CORONA — A music festival featuring Kanye West as headliner that's planned for Citi Field's parking lot has been touting a partnership with a local parks alliance — but the park's board members weren't involved at all, DNAinfo New York has learned.
The Meadows Festival, which also features acts including Future, The Weeknd and Empire of the Sun, announced on Tuesday that tickets for the event on Oct. 1 and 2 would go on sale this week.
In a press release, the festival's organizers claimed their concert was co-sponsored by the New York Mets and the public-private partnership the Flushing Meadows Corona Park Alliance. But on Tuesday, multiple board members of the newly formed parks alliance told DNAinfo New York they didn't know about the concert.
"FMCP Alliance is not involved with the Meadows Music Festival, and they are not a co-sponsor of the event," said a spokeswoman for the Parks Department, which is part of the Flushing Meadows Corona Park alliance.
While technically in the park, the parking lot at Citi Field does not require Parks Department approval for permitting. Everything is handled through the Mets, who declined to comment.
A spokeswoman for Founders Entertainment and Live Nation, who are throwing the concert, admitted there is currently no involvement of the parks alliance, and chalked the announcement saying there was up to their own eagerness over the festival in the "storied borough of Queens."
"In our excitement today, we jumped the gun on a possible partnership with FMCPA," the organizers said in a statement.
"They are a great organization and we are hopeful we will be able to work together on behalf of the park and community.”
The lack of transparency was blasted by the New York Hall of Science (NYSCI), whose annual World Maker Faire event will also be held the same weekend as the festival, potentially creating a traffic nightmare in Corona.
NYSCI has utilized Citi Field's parking lots the last two years to help with traffic after concerns from neighbors over gridlock.
An estimated 100,000 people are expected to attend this year's two-day World Maker Faire festival.
A spokesman for NYSCI said The Meadows Festival organizers were "proceeding with a complete lack of transparency or community engagement" in moving forward.
"By bringing another 30,000-50,000 people per day into the neighborhood, this poorly planned mega-concert will undermine what we have done over the past seven years to address community concerns about traffic, safety, and parking."
Councilwoman Julissa Ferreras-Copeland, who brokered the alliance as a community agreement for expansion of the USTA in 2013, said she met with Founders Entertainment but told them they should "engage more stakeholders to build support for this festival."
"I was troubled to see them then claim the Flushing Meadows Corona Park Alliance as a partner, when the Alliance is not a partner and was never consulted about this event," she said in a statement Wedesday.
"There are serious concerns about the impact of a music festival on our community, including how this would impact Makers Faire, an existing and popular event in the same park on the same day. Founders must engage around issues like traffic, safety and economic impact, before it earns our community's support."
A festival spokeswoman said they are trying to discourage concert-goers from driving to the show, and won't provide parking at The Meadows. It's not clear how many parking spaces will still be available to the Makers Faire, as the Mets declined to comment.
Founders Entertainment was one of three major concert organizers who hoped to put on a large-scale festival inside Flushing Meadows-Corona Park this summer and fall.
All three proposals were rejected by the Parks Department over fear of taking up too much space in the public park.
