Update, July 5: The first Fort Reno show of 2016 is scheduled for Thursday, July 7, according to an invitation posted on Facebook. Title Tracks, Bad Moves and Strange Avenger will perform. Dot Dash, The Delarcos and Nine to Five are scheduled to play the park Monday, July 11, and The Rememberables, Psychic Subcreatures and The Luau Cinders are booked for Thursday, July 14.

Original post:

After two years of stumbles, Fort Reno summer concerts are set to return in July, according to a message posted on the series’ website.

Shows in the Northwest D.C. park will take place Monday and Thursday evenings as usual, but no schedule has been posted. Submissions from bands interested in playing this year will be accepted through May 31, the website says.

Fort Reno shows have faced uncertainty since 2014, when the National Park Service began requiring U.S. Park Police officers at every gig. Security expenses threatened to drain Fort Reno’s concert budget, said organizer Amanda MacKaye, jeopardizing the nearly 50-year-old concert series. MacKaye began soliciting donations to support concerts at Fort Reno in 2015.

The summer series appeared to be in trouble again this year, after Washingtonian found that MacKaye had not filed a permit application with the National Park Service for 2016. But in an email to Bandwidth, MacKaye said she intended to resume gigs at the park.

“Things are just moving slower on my end,” the organizer wrote.

MacKaye is still accepting donations for the Fort Reno concert series via the Washington Peace Center.

Photo by Flickr user Lewis Francis used under a Creative Commons license. 

As Washingtonian reported last week, Fort Reno organizer Amanda MacKaye still has not filed a permit application to the National Park Service, raising questions about whether she plans to book any shows in the federally controlled park this summer. MacKaye also has not solicited music submissions, which she usually does earlier in the year, Washingtonian points out.

But MacKaye says Fort Reno fans have no reason to worry yet. “There is no story here,” she writes in a brief email to WAMU. “It would appear on the Internet that liberty has been taken to create a controversy where there is none. Things are just moving slower on my end.”

MacKaye still has time to submit a permit application for use of the Tenleytown park this summer, says a National Park Service spokesperson.

“She can submit the application at least 48 hours in advance of the proposed event,” the spokesperson says, though it’s wiser to apply earlier. She adds that MacKaye has been in touch with NPS permit office staff.

For the last two years, the 48-year-old public concert series has faced insecurity after the National Park Service began requiring that a U.S. Park Police officer monitor each concert — a standard requirement that may have been overlooked in the past, a spokesperson said at the time.

MacKaye initially responded by calling off Fort Reno’s 2014 season, saying the $2,640 security fee outstripped Fort Reno’s budget. In 2015, she asked for donations to help defray the cost of a Park Police officer.

Both concert seasons ultimately survived.

Photo by Flickr user Mike Maguire used under a Creative Commons license.