Oct 28, 2008 5:09 am US/Central
Cutbacks Coming To Blues, Jazz Festivals
City Budget Problems Force Shorter Festivals, Fewer Stages
CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) ―
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A scene from the Blues Festival back in 1986. The Blues Fest is the largest music of the city-sponsored music festivals, but for next year, budget cuts have forced the city to scale it back.
CBS
Blues Fest and Jazz Fest, two of the city's most popular outdoor music festivals, will be reduced from four days to three and feature fewer stages because of spending cuts tied to Mayor Richard M. Daley's bad-news 2009 budget.
Daley's Holiday Sports Festival will also be shortened — from three days to two. Great Chicago Places and Spaces, the Viva Latin Music Festival, Celtic Fest and the Mayor's Cup Soccer Festival will likely shrink to one-day festivals, although internal research is still going on, officials said.
And the Kids and Kites Festival will only be held once a year, down from twice.
"To be frank, we simply cannot continue moving forward with programs, events and festivals that cost the city of Chicago more to operate than we bring in in revenue," Megan McDonald, executive director of the Mayor's Office of Special Events, said in a written statement presented to alderman at City Council budget hearings.
In addition to shrinking the number of days, McDonald warned that event "footprints" would be condensed and that operational changes would be made to cut costs even further.
"This relates specifically to stages, tents, service areas and contractual services rendered at each event," she said. On Monday, aldermen from across the city hammered McDonald on her $700,000 decision to eliminate the wildly-popular program that provides free jumping jacks to neighborhood festivals. An avalanche of opposition to the jumping-jack cut has prompted Daley to search for a corporate sponsor.
(Source: Sun-Times Media Wire © Chicago Sun-Times 2009. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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