[JPL] Newport Festivals Information

[TomtheJazzman]

ALOHA  Tom


  Wein Seeks to Regain Control of Newport Festivals

Ruby Washington/The New York Times

George Wein said he was hoping to go back in business to save the jazz 
and folk festivals.

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By BEN RATLIFF 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/ben_ratliff/index.html?inline=nyt-per>
Published: March 3, 2009

Amid rumors of an uncertain future for the Newport jazz and folk 
festivals, the veteran jazz concert producer George Wein 
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/w/george_wein/index.html?inline=nyt-per> 
--- who founded them in the 1950s but ceded control over them two years 
ago --- Tuesday gained permission to negotiate to regain them.

He said he intended to hold the festivals at Fort Adams State Park, 
their usual site in Newport, R.I., but the names of the festivals, the 
corporate name that Mr. Wein might use and a corporate sponsor are still 
undecided.

Mr. Wein is returning as a festival producer in altered circumstances. 
After pioneering the outdoor jazz-festival business and serving as boss 
for dozens of international festivals, he has in recent years seemed 
content to assume a back-seat position. In 2007 the Festival Network 
LLC, a new business under the leadership of the entrepreneur Chris 
Shields, bought the assets of Mr. Wein's company, including the 
trademarks of the Newport Jazz and Folk Festivals, for a figure in the 
low millions, while giving him a salaried producer-emeritus position 
within the company. Mr. Wein said he had not been paid since Nov. 15.

Since 2007 the Festival Network aggressively pursued the concept of 
mixed-genre destination festivals, in vacation spots like Jackson Hole, 
Wyo.; Martha's Vineyard, Mass., and Whistler, British Columbia. But The 
Providence Journal-Bulletin and The Boston Globe have reported recently 
that the company lost millions of dollars last year and at least until 
January was in debt to the Rhode Island Department of Environmental 
Management for last year's use of Fort Adams State Park. Mr. Shields was 
not available for comment. John Phillips, who has helped produce the 
festivals for 30 years under Mr. Wein and Mr. Shields, said the Festival 
Network had recently paid off its debts; this was confirmed by Larry 
Mouradjian, the associate director of natural resources for the department.

However, according Mr. Mouradjian, the department declared the Festival 
Network's license agreement for running the festivals in Fort Adams Park 
null and void because of the late payment. This, according to Mr. 
Mouradjian, "opened the door for us to be able to look for an 
alternative" producer to hold jazz and folk festivals at the park.

Talks began with Mr. Wein, and on Tuesday, at a meeting of the Rhode 
Island State Properties Committee in Providence, Mr. Wein received 
approval to negotiate a new music-festival license agreement for the use 
of Fort Adams State Park with the state.

Mr. Wein said that he would like to put on his Newport festivals with or 
without a sponsor, even though he knows he would lose money without one.

It remains to be seen whether the annual end-of-June jazz festival in 
New York --- produced for years by Mr. Wein's company and then by the 
Festival Network --- will be presented at all, or in reduced form.

At the moment, Mr. Wein, 83, said, his ambitions were limited. "The 
easiest thing for me would be to run away, but I got a few more years to 
live," he said, adding that he's going to go back in business primarily 
to save Newport. "In my mind, it's just a matter of preserving my legacy."