Tony Allegretti and I talked about a sprawling project he helped organize called Summer Time in the City. It’s part music festival, part environmental awareness, all fun and all free this Sunday in Downtown Jacksonville. When I get back from this festival you know I’ll be heading downtown for Pabst and hip hop. Don’t forget to car pool, walk, ride your bike, bus or skyway!
THE URBAN CORE (Adams & Main) July 15th, 2007 NOON - 10PM
1. Summer Time in the City is a massive project. Hot off The Color of Munny show, which is small in comparison, I know how much organization goes into something like this. Did you organize this yourself or did you have lots of help? How does one go about organizing such a massive project?
No, no one could do this by themselves. Ian and Mas did all of the artist and bboy booking and scheduling. I handled logistics, sponsors, admin, and general organizing. Marco is our man for food and bev, and he also will help general flow and quick decisions. Scott Hays from NlightN is doing our sound. We’ll have a lot of volunteers both sponsors and otherwise.
How do we go about it? Well we did this during the super bowl on an even bigger scale. We had a huge stage, the one they used for Warp Tour. We had a very strong line up who had to be “handled” appropriately. We had superbowl code enforcement finding fault with our set up at every turn. We had a successful event, but we learned a lot. That was tough. This event is much more laid back and community focused. We’ve also worked the food at large events before so we have some of that experience too.
2. The description on your blog of Summer Time in the City is long and varied. I’ll try to condense it into a few words, let me know if I do a good job: day of music and environmental awareness, highlighting the fact that Downtown Jacksonville does not offer recycling to its residents or businesses. Do you have anything to add/subtract?
Yeah one of the things we are trying to point out is that downtown does not recycle. I’m not sure any one that lives outside of downtown knows that. My mom lives in Springfield now and she can’t stop talking about it. I have friends that cringe that they have to shove cans and bottles and plastic into their trash knowing it is just going to swell up a landfill. Plus the rest of the city’s recycle pick up is pretty straightforward. I’m no expert but if we just modeled after that, I think the major users could have a big blue container and it could picked up on a set day or days. anyway, perhaps if we spread the word we’ll be heard. There are a lot of us who live within walking distance who can learn some other pro-environmental tips. We are doing a lot in that regard too. Come and soak it up. It always feel better to know that you are reducing harm.
Additionally, though I don’t think totally unrelated, we are promoting diversity through affordable housing. RADO is a big sponsor and we are really happy to have them come talk about what they do. They have a lot of low cost subsidized housing coming online. They also are focused on green building and walkable neighborhoods which is at the heart of this kind of event as well.
3. This is an amazing event. Why haven’t I heard about it until now? Do you plan on getting the word out to the media?
I’m not sure why you haven’t heard about it. Maybe you’ve been knee deep in munny shows. We have a media sponsor the Entertaining U which has been doing a lot of pub for the artists and the event as well as making our ads and a pull out program. Folio hit us up this week despite our EU hook up which was cool. They were bummed that we didn’t propose it to them, to which I said watch out for the EU boyyyyeee. We need more papers frankly. Although paper itself is sort of a flash in the pan.
I talked to Konrad about it but after reading his piece on munny, I’m glad he didn’t cover this. I KID I KID! (he’ll probably drop something now to really rub it in. I stand by my, I KID) Some events don’t need to be in the TU. There is actually a great jazz event at the beach on the same day too which is odd because it’s a Sunday. But that’s cool. We didn’t need all that carbon beach peoples bring anyway. Just kidding. You can come, please carpool. I can’t wait for the free coffee and wifi bus! Also the provenance of this event is a combo of our river jams: Jazz in June, Take Me to the River, Jax Parks Get Out There, etc. Those events were really organic, word of mouth, and had a lot to do with the kind of people that use the riverwalk. I’m not sure I’m ready to do an event with a television commercial. If you are into roots hip hop, jazz/funk, soul, break dancing, green causes, bikes, coming downtown, any one of these things, you probably got the memo. But it is always up to the publisher to help people promote something and I appreciate that. Like I appreciate this post. It will mean a lot in turn out. THANKS!
4. You and Ian (owner of Shanty Town) came up with the idea to throw Summer Time in the city in response to Downtown Visions decision not to do Jazz in June. I organized The Color of Munny to correspond with the Steve Forster show at the Burrito Gallery partly in response to the lack of a July Art Walk. In the past few months I have seen a lot more grassroots events being organized. Do you see this trend too? Do you see a lack of funding for city sponsored events as an opportunity for the community to begin organizing their own events?
Jazz in June was one of the sweetest events. It was hotter than this year and people came in droves. We promoted it on the cheap and I got to give it up for Karen Barnes who was at DVI at the time. She coordinated a great month. DVI wasn’t in shape to do it this year I think because the staff wasn’t in place to get it going. Missing art walk for the first time since 2003 was tough for me. But on the otherside the BG staff and their families (like me) were thankful for some time off. When they decided not to do it we went dark that day. Could they have done something? I think the successes of Munny and Forster say yes. I think the grassroots successes should make DVI
think about their support role. Just a thought but maybe production should come from someone else and they can simply sponsor and promote. Whole ‘nother blog here you know?
5. While larger cities are banning plastic bags, water bottles and styrofoam food containers, Jacksonville lacks a basic recycling plan for residents and businesses downtown. What can we do to make some noise about this issue and possibly convince the city to wakeup and smell the growing landfill?
We’ll have lots of noise Sunday. I think we can take show that people are interested in change. The city will, in my opinion, see how feasible it is and do it. Feasible, it should be. I don’t want to poke my finger in the city’s chest. That never works. No matter what happens if Mayor Peyton says he’s got a plan and execute, it will be anthropologically relative like not much else he can do as a mayor. He can claim it was his idea for all I care. I’m not sure what we do next maybe give my mom the mayor’s email or something.
6. Should we bring beach chairs and coolers of food? How will everything be set up? Anything else we should know about Summer Time in the City?
Beach chairs are acceptable coolers, only if you don’t like or are allergic to burgers, veggie burgers, hot dogs. They will priced right $2 or under and proceeds go to offset the talent. Absolutely no bring in drinks except water. We’ll have plenty of drinks available. Including delicious Pabst Blue Ribbon.
