City Council
MEETING DATE: 12/13/2017
TITLE:
Title
2018 Caribbean Music Festival
End
FROM:
Chris Parman, Communications / Events Manager
RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Staff recommends the approval of S.U.P. #17-027 with conditions.
Body
BACKGROUND:
Hans Mullins of HM Events Group, LLC produced the 2017 Caribbean Music Fest over Memorial Weekend in Downtown Cathedral City. It was a three-day music festival that brought more than 1,000 people to our City, mainly from outside of the Coachella Valley which helped local hotels, restaurants, and retailers. The crowd that attended tended to be late 20s and older, many couples, coming to the Coachella Valley for great music, food, and festivities.
HM Events has created other prosperous events over the last five years in Florida, Dominican Republic, and Huntington Beach, California. They want to bring back a Caribbean Music Festival to the greater Palm Springs area on September 7-9, 2018.
The 2017 event had no security issues, but there was one injury to an attendee that resulted in a claim for medical injuries.
DISCUSSION:
The Caribbean Music Festival would be the ultimate destination for a day and night party series in Downtown Cathedral City that offers six uniquely themed events, all-inclusive with free drinks and food, over a three-day span. The theme is based on the Caribbean culture, but also has infused events like a Hawaiian Beach BBQ, White Party, and Sunday Breakfast Paint Party (using washable paint much like the Glow Run).
Similar to last year, the schedule includes a Friday night opening BBQ and music party until 10 pm, Saturday day-time event at Wet n' Wild in Palm Springs, Saturday night party at the Festival Lawn until 10 pm, Sunday morning breakfast Paint Party in the lawn in front of Desert Cinemas, and a Sunday evening White Party at Town Square Park until 9 pm. Expected attendance for the Music Festival is 2,000.
Set-up would begin on Tuesday, September 4, 2018 and clean-up would be completed by Monday, September 10, 2018 by 10:00 pm.
I would make several recommendations for conditions of approval based on last year's festival:
1. The City require a clean-up deposit of $1,200, instead of the standard $600, as there was quite a bit of debris left over that Public Works had to clean-up.
2. The organizers must set-up the festival so that no speakers are facing south towards the Cathedral City Cove neighborhood.
3. The decibel reading at the point of festival lawn must be normalized to 85 dB(A) and shall not exceed 65 dB(A) south of "A" Street in the Lower Cove neighborhood.
4. Town Square Park may not be closed off to the public until Saturday, September 8, 2018 at 10 pm.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The fiscal impact to the City is minimal - mainly closing off the perimeter of the festival to traffic. The festival organizers supply all aspects of the event including stages, light, sound, fencing (none that would interfere with the public's access to tenants in Desert Cinema building), trash, portable toilets, security, insurance, and clean-up. They will also pay for police and ambulance presence during peak events at the festival. The organizer must also agree to pay a $510 application fee and $1200 clean-up deposit. They indicated that they are receptive to that.
ATTACHMENTS:
SUP #17-027 and Caribbean Music Festival Site Plan