Chaka Khan is one of the many legendary performers who has graced the stage at the Riviera Beach Music Festival, which has recently been suspended for 2009. (Photo: J-Notes.com)
Putting an emphasis on tight fiscal policy in the face of worsening economic conditions, Riviera Beach has decided to cancel the Riviera Beach Music Festival, a springtime event which has presented nationally-renowned performers, such as Teena Marie and Tommy Davidson, to residents of the town of 30,000 and other fans in the past.
After providing funding for the festival during its last eight years, city councillors have decided that they were not willing to commit $75,000 that it had initially allocated to the festival's advisory committee as part of the municipal budget, given the economic health of its population as a result of the larger global economic crisis. The festival was also seen as a financial risk to the city in light of a temporarily-lost venue and rough spring weather that has contributed to a net loss from every edition since the festival began.
After eight years, city taxpayers have lost almost $1.5 million to the production of the festival, but things turned downhill to a noticeable year-by-year extent only within the last three. In 2006, the city gave more than $750,000 and the program was hit with delay and storms, causing headliner Patti LaBelle to end her set after 45 minutes. The year after, fierce winds actually blew the stage down, with the city's issuance of refunds adding even more bleeding from city coffers.
Because the festival's venue of past years, the Ocean Mall Beach Park, is undergoing construction, organizers would be compelled to move the festival to the only other city's only other sizable public venue, the Dan Calloway Recreation Complex, which would not draw as many fans as Ocean Mall.
When Riviera Beach residents voiced opinions against the spending of their tax money for the festival at a recent City Council meeting, the deal was effectively sealed for councillors and the Mayor, according to the Palm Beach Post.
However, councillors expressed hope and optimism that the festival could be revived, either in future years by the City once its treasury gets out of the rut that the current recession has helped put it in and when the renovated Ocean Mall Beach Park opens up, or possibly as early as 2009, if private firms were to take over funding and organizing for the festival.
The festival's website, which at present says that the festival is "under construction for 2009," can be accessed for updates about the status of the festival, as can a general information phone line, at (877) 322-4845.
