Blues, Jazz Festival Proposal Still Alive

Blues, Jazz Festival Proposal Still Alive

An attempt to resurrect the once popular blues and jazz festival was defeated by City Council Monday night. But the rebirth is not a dead issue.

On a 6 to 5 vote council rejected a proposal for the festival to be held this August at Gallup Park.

Opposition to that plan came from council Republicans, but GOP Councilman Robert L. Henry Jr. said the opposition was to the Gallup Park location. “That does not mean we aren’t willing to sit down and discuss another location,” Henry said.

Mayor Albert H. Wheeler appointed a special council committee to begin discussing alternate locations.

The festival once was an annual affair in Ann Arbor and gained international attention for the music it produced. However, it ran into trouble with some city officials because noise, litter and reported drug use problems. Also, the last event staged in Ann Arbor, in 1973, never paid for itself and left a lengthy list of unpaid workers.

In 1974, after council refused to allow the festival in Ann Arbor, the site was changed to Windsor, Ontario, where it again was a musical success but a financial flop.

One of the people trying to revive the festival is Peter Andrews, one of its promoters from the past. Andrews told council in a letter that the chances of success are much greater this year.

He said he has asked Brass Ring Productions, a profesisonal producer of live musical events, to help in the promoting this year. The firm has agreed to be totally responsible for the festivals $254,000 budget, and to post a $100,000 cash bond as a token of its serious intent.

The bond would insure that any requirements of the city, such as cleaning up the site, would be fulfilled, Andrews said. He also said any city services, such as for police, would be paid for in advance.

In past years the festival was held on property located just west of Huron High School.