

One Reel and city officials have said that ideally, they would like the series to one day return to the central waterfront. But such a move would be tied up in the schedule for reconstructing the seawall and the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

Anywhere from 17 to 23 concerts would have been scheduled for Gas Works this summer, with ticket prices ranging from $20 to $55, Hughes said.

One Reel, which started in 1971 as a traveling vaudeville show, has grown into one of the Seattle area's largest nonprofits, with a full-time office staff of about 45 employees and an annual budget of more than $20 million.

One Reel, which is cutting back this summer's Bumbershoot from four to three days because of traditionally low attendance on the Friday of Labor Day weekend, also produces the annual Fourth of July fireworks show on Lake Union and Teatro ZinZanni, a dinner show.

Several other outdoor concert venues in the area could pick up the slack left by Summer Nights, including Marymoor Park in Redmond, the Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery in Woodinville and Woodland Park Zoo.

While recognizing the other venues, Hughes of One Reel said "there really is no other event in Seattle that combines world-class music with world-class views and ambience. Hopefully, by us taking a year off, people can remember what's so great about Summer Nights and get excited all over again when it eventually returns in 2007."

I, for one, am very glad Reel One canceled. It's hard enough to endure the throngs of people who come to the fireworks display every 4th of July. They park and double park on our street, dump their empty beverage containers in our bushes, and crank up the music in their cars after the event since they're stuck in traffic on my street for hours on end. With up to 3,800 ticketholders per show, plus any additional looky-loos, I couldn't imagine having to endure this 25 times over the summer--26 if you count the fireworks show. Gas Works Park is not a good choice for a concert venue. It'd be extremely disruptive to the community. And so, when this comes up for planning in 2007, I'll be there to vote it down.