LINCOLN PARK — Organizers of the Sheffield Music Festival & Garden Walk defended the proposed move of its main stage to Trebes Park Wednesday as the only way to get millennials and other younger attendees to pay an entrance fee.
"If we have the park, we can force people to pay," Malcolm Lambe, president of the Sheffield Neighborhood Association, said at a public meeting on the move Wednesday evening at Little Sisters of the Poor, 2325 N. Lakewood Ave. "These people don't feel they need to make a donation to come to the festival.
"The only way to fight back is to have an area where you can charge people to come in," he added. "That's the crux of it."
Association Vice President Laury Lewis estimated 30 percent to 40 percent of festgoers, mostly young adults, now decline to pay the requested donation.
"It's been increasing every year," he said.
Lambe said city attorneys have refused to allow neighborhood fests to have the same rights as Lollapalooza, Pitchfork or Riot Fest to require an admission fee unless they are held on contained property off a street, like Trebes Park at Webster and Racine avenues.
The Sheffield Neighborhood Association announced last month it was considering moving the festival after a series of disappointing years.
Lewis blamed some problems on hot and stormy weather the last couple of years on the next-to-last weekend in July, the garden walk's traditional dates. He said moving the main music stage off the asphalt parking lot at St. Vincent de Paul, at Sheffield, and down relatively shady Webster to Trebes Park would make the fest more inviting on hot days.
"We needed a shot in the arm, a new look," he said, "an injection of a new spirit into this garden walk."
It also would open Sheffield to north-south traffic with the Cubs in town for the July 21-23 weekend the fest takes place on this year, while keeping Racine Avenue open as well. St. Vincent de Paul also would be cleared to host weddings that weekend.
Although the park would be the site of the main music stage and the ever-popular Craft Beer Festival, Webster would be closed from Racine to Kenmore for a second music stage.
Reza Ebadi, owner of Campus Gear, 1111 W. Webster Ave., said moving the fest would cost him business.
"For those three days, the store is going to be dead," he said. "I know that."
But Hank Zemola, owner of Chicago Special Events, which will be handling much of the fest logistics, said the garden walk "advertises and promotes the neighborhood.
"I'm going to put a lot of people in front of your store," Zemola said. "Potentially, it could be thousands of new customers for you. Take this as an opportunity and not a detriment."
Melissa Seiler, a local resident and president of the Trebes Park Advisory Council, asked the association to provide assurances that it would protect residents and the park, but then asked why a move was necessary.
"There has got to be a better way that doesn't have all these down sides," she said.
Lambe said if the festival is moved to Trebes Park the association would have to commit to paying thousands of dollars to benefit the park, whether or nor the weather complies and the fest is profitable.
"We're going to make sure [funds] go back into the park," he said. "This is a badly overused park that is not properly maintained by the city."
Association leaders granted that the St. Vincent de Paul parking lot could be enclosed to create an admission area, but insisted that wouldn't address the sweltering heat on the asphalt on hot sunny days.
Lewis said that the association was already using the money from the Music Fest & Garden Walk, its main fundraiser, to benefit four local schools and Trebes Park, along with other neighborhood beautification and development projects.
He said the association had helped renovate the park in 1995, after which the Chicago Park District began to help out less with funding and maintenance. Lewis said the association has spent $200,000 at Trebes since 2000. He has also led efforts to tend to three new oak trees planted at the park, critical since it is losing trees to the emerald ash borer.
Brian Comer said he grew up in the area and remembers when the garden walk was previously centered on Webster, before 2000.
"I loved it when it was on Webster. I think bringing it back to Webster is great," Comer said. "But it is our only green space," he added. "Protecting our park has to be our main concern."
Lambe asked Comer and other neighbors to trust that the association will protect the park.
"We have a track record in place," Lambe said.
About two dozen residents turned out on a rainy night for the public meeting. Most of the comments were made by those who don't want to move the festival. Some people didn't take a public position.
The Sheffield Neighborhood Association will vote on the proposed festival changes, with Aldermen Michele Smith (43rd) and Brian Hopkins (2nd) also signing off on it before the association finalizes agreements with the Park District and other city agencies.
"There is nothing that's been preapproved," Lewis said. "In the next couple of weeks we have to have a firm decision."
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