When the Foo Fighters finish their set on the main stage at Lollapalooza on Sunday night in Grant Park, it will mark the end of the final festival under a 10-year contract between promoter C3 Presents and the Chicago Park District.
Typically, at the end of the raucous four-day, eight-stage, 400,000-person production at Grant Park, Lollapalooza organizers announce the dates for next year’s festival. It’s unclear whether that will happen this year as the contract between the festival and the city is set to expire at the end of the year.
So far, there has been no public talk of relocating one of the world’s largest music festivals from its iconic downtown Chicago location.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot allowed this year’s festival and its 174 bands to move forward at full capacity despite criticism from some that it should be curtailed amid an uptick in COVID-19 cases. Attendees are being asked to produce proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test within 72 hours.
Last year, the Chicago festival was canceled amid the pandemic and held online instead, but Lollapalooza organizers were still required to pay the Chicago Park District $750,000 under their contract.
C3 Presents, which is based in Austin, Texas, and puts on the Austin City Limits Music Festival there among other events around the country, declined to answer questions about the status of contract negotiations with the city. The promoter did, however, release a brief statement expressing support for Chicago as the home of Lollapalooza since 2005.
“Our partnership with the city of Chicago and Chicago Parks has been incredible,” said Sandee Fenton, the director of communications for C3 Presents. “We look forward to growing our partnership for years to come.”
Officials for the Chicago Park District also declined to answer questions about the negotiations, but released a brief statement indicating unspecified improvements to Grant Park would be part of the talks.
“The city of Chicago has had great experience with C3 each year they produce the Lollapalooza festival,” Park District spokeswoman Michele Lemons said in a statement. “We look forward to our continued partnership and enhanced improvements to Grant Park that will make the experience even greater for Chicagoans and patrons alike.”
Lemons did not respond to questions about what improvements the district might seek to the city’s storied lakefront park. Lightfoot’s office did not respond to a request for comment on the status of the negotiations.
One source familiar with the relationship between the two parties said negotiations over a new deal had yet to begin in earnest.
“There is no sense of urgency — everyone is calm and working incredibly well together,” said the source, who was not authorized to discuss the talks publicly. “My guess is those conversations will happen in the near future, when both have time to sit down. But I do believe everyone expects continuity.”
The current 10-year contract was inked in 2012 under then-Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Parks Superintendent Michael Kelly, who continues to serve in the job today. The deal is set to expire on Dec. 31, but there is an “evergreen” provision that allows a year to be tacked onto the end of the contract under the current terms, if both sides agree to do so.
Both C3 and the Park District declined to say whether they have broached using that one-year-at-a-time provision. If they don’t add a year onto the current deal, the two sides would have to negotiate a new agreement or ink an extension of the existing contract.
Currently, the Park District is guaranteed a payment of at least $1.5 million each year. The Park District also receives 5% of all sponsorship revenue in excess of $3.25 million, and 5% of all food and beverage revenue in excess of $3 million.
In addition, the contract provided a sliding scale for what cut of the gate the Park District receives. At the beginning of the deal in 2012, Chicago Parks received 11% of net admission revenue from Lollapalooza. This year, that number increases to 15%, up from 14.5% in 2019.
The Park District did not respond to a Tribune request for year-by-year revenue breakdowns in those three categories. It also did not respond to a request for the verified statements of revenue the certified accountant for C3 Presents is required to provide to the Park District after each festival.
Last year, the Park District did not receive its annual $1.5 million payment because of the cancellation. However, it still received $750,000 under the deal’s “force majeure” clause, which covers fire, hurricane, flood, tornado, “act of God,” terrorist act, mechanical or structural failure, civil commotion and other developments that are “not reasonably foreseeable” and are beyond “reasonable control.”
At that time, the Park District disclosed it received $7.4 million in total revenue from the 2019 festival.
During Emanuel’s tenure as mayor, the city agreed to expand Lollapalooza to a fourth day in 2016, generating more money for C3 and the city. The Tribune previously reported that the Park District made $2.9 million from the festival in 2013, but more than doubled that to $6 million in 2016 after the extra day was added.
Emanuel had close ties to Lolla’s owners, who were among his most loyal campaign donors who received City Hall benefits, a Tribune investigation found.
When the Emanuel-appointed park board inked the current contract in 2012, Lollapalooza’s owners included C3, Live Nation and William Morris Endeavor, the Hollywood agency where the mayor’s superagent brother, Ari Emanuel, was co-CEO. As such, Ari Emanuel had a financial stake in the festival, while he also served on the board of Live Nation, until he was forced to step down earlier this year amid antitrust concerns.
During his 2011 bid for mayor, Emanuel’s campaign vowed that if elected, he would have the City Council appoint “an outside negotiator” for issues involving Lollapalooza, Live Nation or Ari Emanuel to avoid “even a question of favoritism.” He never did.
The Tribune reported in 2015 that Emanuel’s administration waived nearly $1 million in fees to allow the NFL access to Grant Park for 22 days for its draft celebration. That agreement was with C3, which the NFL hired to help put on the event.
The former mayor also raised plenty of campaign cash from C3 Presents, despite Emanuel having a ban on accepting contributions from those who had City Hall business. He contended the ban didn’t apply to Lollapalooza, because its contract was with the Park District, even though it was an agency he controlled.
In 2014, the Tribune reported that Charlie Jones, one of C3′s founders, threw Emanuel a fundraiser at his Austin home during the city’s signature South by Southwest festival. Soon after, Emanuel reported pulling in nearly $104,000 in campaign contributions from Texas donors.
In 2017, Emanuel reported receiving more than $106,000 from Texas donors after another Austin fundraiser, including maximum $5,400 contributions from Jones, fellow C3 founder Charlie Walker and their wives.
Lightfoot has not received any campaign contributions from Jones, Walker or any C3 employees, according to state campaign finance records. She’s raised just $15,000 total from Texas donors.
Last year, when Lollapalooza was canceled, Lightfoot said the city would renew its contract with C3 Presents. In a Tribune interview before her first Lollapalooza as mayor, Lightfoot was asked if it should continue in Chicago.
“There is no doubt it’s an asset to the city. Most of the plans were in place before I was sworn in. But I have a lot of ideas that I’m going to talk to the producers about and also our folks here to really make this a city-specific event,” Lightfoot said then. “People come to the festival from all over the country. I want to think about ways we can also showcase Chicago talent. ... I think we can have some of our great music venues across the city simultaneously showcasing Chicago talent around Lollapalooza, particularly young Chicago talent.”
As C3 Presents prepares to bargain with the Lightfoot-controlled Park District over a new deal, the promoter announced a new initiative on Friday: a five-year, $2.2 million program to support arts education in Chicago Public Schools.
“We have been a part of the Chicago community since 2005, and this investment allows us to expand our impact in a significant way,” Walker, the C3 Presents partner, said in a statement. “We know that the next generation of artists and musicians is growing up right here in Chicago schools, yet too many children have little or no access to arts education. The Lollapalooza Arts Education Fund aims to ensure that all Chicago Public Schools students have the opportunity to develop their creative talent.”
Tribune reporter Tracy Swartz contributed.
bruthhart@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @BillRuthhart
"will" - Google News
July 30, 2021 at 05:00PM
https://ift.tt/2TK0QXH
Lollapalooza's contract with Chicago is set to expire. Will it be renewed? - Chicago Tribune
"will" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2xyU8J2
https://ift.tt/2zfWs7Z
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Lollapalooza's contract with Chicago is set to expire. Will it be renewed? - Chicago Tribune"
Post a Comment