Summer Nights at Gasworks
If you’re the sort of person that’s already planning for next year, you might be interested to hear that the Summer Nights Concert Series will be moving again this year, to Gas Works Park.
Last year, the series was in South Lake Union near the Center for Wooden Boats. I didn’t go to any of the shows, but from what I saw–I work in SLU and live a few blocks up–they were all well attended. (This meant that we all left the office early on weekday concert nights, to ‘avoid traffic’.) But people still didn’t like the location, claiming that it got really cold down there and the view was just not that great. Part of the charm of the Pier 62/63 location was the sunset over the Sound. And since construction on South Lake Union is meant to begin in early 2006, the concert series was forced to find a new home. Again.
The showground is slated to be in that smooth grassy spot between the play area and the towers, and it looks like the harbor patrol is going to make a 100-yard no-entry zone, which’ll put the kibosh on free shows for boaters [P-I]. But it appears that not everyone is happy with this move. The secretary of my neighborhood Community Council is vocally grumpy over the whole thing, claiming troubles with parking and noise and aesthetic values [Times]. Somehow, I don’t think his concerns are going to hold any water, and everything will likely go ahead as planned.
The maritime heritage groups at SLUP, including Center for Wooden Boats, Northwest Seaport, and Virginia V, are breathing a sigh of relief at the move of the concerts. They were extremely disruptive of their educational programs, forcing participants to search even harder for the next-to-non-existent parking. The groups tried to take advantage of the extra traffic to market themselves, but the configuration of the venue made that difficult as well. The Parks Department gets a “D” for working with local not-for-profits on this episode.
I’m not really surprised by that…it certainly looked like a great big mess. Hopefully there’ll be less to interfere with at Gasworks, since the concerts aren’t going away.