Following committee passage by a 10-0 vote, the full City Council Monday night is expected to approve a contract for the Sound on The Sound music festival proposed for Seaside Park next September, a multi-day event anticipated to attract roughly 35,000 concert-goers per day for high profile rock and R&B artists.
The music festival contract calls for the organizers to cover all associated public safety and clean-up costs with the city guaranteed $100,000 but the take is projected to be more than double that based on receiving five percent of gross ticket sales.
The music festival is a joint venture of Howard Saffan, developer of the Hartford Healthcare Amphitheater, concert promoter Live Nation and organizers of the annual Governor’s Ball in New York.
See agenda here.
Addendum here.
This meeting will be conducted by teleconference.
The public may listen by calling the following conference line and then entering the conference code:
Dial-In Number: (929) 436-2866
Meeting ID: 381 083 245
Has the “Organization” held Harmless this City, and the rights of the party’s assigning it?
The City Council could be heading right into a big problem with this fast approval.
Organizers say the timeline for approval is critical with a multitude of organizational logistics required for the undertaking including locking in musical acts. Bridgeport’s amphitheater already has more than one dozen unannounced bookings for the 2022 concert season.
Howard Saffan said, “With transportation, traffic flow, and peripheral event operations being the most challenging aspect of a festival, a specialized transportation operations firm will be an essential part of the festival management team, and will be interfacing regularly with local agencies and venue partners. Shuttles will be provided to/from the Bridgeport Metro North station, the Amphitheater lots as well as the Ferry.”
Did the council committee questioned Saffan and the specialized transportation operations firm on how they will deal with the 35,000 people over a two days.
Howard Saffan’s plan for security and traffic control is listed #13 Responsibilites for Event Security and Trafic Control has very little in details, this plan is really ridiculous, remember we are talking about 35,000 people over a two days.