This summer’s Fort Reno concert series won’t be cancelled after all.
That news came today after a meeting between organizer Amanda MacKaye, the National Park Service, and U.S. Park Police. Afterward, MacKaye, Park Police Lt. Allan Griffith and Rock Creek Superintendent Tara Morrison stopped by WAMU’s Kojo Nnamdi Show to announce the latest.
“Sitting around the table face to face, we were able to work through the issues and resolve it,” Morrison said on the show this afternoon.
In comments both off- and on-air, Griffith and Morrison said both the National Park Service and U.S. Park Police need to implement changes to make sure that Fort Reno and other D.C. concert series on federal parkland go through a more navigable process in the future.
Fort Reno still has to pay for officers to staff its concerts, which is the last-minute requirement that prompted MacKaye to call off the series Thursday. But that money—$66 an hour, at a minimum of five hours per event—no longer has to be paid in a lump sum upfront. (Previously the Park Police had sent MacKaye an invoice for the total amount of $2,640.)
On Kojo Nnamdi’s show this morning, MacKaye said she wouldn’t even consider seeking sponsorships for the proudly independent shows. “Growing up in the D.C. punk scene… it’s in my blood,” she said. “I cannot sell out the music.”
The eight-concert series is scheduled to begin on July 7, weather permitting, as usual. Bandwidth will post the schedule when it’s available. Update, July 1: The schedule has been posted.
Photo by Flickr user Valerie Hinojosa used under a Creative Commons license.
Due to a reporting error, the original version of this post inaccurately said Fort Reno is an eight-week series. It should have said eight-concert series; there are only eight shows over four weeks.