I am writing this letter in response to the Student Association’s recent repositioning of the main stage at the upcoming Old Main Music Festival.
I am the manager of Old Venice on Main Street. For the past three years, we have enjoyed the festival and the business it has brought to downtown and Old Venice. And the festival has been a huge success for MSU, Starkville and Main Street merchants, despite the SA’s annual mishandling and refusal to work in cooperation with downtown businesses.
For the past three festivals, we have been forced to resort to letting paying customers in our back door to enjoy their favorite Old Venice meal as many as four hours prior to the concert.
Despite our best efforts, the SA has been unwilling or unable to make any compromise in the situation. Middle-aged, gray-haired restaurant patrons shouldn’t have to buy a ticket to enjoy a meal at a downtown restaurant on the day of the show when they have no intention of sneaking into the concert. It shouldn’t be impossible for the concert to be a success and all the downtown patrons to be satisfied.
This year I was looking forward to all the kinks being worked out of the SA system, and I was hoping the SA might try to work with us instead of against us. But once again they have made changes to the concert autonomously and with no cooperation with downtown businesses. Not only will restaurant patrons be dissatisfied, but concertgoers will be as well.
I’ve heard there were some noise complaints last year from the surrounding neighborhoods, and that is supposedly the reason for moving the stage one block to the east on Lafayette Street. This wouldn’t be a problem if perhaps the SA had turned the stage to face in the direction of the majority of the bars and restaurants. Why can’t the stage face to the west? That would put the stage farther away from the complaining neighborhoods and preserve the optimum business exposure for the drinking and paying customers. But the SA chose not to do so, and they chose to move the stage without informing downtown businesses.
This year the only bar that will be viable to festivalgoers will be Big Daddy’s, and maybe Big Daddy’s can handle all the music fans’ business alone. But students and music fans, I ask you: how would you like to wait in line for a drink three times longer than last year instead of enjoying the show? For the past three years, the sheer size of the crowd has required the combined sales of all three bars to meet the demand of the hungry, but mainly thirsty, concert crowd. And now the SA expects a single establishment to handle the load. Both myself and the management at Mugshots and Whiskey Blues have already ordered upward of 40 kegs of beer to sell at this year’s festival. But with the stage being moved, we stand to sell little if any at all. The new position of the stage will succeed in nothing more than taking the “Main” out of the “Old Main Music Festival.”
Of course, my concerns about this year’s festival are partly based on my restaurant’s profit margin. It goes without saying that we stand to make a lot less money this year because of the stage’s new position. But the bigger issue is the lack of cooperation on behalf of the SA with downtown businesses. I thought the whole idea of the music festival was to bring an awesome show with as good an atmosphere as possible to the downtown area.
Moving the stage may have preserved the show, but the atmosphere for the fans has been greatly diminished, and the SA’s poor foresight and lack of cooperation with Main Street businesses leaves a sour taste in my mouth. And many concertgoers may get the same taste when they miss most of the show because they were waiting in line for hours on end thanks to the SA’s new stage position.