UPTOWN — Is Wavefront Music Festival happening this year or not? While city officials from north to south have insisted it's not, organizers of the fest maintain that the show will go on.
The electronic dance music festival at Montrose Beach in Uptown was a hit last year among EDM fans, but noise and traffic aggravated North Side lakefront residents so much that Ald. James Cappleman (46th) and Ald. Harry Osterman (48th) demanded to see a 2014 festival plan that resolved community concerns.
Chicago Park District spokeswoman Jessica Maxey-Faulker confirmed Thursday that the Park District has not issued a permit for the event to the organizers, 4 Headed Productions.
Officials from the 46th Ward, which includes most of Uptown, and the 48th Ward, which includes most of Edgewater, both said earlier in the week that the Park District would not allow Wavefront to happen in 2014.
Adeshina Emmanuel discusses the Wavefront Music Festival with DNAinfo Radio:
The festival organizers also would be required to have a permit from the city's Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events to have the festival on Park District land or anywhere else in the city.
But special events spokeswoman Mary May said Wednesday, "They have not requested a permit packet. They haven't contacted us."
Her department requires a permit request packet to be filled out 45 days before an event starts, so there is still a window of opportunity. But Tressa Feher, Cappleman's chief of staff, said earlier this week that with summer not far away it was hard to imagine 4 Headed pulling together an entire music festival in time.
The head of 4 Headed Productions, Dino Gardiakos, denied earlier this week that Wavefront was canceled, saying it would happen "elsewhere," instead of Montrose Beach.
A blog post surfaced earlier this week claiming that Wavefront was moving to the 31st Street Beach, but Cappleman denied those rumors.
Charis Triplett, chief of staff of 4th Ward Ald. Will Burns, whose district includes that beach, said the festival would not be held in the South Side ward.
Gardiakos promised an official announcement about the fest soon. Thursday night he declined to discuss Wavefront when reached by phone.
Osterman's chief of staff, Dan Luna, said "the major reason" Osterman opposes the event is "the lack of response to our concerns," chief among them "noise and vibrations."
He said Osterman has asked 4 Headed since July for a sound test "and they have not provided one."
"Now all the suddenly they're saying we can do it this week or next week, but we just can't support it," Luna said.
