In a last minute action of the Port Authority (PA), the Escape Music Festival, which was to bring two days of music to the Columbia Waterfront District at the pier, had their PA permit to conduct the festival taken away. Over the weekend, the promoter, Merrit Quirk, was able to move the festival over to Governors Island, so it will go on as scheduled.
This came as somewhat of a surprise. At a recent Community Board 6 meeting where the festival was first discussed, there was minimal opposition to the festival. This meeting was held after the Absolut night at the pier, which was evidently the reason for the pulling of the permits. At that meeting, new community board member Victoria Hagman stated that she was at the Absolut event and had a great time. However, she was quoted in a sensationalistic front page Brooklyn Paper article calling it a ‘shitshow’ and using the word ‘vomit.’
The thrust of the CB 6 meeting was similar to a recent Valentino Pier meeting where the Parks Department apologized for not informing the community in advance about planned renovations. Terminal operator Greg Brayman apoligized to the community for not notifying the community of this event before it was decided. He said that he gets requests for alternate uses of the piers all the time. The costs of running an event on property bound by Homeland Security rules is very high, so most of those requesters lose interest after finding out. He did say vehemently that in the future, whenever some group is serious about renting the pier, he will vet it to the community first.
The night before that CB 6 meeting, a group of local politicians headed by Brad Lander released a letter to Brayman and the Port Authority saying just that “We have concerns about the appropriateness of these events for (the Red Hook Container Terminal), where the community supports continued maritime commerce. We ask that you cease permitting such events without Community Board review.
We asked the 76th Precinct whether there were an inordinate number of complaints coming from the Absolut evening at the pier, and they said no. There were some complaints a few days before as the Absolut designers were testing their light show, but hardly any about the sound or people coming or going to the event. At the CB 6 meeting, we were told that once someone came into the event, they would not be allowed re-entry, minimizing the daylong effect of intoxicated people walking around the neighborhood.
The inflammatory Brooklyn Paper article, written by reporter Noah Hurowitz, starts off by saying “The transformation of a Red Hook port facility into a booming nightclub for three nights this month and the next is a disruption that poses a threat to all of Brooklyn’s working waterfront, according to neighbors and local pols from around the borough.”
In fact, most people the Star-Revue spoke with were intrigued by the festival, and many locals were hoping to attend. Local bars, including Alma and MikNik, reported better than usual sales on the Friday of the Absolut event, and despite Ms. Hagman’s comment, we noticed nothing untoward on our walk up and down Columbia Street the evening of the Absolut show.
As noted, the tone of the letter was not threatening, just a request to be kept informed of pier activities deviating from the norm.
The Star-Revue heard rumors that the Port Authority rescinded the permits due to the promoter not living up to their financial commitments. According to Escape Music Festival’s head, Merrit Quirk, this is a false rumor. In a statement, Quirk responded, “I can confirm that this is 100% untrue. We did not miss any security payments. We were responsible for security costs. We were contracting a private security company and that obviously would not go through the PA. We had set fees for PAPD and also had to hire union guards. These payment were to occur after the event.”
The Festival had arranged to donate some of their profits to two local non-profits, The Brooklyn Greenway Initiative and Portside. It is unclear how this forced move to Governor’s Island will affect that commitment.
The Red Hook LLC is looking for additional income from the waterfront due to a recent decline in shipping volume as well as the threat of reduced investment in the piers from government and the Port Authority. The main threat to industrial use of the local waterfront is reduced income, which rental from the Escape Music Festival would have mitigated.
