UPTOWN — The Wavefront Music Festival has been canceled, the office of Ald. James Cappleman (46th) said Tuesday — a claim that was quickly denied by organizers of the beach bash.
Cappleman's chief of staff Tressa Feher said Tuesday evening the Chicago Park District had decided to pull the plug on the electronic dance music fest.
Feher attributed the decision to a lack of organization and poor communication on part of the company behind the event, 4 Headed Productions.
Wavefront, held at Montrose Beach over Independence Day weekend, had faced backlash from lakefront residents and area aldermen after its 2013 rendition suffered from problems with noise, traffic control and festival management.
Adeshina chats about the latest developments on the electronic music festival:
The organizers responded quickly to those issues in July, and met with community members, police, as well as city and Chicago Park District officials — but Feher said the last productive meeting happened in the fall.
"Things were going well, and then we didn't hear from them until now," she said, speaking of April.
Earlier Tuesday, in an interview with DNAinfo Chicago, Cappleman said "if an alderman's office is reaching out to you, it's probably a good idea to respond."
It's "unfortunate" the festival can't happen now, but "we just want to make sure it doesn't negatively impact the neighborhood," Feher said Tuesday evening.
But the organizers behind Wavefront insist it's still going to take place.
Dino Gardiakos of 4 Headed Productions said after Cappleman's announcement that Wavefront 2014 is still happening elsewhere in the city.
"It's not canceled, it's just not going to be at Montrose Beach," he said, declining to comment further and promising an official announcement would be coming later. Gardiakos also owns River North nightclub Spybar.
Despite requests for comment Tuesday night, the park district could not immediately confirm the status of the festival.
A blog post surfaced earlier Tuesday claiming that Wavefront was moving to the 31st Street Beach, but Cappleman denied those rumors.
Charis Triplett, chief of staff to Ald. Will Burns (4th) whose district includes that beach, said the festival would not be held in the South Side ward.
Contributing: Tanveer Ali.
