New Haven Independent: Concert Series Scaled Down

Concert Series Scaled Down

by Melissa Bailey | April 1, 2008 8:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (9)

This year’s summer concert series will continue in a smaller and tastier trend, announced New Haven marketing guru Anne Worcester (pictured).

Instead of Kool & the Gang and a crowd of 30,000 with, the city’s looking more along the lines of Soul Asylum and an intimate 10,000.

Worcester detailed the city’s summer concert strategy while making a budget pitch to alderman over pizza in City Hall Monday night. Worcester heads up Market New Haven, Inc, a public-private agency born in 2001 to enhance the city’s image. In 2007, the group was funded by $500,000 from the city, $250,000 from Yale and $300,000 local business community.

Worcester came before aldermen to justify the city’s half-million contribution. Among a series of updates, she detailed a new strategy for the city’s summer concert series.

The point of the legendary summer concert series, she said, is to “create fierce local pride and bring people downtown.”

In the old days, that meant droves of fans filling the streets to the tunes of the Temptations. People came from far and wide to park on the Green with a picnic and see big-time headliners, all for free on hot summer night. The “fierce local pride” was there, no doubt, said Worcester. But the massive crowds weren’t really utilizing downtown’s assets, she said.

“People would come to the Green at noon, bring their picnic basket and not leave the Green” until 10 o’clock, she said. The huge crowds would not only kill the grass, but trample the tree roots, too. The parks department said no mas. And high-end restaurants complained regular customers couldn’t reach them due to gridlock.

The series needed to “evolve” to match a changing downtown, Worcester said. So last year, Market New Haven tried a different tack. Instead of bringing in an opening band around six o’clock and a headliner at eight, they scaled back the show to one act.

To encourage mingling in downtown restaurants and bars, street performers were introduced, and dining reservations were taken from a booth right on the Green. The headliners were still Grammy award-winning, though not as famous as in years past. Instead of 30,000, organizers aimed for a target crowd of 10,000, she said.

By combining budgets for the free concert series and jazz fest, and scaling down the concerts, Market New Haven slimmed down the combined budget from about $700,000 to “less than half” that amount, Worcester said.

Worcester said initial reactions were good: High-end restaurants were happy their customers could dine undisturbed by impossible traffic, and lower-end restaurants got a flood of diners from on-the-Green reservations.

While she didn’t leak any details of who’ll be playing, Worcester did say she plans to continue the scaled-back, dining-focused version of the concert series this year.

Tennis Time

Wearing her other, sportier hat, Worcester also gave an update on the Pilot Pen Tennis Tournament, which she directs. Of a total $4.8 million operating budget, the city contributes $135,000. Worcester said she’d be asking for that same contribution in the next city budget. The rest is generated by ticket sales and corporate sponsorships.

“Funding from the city is critical not only to our viability but to our ability to help New Haven,” Worcester said.

The tournament has helped secure funds to fix up city courts, and holds free celebrity events that get kids hooked on tennis: Click here for a previous story with more details on that.

This year, the Pilot Pen comes at a tough scheduling time, right after the Beijing Olympics. Worcester said she’s already at work recruiting players.

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Comments

Posted by: NHdiva | April 1, 2008 8:55 AM

Nobody wants to see soul asylum. If bringing money downtown is the objective I think that having headliners is the way to go. I think that this guru needs to rethink this strategy.

Posted by: DowntownNewHaven | April 1, 2008 9:20 AM

Downtown looks forward to this year's concert series. Some of the best memories people have of growing up in New Haven are of the summer concerts. Maybe you could follow up the concerts with a free movie so that people could stay until midnight if they wanted to?

Please feel free to send updates to our blog when you have more information about any these events.

Posted by: DMc | April 1, 2008 9:52 AM

I never realized local businesses helped to pay for these events. I guess I won't complain as much that the city seems to be favoring the interests of business over the interests of the community. Still, though, I don't think that when "People would come to the Green at noon, bring their picnic basket and not leave the Green" it is a bad thing. A free day of entertainment for people who can't afford to or aren't willing to eat at the restaurants downtown sounds like a fine thing to me.
So what other washed-up has-beens can we get with the change we pull out of our couch cushions? How about the Gin Blossoms?

Posted by: Bruce | April 1, 2008 12:09 PM

"...create fierce local pride and bring people downtown."

How about bringing back the local element to these shows? Having a local opener showcases the tremendous musical talent we have and generates interest in the local arts scene. If you're going to have publicly funded art in a town that tries to pride itself on being a regional arts center, then how about supporting local art?

Posted by: walt bradley | April 1, 2008 1:39 PM

Those of us over 35 will remember when it was a DOWNTOWN merchant, Brian Alden, who brought us the frist real series of jazz concerts. I don't remember hearing complaints from places like Gentry's or New Haven restaraunt back then. It was a source of Pride for New Haven. We put on shows that Bridgeport, Waterbury and Hartford wouldn't or couldn't. Now the old golf course in Hamden is home to better concerts. This whold new philosophy sucks, and i'm sorry that Bespoke and Zinc may have had an inconvience FOUR NIGHTS A YEAR, but they were the kind of nights that make you look forward to summer in New Haven - no Yalies, no snowstorms, just New Haveners and our Connecticut neighbors taking advantage of a good time at our green. My spidey instincts tell me there are a lot of things we're not hearing about. by the way, after the Dave Brubeck concert two summers ago, we went to Chow for a drink and it was so busy it took us 35 minutes to get a drink, so the local eateries are not going broke because a good band thought enough of New Haven to come play here. I'm not looking forward to the 45 minute concert of "Ah - Ha" or "Starlight Vocal Band".
yeah, seeing Soul Asylum is much more fun and memorable than those times i saw Ray Charles, Tito Puente, The Temptations or Blues Travler - Not.

Posted by: walt bradley | April 1, 2008 2:07 PM

A quick addendum, i agree with Bruce that we need to emphasize local artists and talent. I'll go a step further and suggest the city feature at lest one local concert on the green every weekend of july and august. There is no minor league baseball team, the water at lighthouse is often un swimmable and skateboarding has been cracked down on since i was in high school 20 years ago - there aren't many places for the under 21 crowd to hang out in the summer save mom's couch or the local street corner. Let's give them a venue while promoting local artists and getting people out in the summer air.

Posted by: king james v | April 1, 2008 4:22 PM

Tennis has been unwatchable for the last 8-10 years. Why doesn't the city hold concerts in the tennis center? they could draw 10,000 people paying $25-$75/ ticket, and make some money. The place sits empty 50 weeks a year, it's a sing.
The Brian Alden jazz series was world class and free, it distinguished new haven, and folks came back to town to shop and explore.
The Bowl and Tennis Center are world class facilities but do nothing for the town. Perhaps Yale can help us out with our PILOT shortcomings by renting out the Bowl so the City can make a few bucks and stop the practice of "streetsweeping' towing.

Posted by: susan eaton | April 1, 2008 9:49 PM

I was very disappointed that the concerts ended last year before it was even dark. Is concern about crime the real reason for the early end to the concerts? Out of town friends didn't bother to make the trip for such short concerts. What the many food vendors who used to be on the green for concerts?

What about the concerts that happened more than 10 years ago in the local parks? Who sponsored them? Also why not bring back the Chapel Street festival? That highlighted both local talent and merchants.

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Concert Series Scaled Down

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