Summer Nights: down but not out
Tomorrow’s Stranger will contain a brief story about the cancellation of One Reel’s Summer Nights concert series. I didn’t hear back from One Reel until after my deadline, so I thought I’d share some excerpts of my interview with Sheila Hughes, One Reel’s chief operating officer.
Last week, Friends of Gas Works Park filed a lawsuit in King County Superior Court accusing One Reel and Seattle of violating the public’s right to use the park. Though One Reel’s announcement today made only oblique references to that neighborhood opposition, it was clearly a crucial factor: “It played a role in the sense that the work we were doing in response became a huge part of the timeline,” says Hughes. “It was like having a switchboard with 20 lines open yet trying to have one conversation.”
If that weren’t enough, last week also saw community activist Ben Schroeter email the suit to 140 national booking agents, some of whom had booked their talent or were considering offers to put their bands in the series. As a result, says Hughes, “You have to spend time talking to every individual who received that email. It’s a huge delay and impact on our staff.”
Hughes could not speak directly to the issue of whether the city violated the public process in its efforts to move the Summer Nights series to Gas Works, as the suit alleges. She only knows that the city was responsive and fast and that it appreciated the importance of keeping the series in the city. “It’s an easy thing to let something like this not happen,” says Hughes, and she was impressed that the city tried so hard to make it happen, despite the obstacles.
Despite the failure of the 2006 plan, Hughes says it was an “investment” for 2007 and she is hopeful that with 18 months to negotiate, One Reel can work out a settlement with the Friends of Gas Work Park, which may now withdraw its lawsuit, according to the group’s founder, Cheryl Trivison.
Is this the same Ben "Jammin'" Shroeter who, according to his resume, tried and failed to start a Seattle music website a few years ago?
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Founder / Publisher – I created and spent years building content for what became Seattle’s favorite and very popular not for profit website devoted to providing the Seattle-area community a resource for locating music events, artists, venues and festivals. As it did not pay (other than free tickets…) it burned me out and I “retired” from the “music biz.”
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